Jean Paul Gustave Ricœur (; ; 27 February 1913 – 20 May 2005) was a French
philosopher
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
best known for combining
phenomenological description with
hermeneutics. As such, his thought is within the same tradition as other major
hermeneutic phenomenologists,
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...
,
Hans-Georg Gadamer, and
Gabriel Marcel. In 2000, he was awarded the
Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for having "revolutionized the methods of
hermeneutic phenomenology, expanding the study of textual interpretation to include the broad yet concrete domains of mythology, biblical
exegesis
Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (philosophy), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern us ...
, psychoanalysis, theory of
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
, and narrative theory."
Life
1913–1945: Birth to war years
Paul Ricœur was born in 1913 in
Valence,
Drôme
Drôme (; Occitan: ''Droma''; Arpitan: ''Drôma'') is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019. , France, to Léon "Jules" Ricœur (23 December 1881 – 26 September 1915) and Florentine Favre (17 September 1878 – 3 October 1913),
[''Encyclopedia of World Biography: 20th century supplement'', vol. 13, J. Heraty, 1987]
"Paul Ricoeur"
who were married on 30 December 1910 in
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
. He came from a family of devout
Huguenots
The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
(French
Reformed Protestants), a religious minority in France.
Paul's father Jules, who served as a sergeant in the 75th Infantry Regiment of the French army during
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, went missing in Perthes-lès-Hurlus near the beginning of the
Second Battle of Champagne (25 September – 6 November 1915). On 26 September 1915, French military authorities declared that Jules had probably been killed in the battle. His body was not found until 1932, when a field was being ploughed, and the body was identified by its tags. Some writers have stated that before World War I began, Paul's father (Léon "Jules" Ricœur) was a professor of English at the Lycée Emile Loubet in Valence. However, it was a different person (Jules Paul Ricœur (1887–1918)) who held that position. Paul's father's death occurred when Paul was only two years old. Subsequently, Paul was raised in
Rennes
Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...
, France by his paternal grandparents Louis Ricœur (1856–1932) and his wife Marie Sarradet (1856–1928), and by his father's sister Juliette "Adèle" Ricœur (20 December 1892 – 1968), with a small
stipend afforded to Paul as a war orphan.
Paul, whose penchant for study was fueled by his family's Protestant emphasis on Bible study, was bookish and intellectually precocious. He discovered philosophy while attending the Lycée de Rennes (now ), where he studied under Roland Dalbiez (1893–1976), who was professor of philosophy at the lycée. Ricœur received his
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in 1932 from the
University of Rennes and began studying philosophy, and especially
phenomenology, at the
Sorbonne in 1933–34, where he was influenced by
Gabriel Marcel.
[Michaël Fœssel and Fabien Lamouche, ''Paul Ricœur. Anthologie'' (Paris, Éditions Points, 2007), p. 417.] When Ricœur was in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, he attended the Friday gatherings held by this philosopher who introduced him to
Edmund Husserl. During those "meetings" students, professors, intellectuals would gather for several hours of lively discussion. Among them there were:
Merleau-Ponty,
Emmanuel Levinas,
Luigi Pareyson,
Nikolai Berdyaev
Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (; ; – 24 March 1948) was a Russian Empire, Russian philosopher, theologian, and Christian existentialism, Christian existentialist who emphasized the existentialism, existential spiritual significance of Pe ...
,
Paul-Louis Landsberg, and
Sartre. Ricœur also joined the ''
Esprit'' magazine, which had been founded in 1932 by
Emmanuel Mounier.
In 1934 he completed a DES thesis (', roughly equivalent to an
M.A. thesis) titled ''Problème de Dieu chez Lachelier et Lagneau'' (''The Problem of God in Lachelier and Lagneau''),
[Alan D. Schrift (2006), ''Twentieth-Century French Philosophy: Key Themes And Thinkers'', Blackwell Publishing, p. 172.] concerning some of the theological views of French philosophers
Jules Lachelier (1832–1918) and
Jules Lagneau (1851–1894). In 1935, Paul was awarded the second-highest
agrégation mark in the nation for philosophy, presaging a bright future.
On 14 August 1935, in Rennes, Paul married Simone Lejas (23 October 1911 – 7 January 1998), with whom he had five children: Jean-Paul (born 15 January 1937), Marc (born 22 February 1938), Noëlle (born 30 November 1940), Olivier (10 July 1947 – 22 March 1986), and Étienne (born 1953).
In 1936–37, he fulfilled his military service.
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
interrupted Ricœur's career, and he was drafted to serve in the French army in 1939. His unit was captured during the
German invasion of France in 1940 and he spent the next five years as a prisoner of war in
Oflag II-D.
His detention camp was filled with other intellectuals such as
Mikel Dufrenne, who organized readings and classes sufficiently rigorous that the camp was accredited as a degree-granting institution by the
Vichy government. During that time he read
Karl Jaspers, who was to have a great influence on him. He also began a translation of
Edmund Husserl's ''Ideas I''.
1946–2005: Strasbourg University to death
Ricœur taught at the
University of Strasbourg between 1948 and 1956, the only French university with a Protestant faculty of
theology
Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
. In 1950, he received his
State doctorate, submitting (as is customary in France) two theses: a "minor" thesis translating Husserl's ''Ideas I'' into French for the first time, with commentary, and a "major" thesis that he published the same year as ''Philosophie de la Volonté I: Le Volontaire et l'Involontaire'' (''Philosophy of the Will I: The Voluntary and the Involuntary''). Ricœur soon acquired a reputation as an expert on phenomenology, then the ascendent philosophy in France.
In 1956, Ricœur took up a position at the
Sorbonne as the Chair of General Philosophy. This appointment signaled Ricœur's emergence as one of France's most prominent philosophers. While at the Sorbonne, he wrote three works that cemented his reputation: ''Fallible Man'' and ''The Symbolism of Evil'' published in 1960, and ''
Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation'' published in 1965.
Jacques Derrida was an assistant to Ricœur during that time (early 1960s).
From 1965 to 1970, Ricœur was an administrator at the newly founded
University of Paris X: Nanterre in suburban Paris. Nanterre was intended as an experiment in
progressive education, and Ricœur hoped that he could create a university in accordance with his vision, free of the stifling atmosphere of the tradition-bound Sorbonne and its overcrowded classes. Nevertheless, Nanterre became a hotbed of protest during the student uprisings of
May 1968 in France. Ricœur was derided as an "old clown" (''vieux clown'') and tool of the French government.
Disenchanted with French academic life, Ricœur taught briefly at the
Université catholique de Louvain
UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...
in Belgium, before taking a position at the
Divinity School of the University of Chicago, where he taught from 1970 to 1985. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
in 1971.
His study culminated in ''The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language'' published in 1975 and the three-volume ''Time and Narrative'' published in 1983, 1984, 1985 Ricœur gave the
Gifford Lectures in 1985/86, published in 1990 as ''
Oneself as Another''. This work built on his discussion of narrative identity and his continuing interest in the self.
''Time and Narrative'' secured Ricœur's return to France in 1985 as a notable intellectual. His late work was characterised by a continuing cross-cutting of national intellectual traditions; for example, some of his latest writing engaged the thought of the American political philosopher
John Rawls. In 1995 he received an
honorary doctorate from the
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
In 1999, he was awarded the
Balzan Prize for Philosophy, the citation being "
r his capacity in bringing together all the most important themes and indications of 20th-century philosophy, and re-elaborating them into an original synthesis which turns language – in particular, that which is poetic and metaphoric – into a chosen place revealing a reality that we cannot manipulate, but interpret in diverse ways, and yet all coherent. Through the use of metaphor, language draws upon that truth which makes of us that what we are, deep in the profundity of our own essence". That same year, he and his co-author André LaCocque (professor emeritus of Hebrew Bible at Chicago Theological Seminary) were awarded the
Gordon J. Laing Award by the University of Chicago's Board of University Publications for their book ''Thinking Biblically: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies''.
On 29 November 2004, he was awarded with the second
John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Human Sciences (shared with
Jaroslav Pelikan).
Ricœur died on 20 May 2005, aged 92, at his home in
Châtenay-Malabry, France, of natural causes.
French Prime Minister
Jean-Pierre Raffarin declared that "the humanist European tradition is in mourning for one of its most talented exponents". Paul Ricœur was buried in the Châtenay-Malabry New Cemetery, Châtenay-Malabry, Department des Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France.
Thought
Hermeneutic phenomenology
One of Ricœur's major contributions to the field of
hermeneutics was the entwining of hermeneutical processes with
phenomenology. In this union, Ricœur applies the hermeneutical task to more than just textual analysis, but also to how each self relates to anything that is outside of the self. For Ricœur, hermeneutics is understanding the link between the self and the symbol—neither things in themselves, but the dialectical engagement between the two. Moreover, Ricœur, on the goal of hermeneutics, puts emphasis upon self-understanding as the outcome of the hermeneutical process:
"In proposing to relate symbolic language to self-understanding, I think I fulfill the deepest wish of hermeneutics. The purpose of all interpretation is to conquer a remoteness, a distance between the past cultural epoch to which the text belongs and the interpreter himself. By overcoming this distance, by making himself contemporary with the text, the exegete can appropriate its meaning to himself: foreign, he makes it familiar, that is, he makes it his own. It is thus the growth of his own understanding of himself that he pursues through his understanding of others. Every hermeneutics is thus, explicitly or implicitly, self-understanding by means of understanding others."[Ricœur, Paul, Charles E. Reagan, and David Stewart. "Existence and Hermeneutics." In ''The Philosophy of Paul Ricœur: An Anthology of His Work''. Boston: Beacon Press, 1978, pp. 101 and 106.]
Ricoeur maintains that the hermeneutical task is a coming together of the self and an other, in a meaningful way. This explication of self-meaning and other-meaning is principally bound up and manifested in existence itself. Thus, Ricoeur depicts philosophy as a hermeneutical activity seeking to uncover the meaning of existence through the interpretation of phenomena (which can only emerge as) embedded in the world of culture:
"This is why philosophy remains a hermeneutics, that is, a reading of the hidden meaning inside the text of the apparent meaning. It is the task of this hermeneutics to show that existence arrives at expression, at meaning, and at reflection only through the continual exegesis of all the significations that come to light in the world of culture. Existence becomes a self – human and adult – only by appropriating this meaning, which first resides "outside," in works, institutions, and cultural movements in which the life of the spirit is justified."
Furthermore, the process of hermeneutics, and extracting meaning, is a reflective task. The emphasis is not on the external meaning, but the meaning or insight of the self which is gained through encountering the external text—or other. The self-knowledge gained through the hermeneutical process is, thus, indirectly attained. This is in opposition to the
Cartesian cogito, "which grasps itself directly in the experience of doubt," and is "a truth as vain as it is invincible."
In point of fact, the difference Ricœur aims to distinguish is the means by which the self is discovered, which for him is only by means of interpreting the signified.
According to Ricœur, the aim of hermeneutics is to recover and to restore the meaning. The French philosopher chooses the model of the phenomenology of religion, in relation to psychoanalysis, stressing that it is characterized by a concern on the object. This object is the sacred, which is seen in relation to the profane.
Ricœur's hermeneutical work ''Freud and Philosophy'' contains the famous assertion that
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
,
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...
and
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
are masters of the
school of suspicion[Paul Ricœur (1965), ''Freud and philosophy: an essay on interpretation'', Book I: ''Problematic'', section 2: 'The conflict of interpretations', title: 'Interpretation as exercise of suspicion', p. 32][Waite, Geoff (1996)]
''Nietzsche's Corpse''
Duke University Press, 1996, p. 106. (''maîtres du soupçon''/''école du soupçon''). Ricœur's theory has been particularly influential to
postcritique, a scholarly movement in
literary criticism
A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...
and
cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...
that seeks for new forms of reading and interpretation that go beyond the methods of
critique,
critical theory, and
ideological criticism
Ideological criticism is a method in rhetorical criticism concerned with critiquing texts for the dominant ideology they express while silencing opposing or contrary ideologies. It was started by a group of scholars roughly in the late-1970s thr ...
. The literary critic
Rita Felski, for instance, argues that he is a crucial figure in the history of this tradition.
She claims that his influential analysis of the "
hermeneutics of suspicion" "invites us to think about how we read and to what end."
Philosophy of language
In ''The Rule of Metaphor'' and in ''Time and Narrative'', vol. 1, Ricœur argues that there exists a linguistic productive imagination that generates/regenerates meaning through the power of metaphoricity by way of stating things in novel ways and, as a consequence, he sees language as containing within itself resources that allow it to be used creatively.
Honors and Awards
*
Hegel Prize (1985)
Works
* .
* .
* ''Freedom and Nature: The Voluntary and the Involuntary'', trans. Erazim Kohak. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1966 (1950).
* ''Husserl: An Analysis of His Phenomenology''. Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1967
* ''The Symbolism of Evil'', trans. Emerson Buchanan. New York: Harper and Row, 1967 (1960).
* ''Entretiens sur l'Art et la Psychanalyse (sous la direction de Andre Berge, Anne Clancier, Paul Ricoeur et Lothair Rubinstein'', Paris, La Haye: Mouton, 1968 (1964).
* ''Le Conflit des interprétations. Essais d'herméneutique I'', Le Seuil, 1969.
* ''Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation'', trans. Denis Savage. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970 (1965).
* ''The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics'', ed. Don Ihde, trans. Willis Domingo ''et al.'' Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1974 (1969).
* ''Political and Social Essays'', ed. David Stewart and Joseph Bien, trans. Donald Stewart ''et al.'' Athens: Ohio University Press, 1974.
* ''The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language'', trans. Robert Czerny with Kathleen McLaughlin and John Costello, S. J., London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1978 (1975).
* ''Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning''. Fort Worth: Texas Christian Press, 1976.
* ''The Philosophy of Paul Ricœur: An Anthology of his Work'', ed. Charles E. Reagan and David Stewart. Boston: Beacon Press, 1978.
* ''Essays on Biblical Interpretation'' (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980)
* ''Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences: Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation'', ed., trans. John B. Thompson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
* ''Time and Narrative'' (''Temps et Récit''), 3 vols. trans. Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984, 1985, 1988 (1983, 1984, 1985).
* ''Lectures on Ideology and Utopia'', ed., trans. George H. Taylor. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.
* ''Du texte à l'action. Essais d'herméneutique II'', Le Seuil, 1986.
* ''From Text to Action: Essays in Hermeneutics II'', trans. Kathleen Blamey and John B. Thompson. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1991 (1986).
* ''À l'école de la phenomenologie''. Paris: J. Vrin, 1986.
* ''Le mal: Un défi à la philosophie et à la théologie''. Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1986.
* ''Fallible Man'', trans. Charles A. Kelbley, with an introduction by Walter J. Lowe, New York: Fordham University Press, 1986 (1960).
* ''A Ricœur Reader: Reflection and Imagination'', ed. Mario J. Valdes. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.
* ''Lectures I: Autour du politique.'' Paris: Seuil, 1991.
* ''Lectures II: La Contrée des philosophes.'' Paris: Seuil, 1992.
* ''Oneself as Another'' (''Soi-même comme un autre''), trans. Kathleen Blamey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992 (1990).
* ''Lectures III: Aux frontières de la philosophie.'' Paris: Seuil, 1994.
* ''Réflexion faite. Autobiographie intellectuelle.'' Esprit, 1995.
* ''The Philosophy of Paul Ricœur'', ed. Lewis E. Hahn (The Library of Living Philosophers 22) (Chicago; La Salle: Open Court, 1995).
* ''The Just'', trans. David Pellauer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000 (1995).
* ''Critique and Conviction'', trans. Kathleen Blamey. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998 (1995).
* ''Thinking Biblically'', (with André LaCocque). University of Chicago Press, 1998.
* ''La mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli''. Paris: Seuil, 2000.
* ''Le Juste II''. Paris: Esprit, 2001.
* ''Memory, History, Forgetting'', trans. by Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer. University of Chicago Press, 2004.
* ''The Course of Recognition'', trans. David Pellauer. Harvard University Press, 2005.
* ''Reflections on the Just'', trans. David Pellauer. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
* ''Living Up to Death'', trans. David Pellauer. University of Chicago Press, 2009.
See also
*
Metaphor in philosophy
*
Postmodern theology
*
Theopoetics
* ''
Esprit''
Notes
References
Sources
*
François Dosse (1997). ''Paul Ricœur. Les Sens d'une Vie''. Paris: La Découverte.
* .
* David M. Kaplan (2003). ''Ricœur's Critical Theory''. Albany, SUNY Press.
* .
* Charles E. Reagan (1996). ''Paul Ricœur: His Life and Work''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
* John Cesar "Sasing" Caalem-Nguyen'Her Life in Encantadia'. Tagum: University of Blood Washed Band
Further reading
Books
*
Don Ihde, 1971. ''Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Philosophy of Paul Ricœur''. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
* David E. Klemm, 1983. ''The Hermeneutical Theory of Paul Ricoeur: A Constructive Analysis''. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press.
*
Pamela Sue Anderson, 1993. ''Ricœur and Kant: philosophy of the will''. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
* Bernard P. Dauenhauer, 1998. ''Paul Ricœur: The Promise and Risk of Politics''. Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield.
*
Richard Kearney, ed., 1996. ''Paul Ricoeur: The Hermeneutics of Action''. SAGE.
*
Kuruvilla Pandikattu, 2000. ''
Idols to Die, Symbols to Live: Dynamic Interaction between Language, Reality, and the Divine''. New Delhi: Intercultural Publications.
* Henry Isaac Venema, 2000. ''Identifying Selfhood: Imagination, Narrative, and Hermeneutics in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur'' (Mcgill Studies in the History of Religions), SUNY Press.
* Dan Stiver, 2001. ''Theology after Ricœur'', Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.
* Karl Simms, 2002. ''Paul Ricœur'', Routledge Critical Thinkers. New York: Routledge.
*
Gregory J. Laughery, 2002. ''Living Hermeneutics in Motion: An Analysis and Evaluation of Paul Ricoeur's Contribution to Biblical Hermeneutics''. Lanham: University Press of America.
*
Richard Kearney, 2004. ''On Paul Ricœur: The Owl of Minerva''. Hants, England: Ashgate.
*
John Wall, 2005 "Moral Creativity: Paul Ricoeur and the Poetics of Possibility". New York: Oxford University Press.
*
Salvioli, Marco, 2006, "Il Tempo e le Parole. Ricoeur e
Derrida a "margine" della fenomenologia", ESD, Bologna.
* W. David Hall, 2007. ''Paul Ricoeur and the Poetic Imperative''. Albany: SUNY Press.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, 2008. ''Paul Ricœur. De l'homme faillible à l'homme capable''. Paris : Presses Universitaires de France.
* Alison Scott-Baumann, 2009. ''Ricoeur and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion''. Continuum.
*
Fredric Jameson
Fredric Ruff Jameson (April 14, 1934 – September 22, 2024) was an American literary critic, philosopher and Marxist political theorist. He was best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends, particularly his analysis of postmode ...
, 2009. "The Valences of History." In ''Valences of the Dialectic''. London and New York: Verso. 475–612.
* Larisa Cercel (ed.),
''Übersetzung und Hermeneutik'' / ''Traduction et herméneutique'' (Zeta Series in Translation Studies 1), Bucharest, Zeta Books 2009, (paperback), 978-973-1997-07-0 (ebook).
* Boyd Blundell, 2010. ''Paul Ricoeur between Theology and Philosophy: Detour and Return''. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
* Haggag Ali, 2011. Paul Ricoeur and the Challenge of Semiology. Saarbrücken:VDM Verlag Dr. Müller.
*
William C. Dowling, 2011. ''Ricoeur on Time and Narrative: an Introduction to Temps et Recit''. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press
online excerpt.
* Francis J. Mootz III and George H. Taylor (eds.), 2011. ''Gadamer and Ricoeur: Critical Horizons for Contemporary Hermeneutic''. Continuum.
* Kuruvilla Pandikattu, 2013. ''Between Before and Beyond: An Exploration of the Human Condition Inspired by Paul Ricoeur''. Pune: CreatiVentures.
* Scott Davidson, 2025. ''Pathos and Praxis: An Integrated Phenomenology of Life''. Indiana University Press.
Articles
*
Ruthellen Josselson"The hermeneutics of faith and the hermeneutics of suspicion" ''Narrative Inquiry'', 14(1), 1–28.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, ''Paul Ricoeur, lecteur d'Aristote'', in Éthique à Nicomaque VIII-IX, ed. Guy Samama, Paris: Ellipses, 185–189, 2001.
* George H. Taylor
"Ricoeur's Philosophy of Imagination" ''Journal of French Philosophy'', vol. 16, p. 93, 2006.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, ''Paul Ricœur et le pardon comme au-delà de l'action'', Laval théologique et philosophique 63/2 363–376, 2007.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, ''The Golden Rule and Forgiveness. In A Passion for the Possible. Thinking with Paul Ricœur'', ed. Brian Treanor and Henry Venema, Series: Perspectives in Continental Philosophy, New York: Fordham University Press, 77–89, 2010.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, ''Ricœur's Medical Ethics: the Encounter between the Physician and the Patient'', in Reconceiving Medical Ethics, ed. by C. Cowley, New York: Continuum Press, 30–42, 2012.
* Rita Felski
"Critique and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion" ''M/C Journal'', vol. 15, No. 1, 2012.
* Gaëlle Fiasse, ''Ricœur's Hermeneutics of the Self. On the In-Between of the Involuntary and the Voluntary, and Narrative Identity'', Philosophy Today, 58, 39–51, 2014.
External links
*
*
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') is a freely available online philosophy resource published and maintained by Stanford University, encompassing both an online encyclopedia of philosophy and peer-reviewed original publication ...
"Paul Ricoeur"by Bernard Dauenhauer
*
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia with around 900 articles about philosophy, philosophers, and related topics. The IEP publishes only peer review, peer-reviewed and blind-refereed original p ...
"Paul Ricoeur"by Kim Atkins
Ricoeur's Hermeneutics(introductory lecture by Henk de Berg, 2015)
Études Ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur StudiesThe Society for Ricoeur StudiesSubhasis Chattopadhyay, Review of ''Evil: A Challenge to Philosophy and Theology'' by Paul Ricœur, ''Prabuddha Bharata'', 121(6) (June 2016): 529–30"Ricœur et Lévinas"by Henri Duthu
in ''The Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Western Theology''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ricoeur, Paul
1913 births
2005 deaths
People from Valence, Drôme
University of Rennes alumni
University of Paris alumni
University of Chicago Divinity School faculty
Academic staff of the University of Paris
Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg
20th-century French philosophers
21st-century French philosophers
20th-century French writers
21st-century French writers
French literary theorists
French literary critics
French evangelicals
French philosophers of history
French philosophers of mind
French philosophers of religion
Philosophers of literature
Protestant philosophers
Phenomenologists
Metaphor theorists
French Calvinist and Reformed Christians
Calvinist and Reformed philosophers
Calvinist pacifists
Christian humanists
Hermeneutists
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Kyoto laureates in Arts and Philosophy
French male writers
Critical theorists
World War II prisoners of war held by Germany
French Army personnel of World War II
French Army soldiers
French prisoners of war in World War II
Christian existentialists