PAUL RICOEUR, PHILOSOPHER OF RECONSTRUCTION: CARE, ATTESTATION, JUSTICE

Corine Pelluchon

(PUF, 268 pages, 2022)

What place does Paul Ricœur (1913-2005) occupy in the history of philosophy? To grasp what makes coherent an often-misunderstood body of work and better measure its importance, Corine Pelluchon approaches Ricoeur’s thought as a “work of ​​reconstruction:” the reconstruction of the self after personal crises and collective trauma that inevitably disrupt and reshape our identities. By using the word “reconstruction,” Pelluchon points to Ricoeur‘s ambition to elaborate a philosophy that gives an account of human beings’ fundamental capabilities and vulnerabilities: their ability to recognize themselves in their actions—capabilities without which we cannot speak of freedom and responsibility.  

Pelluchon focuses on what she considers the keystone of the whole Ricoeurian edifice: the Gifford Lectures delivered at Edinburgh in 1986, published under the title Oneself as Another, in which Ricoeur focuses on the concept of personal identity and how our conception of selfhood deeply influences how we treat others. For Ricoeur, “to attest to oneself and to recognize oneself as the author of one’s actions, is not only to know oneself, it is also to be able to respond to the call of others and to commit oneself to moral values.” On the question of how to lead a good life in a world that is not, he answers without proposing an ideology or a totalizing vision; rather, he offers a method.

Weaving in judicious, and at times poignant, elements of the philosopher’s biography, Pelluchon helps us understand how the different threads of Ricoeur’s work are interlaced in the writing of these lectures—known to be a difficult read—in which the philosopher brings together multiple traditions of thought, such as philosophy of action, narratology, analytical philosophy, phenomenology, and psychoanalysis.

After her acclaimed work on Emmanuel Levinas, Corine Pelluchon shows the relevance of Ricoeurian hermeneutics in developing an ethical and political philosophy able to respond to contemporary environmental and societal challenges.

Corine Pelluchon is Professor of Philosophy at Paris-Est-Marne-La-Vallée, France. A specialist in political ecology and applied ethics (medical, environmental, and animal) and author of Pour comprendre Levinas: Un philosophe pour notre temps (Seuil, 2020), her acclaimed work has been translated into many languages, including, in English, Leo Strauss and the Crisis of Rationalism: Another Reason, Another Enlightenment (SUNY Press, 2014), and Nourishment: A Philosophy of the Political Body (Bloomsbury, 2019).