Philosophy, Ethics, and Politics. Paul Ricoeur
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Philosophy, Ethics, and Politics
Paul Ricoeur
Edited by Catherine Goldenstein
Translated by Kathleen Blamey
polity
Copyright Page
Originally published in French as Philosophie, éthique et politique: Entretiens et dialogues. Textes prepares et présentés par Catherine Goldenstein. Préface de Michaël Fœssel © Editions du Seuil, 2017
“L’Ethique, entre le mal et le pire.” Un échange de vues entre le philosophe Paul Ricoeur et le Pr. Yves Pélicier, Psychiatre. Propos recueillis par Christian Ballouard et Sophie Duméry, in Ethique médicale ou bioéthique?, Christian Hervé (éd.), collection L’Ethique en mouvement, © Editions de l’Harmattan, 1997.
This English edition © Polity Press, 2020
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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3450-0- hardback
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3451-7- paperback
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ricœur, Paul, author. | Goldenstein, Catherine, editor. | Blamey, Kathleen, translator.
Title: Philosophy, ethics and politics / Paul Ricoeur ; edited by Catherine Goldenstein ; translated by Kathleen Blamey.
Other titles: Philosophie, éthique et politique. English
Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA, USA : Polity, 2020. | “Originally published in French as Philosophie, éthique et politique: Entretiens et dialogues. Textes prepares et présentés par Catherine Goldenstein. Préface de Michaël Fœssel Editions du Seuil, 2017.” | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “One of leading philosophers of the twentieth century addresses some of the central questions of political philosophy and ethics”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020005433 (print) | LCCN 2020005434 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509534500 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509534517 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509534524 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Ricœur, Paul--Interviews. | Philosophers--France--Interviews. | Political science--Philosophy.
Classification: LCC B2430.R554 A513 2020 (print) | LCC B2430.R554 (ebook) | DDC 194--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005433
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005434
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Preface: Paul Ricoeur, Political Educator
“You never know what is chance and what is fate.” This admission of ignorance, appearing in the first of the interviews collected here (p. 5), was often repeated by Paul Ricoeur. Whether it was a matter of accounting for the internal coherence of his work, his intellectual commitments, or his political positions, Ricoeur never believed that biographical knowledge could attain the level of science. What might be daunting in the question of the unity of one’s life for the person asking it can be mitigated by the concept of “narrative identity.”1 A narrative allows the contingency of events and the necessity attaching to the character or the historical conditions of the subject to be organized into a plot. Instead of relying on reason, he turns to imagination to link chance to fate. New narratives about the same series of events are always possible; not all of these, moreover, are recounted in the first person. In this way, the plurality of plots avoids confusing the bygone past with the inevitable.
The concern with avoiding a premature conclusion is found in most of the dialogues to be read in this volume. Of course, these are historically situated: taking place between 1981 and 2003, they correspond to what could be called Ricoeur’s fully mature period, opening with Time and Narrative (volume one appeared in 1983) and concluding with Memory, History, and Forgetting (2000). From a biographical standpoint, this period corresponds with Ricoeur’s return to the French intellectual stage. This is a “return” because in the 1950s and ’60s Ricoeur played an important role in public debate, in particular in the journal Esprit. During this period, he established the rules for what he conceived to be the engagement of the philosopher with the Polis. As we shall see, this deontology of participation in public discourse will waver no more.
The 1970s, however, represent a step back with respect to the French intellectual stage. Here too, the shares of chance and fate are difficult to measure. Ricoeur abstains from intervening in a field dominated by Marxism and structuralism; he refrains from speaking in response to the