Papers by Maria Cristina Vendra
The Iranian Political Science Associaion/Gam-e-Nou, 2024
The human being is ontologically a relational being living with others in organized communities a... more The human being is ontologically a relational being living with others in organized communities and institutions. By focusing on the intersubjective and collective levels of human experience, this essay considers the possibility of a critical dialogue between Paul Ricoeur's and Alfred Schütz's phenomenological works toward a renewed socio-phenomenological approach to social reality. I begin with a broad framing of Husserl's second epoché or reduction to the sphere of ownness as performed within the egological sphere and then turn to Ricoeur's and Schütz's critiques of the Husserlian conception of intersubjectivity. These reflections will lead us to discuss the inconsistency of Husserl's idea of the intersubjective acceptance of the common objective nature and his formulation of the higher-order case of the communal constitution.
Ostium - Paul Ricoeur Thinker of Autonomy, 2023
Paul Ricoeur along the Maze of Autonomy "The truth is that we must constantly orient ourselves in... more Paul Ricoeur along the Maze of Autonomy "The truth is that we must constantly orient ourselves in a maze of intersections and badly marked roads. Practical problems are only rarely amenable to obvious interpretation. The order of action is the order of the probable." (Ricoeur, Freedom and Nature: The Voluntary and the Involuntary, 159) This special issue of Ostium on "Paul Ricoeur Thinker of Autonomy" finds its roots in the conference "Paul Ricoeur and the Challenges of Autonomy" held at the Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts (BISLA), November 3-5, 2022. [1] Its aim is to explore Ricoeur's insights into the complex notion of autonomy, whose meaning can be addressed through a cross-fertilization between philosophy and other human and social disciplines. The contributions gathered in this issue offer analyses of Ricoeur's conception of autonomy as engaged with phenomenology, narrative hermeneutics, bioethics, semantics, political philosophy, and theology. Other interdisciplinary discussions on Ricoeur and the notion of autonomy (e.g., phenomenology of embodiment, aesthetics, literary theory, philosophy of education, politics, philosophy of technology, environmental philosophy, theory of justice, and philosophy of memory) have been recently published in the volume The Challenges of Autonomy. Thinking Autonomy in Challenging Times [2] co-edited by the guest editors of this special issue of Ostium, Maria Cristina Clorinda Vendra and Paolo Furia, with Dagmar Kusa. This introduction will provide a broader framework for a multilayered discourse on autonomy inspired by Ricoeur. First, we will sketch out the problem of autonomy highlighting its structural polysemanticity and its inner dialectical tension. Then, we will show how Ricoeur's work can provide signposts in gaining an understanding of autonomy as a dimension oscillating between its exaltation and its crisis in our current time. Autonomy is a polysemic notion that has a long history in Western philosophy. Nevertheless, it always remains open to renewed lines of development with reference to the interests of different historical contexts and worldviews. Autonomy arises as a challenge when, in attaining apparent independence, the individual or collective group views dependencies or relations to alterity as menacing this independence, whether these supposed threats are internal or external to the singular self or to a given community. Inextricably tied to a set of emblematic conceptual pairs, such as those of individuality and alterity, dependence and independence, freedom and necessity, peace and struggle, inside and outside, autonomy is shaped through many tensive dialectics from which the individual, intersubjective, and social realities spring forth. Therefore, autonomy is a challenging challenge precisely because the concrete realization of autonomy is an open process that is neither purely irenic nor necessarily destined to be trapped into unsolved conflicts. It appears that autonomy as a challenge cannot be discussed separately from heteronomous relations as well as various unavoidable practical challenges faced by individuals striving to live and die autonomously [3] or by groups (e.g., family, professional associations, etc.) and collectivities (e.g., nations, cultural
Bulletin d’analyse phénoménologique XIX 1, 2023 (Actes 12), p. 105-128, 2023
Cet article vise à développer une analyse socio-phénoménologique
de la notion de mémoire collect... more Cet article vise à développer une analyse socio-phénoménologique
de la notion de mémoire collective en reconsidérant l’importance de sa dimension spatiale. Plus précisément, la méthodologie et les thèses pour configurer cette analyse seront recherchées à travers une lecture critique croisant phénoménologie et sociologie de la mémoire. Nous ferons notamment référence à la première partie de l’œuvre de Paul Ricœur La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli (2000), intitulée « Mémoire personnelle, mémoire collective », et aux œuvres de Maurice Halbwachs, Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire (1925), livre fondateur d’une sociologie de la mémoire, et La mémoire collective (1950). D’abord, nous verrons comment penser la continuité entre la mémoire individuelle et la mémoire collective en adoptant une perspective socio-phénoménologique. Ici, la notion phénoménologique d’analogie permettra de comprendre l’équilibre entre le plan de la vie personnelle et le plan de la vie commune. Ensuite, sur la base de l’idée husserlienne de monde de la vie (Lebenswelt), la deuxième partie de cet article sera dédiée au problème de la spatialisation de la mémoire collective.
I am hungry, therefore I am. Paul Ricœur’s hermeneutic phenomenology as a model for food existentialism, 2022
By focusing on the hunger drive and the act of eating as existential dimensions, this essay consi... more By focusing on the hunger drive and the act of eating as existential dimensions, this essay considers the possibility to extend Paul Ricoeur's thought in the direction of food philosophy. By conceiving his hermeneutic phenomenology as a model for food existentialism, this paper aims to discuss hunger and eating as interrelated aspects of human beings' embodied existence that are involved in the social world. I will begin with a phenomenological description of hunger and eating referring to Ricoeur's analysis of the corporeal involuntary as offering the base features to develop what I will call an "interpretive existential philosophy of being hungry and eating". Then, I will turn to hunger and eating as involved in the real complexity of temporal experience. These reflections will lead to examining the interplay of cosmic time and lived time in relation to hunger and eating, opening up the discussion of the gustatory time through the intersection of the objective time of the clock and the subjective time of the stomach.
Études Ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur Studies
Introduction française au numéro spécial "Ricœur et la question de l'espace"
This paper aims to extend the implication of Paul Ricœur’s phenomenology of productive imaginatio... more This paper aims to extend the implication of Paul Ricœur’s phenomenology of productive imagination to the social sphere. Specifically, through reference to Ricœur’s anthropological analysis of imagination and his reflections on the tensive categories of ideology and utopia, belonging and distanciation, this essay seeks to rethink the social lifeworld through the recomposition of a framework between tradition and innovation. The attention will be focused on human productive imagination and on the constitution of the shared social imaginary. These reflections will open up to a renewal of the concepts of reality and truth.
Études Ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur Studies, Feb 16, 2018
are undoubtedly two prominent and versatile French thinkers of our challenging times. The subtle ... more are undoubtedly two prominent and versatile French thinkers of our challenging times. The subtle reflection of these leading exponents of contemporary continental thought develops from and within the framework of our common social environment, namely through an effective engagement and an active response to social reality. Even though Ricoeur is familiar with and occasionally refers to Castoriadis' work, and vice versa, they were not interlocutors and they didn't pursue such reciprocal attention in any sustained or systematic way. They met face to face on March 9 th 1985 to record the radio program Le Bon Plaisir for France Culture. It was Ricoeur who had invited Castoriadis to dialogue with him. Published under the posthumous title Dialogue sur l'histoire et l'imaginaire social, Johann Michel offers for the first time a transcribed version of this fiery encounter 1. University Professor of Political Science at the University of Poitiers and affiliated with the l'École des hautes etudes en sciences sociales (IMM-CNRS) in Paris, the editor is a distinguished Ricoeur scholar. Supported by Catherine Goldenstein, Pascal Vernay, and Olivier Fressard, all experts on Castoriadis and Ricoeur, Johann Michel develops the transcription of the Castoriadis-Ricoeur conversation by combining Zoé Castoriadis's first fragmented transcript of the radio show with extracts from the audio recording as well as typed excerpts that are stored at France Culture, but also kept in the archives of the Fonds Ricoeur. The Castoriadis-Ricoeur dialogue is introduced by way of a detailed and enlightening foreword in which the editor gives a thoughtful contextualization of the debate. This long introduction does more than provide background details for the reader, it also provides glimpses of a deep and sustained analysis of the main topics of the encounter, highlighting the major convergences and divergences at play in Castoriadis and Ricoeur's philosophical projects and political understanding. Johann Michel's work is more than a detailed and accurate transcription since it enables us to develop a critical understanding of the comparison between these thinkers and their respective intellectual perspectives. The transcription of the radio encounter is of great significance both for Castoriadis and Ricoeur scholars and for researchers interested in the field of social imaginaries. Touching on the question of social reality makes the dialogue especially valuable in that it provides fertile ground for further social, historical, political, and philosophical inquiries. Thus, the 1985 debate maintains its exceptional intellectual significance both in terms of the uniqueness of the recorded discussion and in the specificity of the themes explored. These topics need to be contextualized in and beyond the works of both thinkers.
JFFP, 2021
Paul Ricœur and Jan Patočka are considered among the most important phenomenologists of the 20th ... more Paul Ricœur and Jan Patočka are considered among the most important phenomenologists of the 20th century. As with Ricœur, Patočka’s philosophy is shaped by an enduring critical confrontation with Husserl’s phenomenology and Heidegger’s phenomenological analyses of Dasein. The present paper aims at analyzing Ricœur’s and Patočka’s convergences and mutual inspirations in their perspectives on the topic of history. More precisely, I will take up the question of the meaning of history in Ricœur and Patočka as profoundly influenced by their readings of Husserl’s Krisis. Then, the attention will be turned to Ricœur’s concept of historicity and Patočka’s notion of care of the soul as concerns involved in the search for meaning in history as an open-ended mediation. In this context, I will discuss Ricœur’s and Patočka’s critical examination of Heidegger’s conception of thrownness (Geworfenheit) and projection (Entwerfen), that is, Dasein’s already-being-in-the-world and its disclosedness, as necessary concepts for understanding their own philosophical approaches to history.
Introduction – Ricœur et la question de l’espace. Les perspectives
d’un « tournant spatial » à p... more Introduction – Ricœur et la question de l’espace. Les perspectives
d’un « tournant spatial » à partir de Ricœur
Études Ricœuriennes / Ricœur Studies, Vol 12, No 2 (2021), pp. 8-14
ISSN 2156-7808 (online) DOI 10.5195/errs.2021.577
http://ricoeur.pitt.edu
Introduction - Ricoeur and the Problem of Space. Perspectives on a Ricoeurian "Spatial Turn"
Ét... more Introduction - Ricoeur and the Problem of Space. Perspectives on a Ricoeurian "Spatial Turn"
Études Ricœuriennes / Ricœur Studies, Vol 12, No 2 (2021), pp. 1-7
ISSN 2156-7808 (online) DOI 10.5195/errs.2021.576
http://ricoeur.pitt.edu
Human being occupies a special place in nature as interpreting being. By focusing on the interrel... more Human being occupies a special place in nature as interpreting being. By focusing on the interrelation between human being and the natural environment, this essay considers the possibility of extending Paul Ricoeur’s thought in the direction of environmental hermeneutics. Through reference to his hermeneutic phenomenology, this paper aims to discuss the complex bond between humanity and the natural sphere as one of passivity and activity. I begin with a broad framing of the possible encounter between Ricoeur’s oeuvre and environmental philosophy, and then turn to his phenomenology of embodiment, considering it as offering the basic features for the elaboration of what I will call an eco-hermeneutic phenomenology. These
reflections will lead to examine the interplay of belonging and distanciation in the relationship between human being and the natural environment, and to open up the
discussion of the hermeneutic dialectic of being-situated, situating and resituating ourselves in nature.
Keywords: Nature, Environment, Environmental Hermeneutics, Interpretation, Phenomenology.
ERRS, 2020
Human experience has a symbolic structure. By focusing on the symbolism of human action, this ess... more Human experience has a symbolic structure. By focusing on the symbolism of human action, this essay considers the reciprocal influences and the essential differences between Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics and Clifford Geertz's cultural anthropology. Through reference to Ricoeur's Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, the section on "Ideology, Utopia, and Politics" in From Text to Action, and Geertz's 1973 book The Interpretation of Cultures, this paper aims at reconstructing the dialogue between these thinkers. I begin with a broad framing of the encounter between Ricoeur and Geertz, and then turn to the notion of the symbolic mediation of action, considering it as the shared key concept between these authors. These reflections will lead to an examination of the semiotic conception of culture, opening up the discussion of a nonpejorative dimension of ideology.
Voluntas, Revista Internacional de Filosofia , 2019
The aim of this article is to present a critical reconstruction of Ricoeur's analysis of the comp... more The aim of this article is to present a critical reconstruction of Ricoeur's analysis of the complex phenomenon of memory as a collective act of recollection. By focusing the attention on memory as a collective practice, through the use of resources drawn from phenomenology, sociology, and history, I will seek to outline the construction of the collective memorial discourse and its foundations, looking particularly at the eighth chapter of the third volume of Time and Narrative and at the work Memory, History, Forgetting. I will show that our identification and location with others in social collectivities imply to negotiate a gap between subjective and cosmic time. Temporality comes, then, in the plural: our being in time is not merely personal, but rather we are originally involved in a shared social and historical framework.
I Fondamenti dell'etica in prospettiva interculturale
Curatore: Maurizio Pagano, Luca Ghisleri
... more I Fondamenti dell'etica in prospettiva interculturale
Curatore: Maurizio Pagano, Luca Ghisleri
Morcelliana, 2018
Justice is at the core of European identity.Through the history of Western philosophy, justice ha... more Justice is at the core of European identity.Through the history of Western philosophy, justice has always been considered as a virtue or a practice concerning the human as a rational being. Moreover, within the liberal egalitarianism of the XIX century, justice has been connected to the notion of person defined as an independent and self-sufficient being. Therefore, independence and productivity are conceived as the main criteria of belonging, as equal citizens, fully cooperating, to a liberal, well-ordered, society. Where is in this moral conception – in which independence is conceived as normative – the place for those whose rational capacities are impaired and for disable or ill people? Starting from this question and referring to today’s European crisis of social justice, my article aims to rethink the idea of justice in connection with human dependence and health through a feminist perspective. My main references are the work of Eva Feder Kittay Love’s Labor and her article When Caring is Just and Justice is Caring: Justice and Mental Retardation. The ethics of care can help us to develop a new approach to justice in the consideration of the whole human experience in which dependence and vulnerability are undeniable features.
In today’s era of globalization, humans are forced as never before to face a variety of challenge... more In today’s era of globalization, humans are forced as never before to face a variety of challenges concerning the future of life on Earth such as climate change and environmental disasters. Through reference to Paul Ricoeur’s and Hans Jonas’ thought, my paper seeks to rethink the relationship between human being and nature focusing the attention on the notion of responsibility. The aim is to recompose a frame between the hermeneutical and phenomenological analysis of responsibility and the metaphysics of life. It is my contention to underline that since human being is a relational being, relationship is what gives meaning to our existence. The question of human responsibility will be connected to the problem of dwelling the oikos and life.
The benefits and problems of religious plurality concerned Paul Ricoeur. Through reference to his... more The benefits and problems of religious plurality concerned Paul Ricoeur. Through reference to his thought, my essay seeks to give an ontological foundation to interreligious dialogue reflecting on its theoretical form. Following a Ricoeurian analysis of human ontological disproportion, its plural condition, and the «captive free will», I first attempt to show the constructive role that religion plays in human life. More precisely, I demonstrate the impact of anthropological structures on interreligious dialogue, focusing on the positive possibility of interfaith encounters. On the other hand, confronted with the fact that people to this day continue to kill “in the name of God”, I try to understand why religion’s susceptibility to violence exists and how we may try to eliminate it. Here I rely on Ricoeur’s hermeneutical anthropology of the suffering and capable self. Interreligious meeting entails a long effort with a limited range of possibilities that needs our constant work to save the essential value of cohabiting together.
Keywords: interreligious dialogue; hermeneutics; anthropology; fallibility; alterity.
La questione del tempo nel processo di costituzione dell'identità della persona umana attraversa ... more La questione del tempo nel processo di costituzione dell'identità della persona umana attraversa la storia della filosofia occidentale. Tale problema si può riassumere nella seguente domanda: come può una persona divenire, cioè mutare qualitativamente, pur mantenendo identica la propria identità? Dall'antichità al pensiero contemporaneo sono state avanzate diverse soluzioni a questo quesito. Di fatto, mentre i filosofi dell'antichità rendono conto della continuità del soggetto nel tempo attraverso la metafisica della sostanza, i pensatori medievali sulla base di una metafisica religiosa-verticale giustificano la permanenza dell'identità personale riferendosi all'anima quale substrato unitario, indivisibile e aperto alla trascendenza. Rifiutando sia la metafisica di ispirazione aristotelica sia religiosa, nella modernità si assiste a un cambiamento radicale nell'affrontare la questione dell'identità personale. In particolare, quest'ultima riceve la propria formulazione classica nel XXVII capitolo del Saggio sull'intelletto umano di J. Locke in cui si afferma che la persona «è un essere intelligente e pensante, che possiede ragione e riflessione, e può considerare se stesso, cioè la stessa cosa pensante che egli è, in diversi tempi e luoghi» 1 .
Uploads
Papers by Maria Cristina Vendra
de la notion de mémoire collective en reconsidérant l’importance de sa dimension spatiale. Plus précisément, la méthodologie et les thèses pour configurer cette analyse seront recherchées à travers une lecture critique croisant phénoménologie et sociologie de la mémoire. Nous ferons notamment référence à la première partie de l’œuvre de Paul Ricœur La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli (2000), intitulée « Mémoire personnelle, mémoire collective », et aux œuvres de Maurice Halbwachs, Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire (1925), livre fondateur d’une sociologie de la mémoire, et La mémoire collective (1950). D’abord, nous verrons comment penser la continuité entre la mémoire individuelle et la mémoire collective en adoptant une perspective socio-phénoménologique. Ici, la notion phénoménologique d’analogie permettra de comprendre l’équilibre entre le plan de la vie personnelle et le plan de la vie commune. Ensuite, sur la base de l’idée husserlienne de monde de la vie (Lebenswelt), la deuxième partie de cet article sera dédiée au problème de la spatialisation de la mémoire collective.
d’un « tournant spatial » à partir de Ricœur
Études Ricœuriennes / Ricœur Studies, Vol 12, No 2 (2021), pp. 8-14
ISSN 2156-7808 (online) DOI 10.5195/errs.2021.577
http://ricoeur.pitt.edu
Études Ricœuriennes / Ricœur Studies, Vol 12, No 2 (2021), pp. 1-7
ISSN 2156-7808 (online) DOI 10.5195/errs.2021.576
http://ricoeur.pitt.edu
reflections will lead to examine the interplay of belonging and distanciation in the relationship between human being and the natural environment, and to open up the
discussion of the hermeneutic dialectic of being-situated, situating and resituating ourselves in nature.
Keywords: Nature, Environment, Environmental Hermeneutics, Interpretation, Phenomenology.
Curatore: Maurizio Pagano, Luca Ghisleri
Morcelliana, 2018
Keywords: interreligious dialogue; hermeneutics; anthropology; fallibility; alterity.
de la notion de mémoire collective en reconsidérant l’importance de sa dimension spatiale. Plus précisément, la méthodologie et les thèses pour configurer cette analyse seront recherchées à travers une lecture critique croisant phénoménologie et sociologie de la mémoire. Nous ferons notamment référence à la première partie de l’œuvre de Paul Ricœur La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli (2000), intitulée « Mémoire personnelle, mémoire collective », et aux œuvres de Maurice Halbwachs, Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire (1925), livre fondateur d’une sociologie de la mémoire, et La mémoire collective (1950). D’abord, nous verrons comment penser la continuité entre la mémoire individuelle et la mémoire collective en adoptant une perspective socio-phénoménologique. Ici, la notion phénoménologique d’analogie permettra de comprendre l’équilibre entre le plan de la vie personnelle et le plan de la vie commune. Ensuite, sur la base de l’idée husserlienne de monde de la vie (Lebenswelt), la deuxième partie de cet article sera dédiée au problème de la spatialisation de la mémoire collective.
d’un « tournant spatial » à partir de Ricœur
Études Ricœuriennes / Ricœur Studies, Vol 12, No 2 (2021), pp. 8-14
ISSN 2156-7808 (online) DOI 10.5195/errs.2021.577
http://ricoeur.pitt.edu
Études Ricœuriennes / Ricœur Studies, Vol 12, No 2 (2021), pp. 1-7
ISSN 2156-7808 (online) DOI 10.5195/errs.2021.576
http://ricoeur.pitt.edu
reflections will lead to examine the interplay of belonging and distanciation in the relationship between human being and the natural environment, and to open up the
discussion of the hermeneutic dialectic of being-situated, situating and resituating ourselves in nature.
Keywords: Nature, Environment, Environmental Hermeneutics, Interpretation, Phenomenology.
Curatore: Maurizio Pagano, Luca Ghisleri
Morcelliana, 2018
Keywords: interreligious dialogue; hermeneutics; anthropology; fallibility; alterity.
Come notano Todescan e De Anna, il bene comune, quale idea centrale nella classicità e nel medioevo e fondamentale nella scienza politica, viene abbandonato nel corso della modernità in cui viene avanzato un paradigma antropologico di orientamento radicalmente individualista. Nell’epoca contemporanea la nozione di bene comune viene sostituita da altre che la richiamano solo parzialmente, come quella di interesse generale e di commons. Come ripensare quindi questo concetto?
La riproposizione del bene comune è legata al ripensamento della concezione onto-antropologica dell’uomo e dell’ambito politico. In risposta all’individualismo moderno, viene sostenuta dagli autori una concezione della soggettività strutturalmente in relazione. Inoltre, secondo Allegra vi è un’ontologia condivisa tra gli uomini. Su queste basi, Botturi conclude che il bene comune è quel bene relazionale tra persone appartenenti a una stessa realtà sociale, è il bene del loro essere in comunicazione operativa (p. 29). Anche Campodonico, Monti e Ancona riconoscono nell’essere-in-comunicazione il luogo di nascita e crescita dell’umano. Il bene comune ha a che fare con il fine dell’uomo, con la sua realizzazione e questa è possibile solo nella comunione con gli altri. Negro approfondisce la riflessione sul bene comune quale fine in rapporto con l’analisi delle preferenze.
A livello politico il bene comune consiste nella massima realizzazione dell’umanità di ciascun membro della comunità. L’autorità politica deve quindi permettere la realizzazione del bene per l’uomo. In contrapposizione alla modernità e alla dicotomia tra pubblico e privato, viene sottolineata la continuità tra la sfera politica, pubblica e morale. Pertinenti alla sfera socio-politico-economica sono i saggi di Samek, Zanichelli, Mastromatteo e Vaccarezza rispettivamente in merito alle virtù civili, ai diritti umani, al pensiero economico e alla ragione pubblica in riferimento al bene comune.
October 5-7, 2017
BOSTON, MA, USA
November 2-4, 2018
Mount St Mary University
Los Angeles, CA
It is an undeniable fact that, in our Western democratic societies, religious and spiritual traditions claim their active role in the public space. Nowadays, the main problem is no more to understand the relation between the State and the Church, but to open the possibility for a cohabitation among different religious convictions, their particular faith assertions and rights. Incomprehension, disorientation, fear of the foreign seen as a threat for our individual and communitarian identity, are often the first -wrong- reactions to face this situation.
In this paper my attention will fall on the practical dimension of Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutics and its contribution to the philosophy of religion with a particular focus on the interreligious dialogue. My main references are the three essays collected in the work On Translation and the lecture of a conference entitled La croyance religiuese. Le difficile chemin du religieux.
The initial part of my work will be focused on the ricoeurian interpretation of the Tower of Babel story (Genesis 11: 1-9). Babel is not the origin of a disaster but an invitation to manage diversity in a proper way. This original reading is based on a positive conception of the difference: the myth of dispersion is at the beginning of a fraternal project of solidarity. The plurality of languages gives rise to the question of translation. There cannot be an original language or an artificial one because of the plurality of human beings in each level of existence. Therefore, the good translation aims to create comparables between languages, it is an equivalence without identity and preserves the distance in the proximity. Through the translation the possibility of linguistic hospitality is open with the “pleasure of receiving the foreign word at home, in one’s own welcoming house” (p. 10). This kind of generosity is the paradigm for the life in common and for the interreligious dialogue. The desire to live with and for the others is a constitutive part for aiming at the good life.
On the other hand, human history is often signed not by a pacific exchange, but by violence. This depends on the ontological constitution of human being which is frail and weak, at the same time minded to good and prone to evil.
As the linguistic difference, the multiplicity of religious faiths must not be seen as an indifferent confusion of differences (relativism) or reduced to a unique belief (reductionism). Religion is part of our ethical intention for a good life as it is a symbolic order that addresses the capacity of acting with and for the others towards the good. The religious source is an intangible bottom that cannot be contained by a particular symbolic order. Referring to this origin of inspiration, each religion should undertake a difficult path and a self-critical reflection. The authentic interreligious dialogue allows each religion to extend their own self-understanding. Finally, this paper will analyze the limits of the ricoeurian hermeneutic of translation applied to the religious sphere and give some further considerations.
The translation of faiths in the public space opens it towards a new constitution and an irreducible universality filled by freedom.
Nowadays, in our plural and miscellaneous societies, the problem of interpersonal and institutional recognition inevitably arises and requires urgent consideration. Although this theme has been analyzed by several disciplines, it is investigated with a philosophical attention only in Paul Ricoeur’s thought and, in particular, in his last work: The Course of Recognition. Following the triadic structure of recognition from identity to ipseity and mutuality, my paper aims to rethink the role of recognition as the foundation of the social bond. These problems are inherently connected to the Ricoeurian speculation on justice seen as the highest category of the practical.
My main references are the third part of The Course of Recognition and the central section of Marcel Hénaff’s work The Price of the Truth: Gift, Money, and Philosophy on ceremonial gift-giving.
The initial part of my work will be focused on Ricoeur’s critique of modern individualism in which interpersonal relationships are necessarily marked by struggle and conflict. From the recognition in Hobbes to the Anerkennung’s moral foundation in Hegel until the renewals of Hegelian argument proposed by Axel Honneth, the recognition is seen as man’s power over alterity: the other is not recognized in his proper dignity but only in his being indispensable and useful for self-realization. In modern philosophy, the social bond is seen as artificial and it aims to immunize human interpersonal relationships, because violence and conflict are innate in them, into the State and into economic and commercial activities. Justice finds her concrete and universal application only in the State: outside the social bond, there is only injustice (Hobbes) or abstract justice (Hegel).
In contrast with modern philosophy, Ricoeur and Hénaff give innovative meanings to recognition, social bond and justice. Recognition finds its foundation in the anthropological conception of man as essentially relational, vulnerable and debtor. The alterity is recognized in her unique dignity, received and respected in her essential freedom. As a consequence, the social bond is based on the free recognition of the other and on the trust granted to interpersonal and institutional relationships. On the other hand, violence can arise because the human being is ontologically weak and frail. Justice defined as complex equality is here called upon to restore and avoid the uprising of conflicts as much as possible. In plural societies, justice cannot be univocal nor simply plural: authentic justice consists in the recognition of similarity across difference. It is clear that recognition and justice are inherently tied together. First of all, they deal with interpersonal and institutional relationships, with similarities and differences. Secondly, they seek social peace and the maintenance of diversity.
The social bond foundation can be rethought from the ceremonial gift-giving as a charitable giving in which the other is accepted as an irreplaceable partner. This “ceremonial gift exchange” entails an obligation to reciprocate, but not economically. Once the social bond is settled, there is the hope that it can be pacific and enduring.
Trust, belief, recognition of dignity and justice as complex equality are the main concepts for a new type of social bond.
L’objectif de ma proposition de communication est celui de présenter la centralité de la relation d’altérité et du rôle de l’affectivité dans la pensée de Paul Ricoeur. Les œuvres de référence de mon parcours sont : Le volontaire et l’involontaire, De l’interprétation. Essai sur Freud et Soi-même comme un autre. La continuité que je vais présenter entre ces écrits ricoeuriens donne la possibilité de situer la réflexion sur la subjectivité et les affections au croisement de deux perspectives : la phénoménologie et l’herméneutique. Je veux souligner que la notion qui accompagnera à chaque passage mon intervention est celle de «décentralisation».
Mon exposé sera composé de trois parties :
1) premièrement je vais présenter la critique ricoeurienne au Cogito cartésien ;
2) ensuite, mon intervention se focalisera sur le thème du corps et de l’existence incarnée ;
3) enfin, je montrerai la tension de la subjectivité entre archéologie et téléologie en relation avec le thème de la reconnaissance.
À chaque phase l’attention sera posée sur l’essentielle présence de l’altérité et de la relation dans la vie du sujet. En particulier, l’analyse de la corporéité et celle de la tension vivante de la subjectivité font ressortir trois figures d’altérité : l’altérité des éléments qui se trouvent dans le monde, l’altérité reçue et l’altérité reconnue et reconnaissante. On peut voir ici le passage de l’altérité du monde jusqu’à l’altérité authentique du prochain qui est toujours présent dans la vie de chacun. Mais, il faut reconnaitre que la relation entre le sujet et le monde et celle entre le sujet et le prochain ne sont pas connotées par le même modèle : tandis que l’altérité des éléments peut être assimilée, par contre l’altérité du prochain doit être reconnue dans sa liberté et dignité irremplaçable. À partir de cette dernière distinction, dans la conclusion de mon intervention je présenterai deux métaphores tirées du monde géométrique qui permettent de mieux comprendre la signification de la relation authentique et de l’affectivité humaine dans la pensée de Ricœur.
Nell’epoca contemporanea, caratterizzata da conflitti mondiali, da scontri religiosi e
crisi economiche, è diventato sempre più problematico rispettare la dignità dellarelazione interumana. Negli eventi più estremi, l’uomo è stato completamente spogliato della propria unicità e irripetibilità, ridotto a paziente narcotizzato dalla ragione
strumentale legata alla tecnica.
Il mio elaborato ha come obiettivo la possibilità di ripensare un’autentica relazione d’Alterità dal punto di vista della libertà. I riferimenti principali sono costituiti da due opere: la seconda e quarta sezione di Totalità e Infinito di Emmanuel Lévinas e Percorsi del Riconoscimento di Paul Ricœur.
Il problema che accomuna i filosofi in analisi è il riconoscimento dell’alterità umana, più precisamente la possibilità di una relazione intersoggettiva in cui ogni uomo possa essere liberamente e pienamente partecipe.
La riflessione prende avvio da una delle tesi centrali del pensiero lévinassiano: la libertà non è originaria ma originata. L’autentica libertà non è monologica, ossia proprietà di un io separato, soggetto di totalità, bensì è donata a se stessa da un primum trascendente. Di conseguenza, il vero soggetto non è l’io causa sui, il Medesimo egoista e dominatore della totalità, ma l’io che si costituisce attraverso un processo di gestazione nel quale è sempre dipendente dall’alterità.
In primo luogo, l’io si afferma come io di godimento, ossia un io che soddisfa i propri bisogni grazie agli elementi che però si sottraggono al suo dominio ponendolo in una situazione d’insicurezza.
L’io di godimento tenta, quindi, di porre fine alla suddetta incertezza, trasformando le cose in oggetti al fine di ripararle dalla possibilità di distruzione: l’io, può emergere dall’elementare nel quale è sommerso e prenderne le distanze.
Il corpo rappresenta il fenomeno grazie al quale l’io emerge dal mondo di godimento tentando, con un movimento di raccoglimento, di allontanarsi dalla situazione di insicurezza.
L’io, quindi, esercita in questo momento della sua gestazione, la propria libertà come libero possesso delle cose.
La definitiva affermazione dell’io in quanto soggetto richiede un ulteriore sforzo in cui dovrà liberarsi non solo della libertà di godimento, ma anche di quella di possesso: «per poter rifiutare sia il godimento sia il possesso, è necessario che io sappia donare quello che possiedo. […] Ma per questo è necessario che incontri il volto in-discreto di Altri che mi mette in questione» (E. LÉVINAS, Totalità e Infinito. Saggio sull’Esteriorità,
1961, Jaca Book, Milano 1980, p. 174).
In questi termini è affermata la possibilità di un altro-pensiero, il quale non si riconosce nel viaggio di Ulisse compiuto dal pensiero occidentale, ossia nel ritorno a sé dell’io e
nel disconoscimento dell’incontro con l’alterità, ma nel cammino compiuto da Abramo verso l’Altro.
Riprendendo Lévinas, Ricœur sostiene che l’io si costituisce come persona grazie alla dialettica con l’alterità, ma di contro afferma che la relazione con Altri è simmetrica e la responsabilità reciproca. L’etica della reciprocità legata alla logica del dono, dell’apertura e del rispetto dell’altro, costituisce la via d’uscita dallo spazio della violenza e del dominio.
La relazione d’Altri così intesa mostra la fisionomia e la possibilità di una libertà metaconflittuale.
Paul Ricœur’s work can help us to shed light on the notion of autonomy and its current theoretical and practical challenges. Autonomy is a central idea in his thought as a whole. Ricœur’s conception of autonomy evolves through the discussion of different inheritances that have a significant influence on his philosophical project, namely, the phenomenological, the hermeneutical, the sociological, the ethical, and the political. Therefore, his approach to the topic of autonomy is not limited to a moral consideration of it as a universal principle. Rather, Ricœur’s analysis of autonomy is intertwined with the recurring themes of his thought, such as the body, language, action, identity, selfness and otherness, institutions, and justice. In dialogue with other thinkers (e.g., Aristotle, Locke, Kant, Mill, Rawls, Nozick, Berlin) Ricœur engages a number of different perspectives in considering autonomy, opening possibilities and creating new directions for understanding this notion in its multifaceted forms. This conference explores the multifarious concept of autonomy in Ricœur’s thought, but also its resonance in social sciences and the humanities at large.