1. Hermeneutics
The philosophy of interpretation. For Paul Ricoeur, hermeneutics is the practice of interpreting texts, symbols, and narratives to uncover meaning and deepen self-understanding.
2. Symbol Gives Rise to Thought
Ricoeur’s starting point: symbols and myths are not primitive remnants but sources of reflection that stimulate philosophical inquiry.
3. Distanciation
The autonomy a text gains when separated from its author and original context. Distanciation makes interpretation possible beyond subjective intention.
4. Appropriation
The act of making the “world of the text” one’s own. Readers integrate new horizons of meaning into their lives through interpretation.
5. Surplus of Meaning
Texts carry more meaning than intended by their authors. This surplus ensures multiple valid interpretations while resisting reductionism.
6. Explanation and Understanding
The two moments of interpretation: explanation (structural analysis of the text) and understanding (existential grasp of meaning).
7. Living Metaphor
Metaphor as semantic innovation. In Ricoeur’s hermeneutics, metaphors disclose new truths by redescribing reality.
8. Narrative / Emplotment
Narratives configure events into plots (emplotment), giving coherence to human time and experience.
9. Threefold Mimesis
The three stages of narrative:
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Mimesis1: prefiguration of action.
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Mimesis2: configuration into a plot.
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Mimesis3: refiguration in the reader’s world.
10. Narrative Identity
The self is shaped by the stories it tells and receives. Ricoeur distinguishes between idem (sameness) and ipse (selfhood).
11. The Capable Human Being
Human beings are defined by their capacities: to speak, act, narrate, and take responsibility.
12. Attestation
Practical assurance of selfhood. Attestation grounds responsibility without requiring metaphysical certainty.
13. Little Ethics
Ricoeur’s ethical formula: “aiming at the good life, with and for others, in just institutions.”
14. Solicitude
The ethical relation of care and reciprocity between self and other.
15. Justice and the Third
Justice arises when a third party mediates conflicts, ensuring fairness beyond personal ties.
16. Forgiveness
A difficult gift that interrupts cycles of violence. Forgiveness differs from amnesty, which risks erasing responsibility.
17. Memory, History, Forgetting
Ricoeur’s triad of historical hermeneutics:
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Memory as duty.
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History as critical reconstruction.
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Forgetting as both danger and possible healing.
18. Hermeneutics of Suspicion
Critical interpretation inspired by Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche. Ricoeur balances suspicion with a restorative hermeneutics of trust.
19. Recognition
The final arc of Ricoeur’s hermeneutics: mutual recognition as the condition for peace and dignity.
20. Fallibility and Evil
Human beings are fragile and fallible. Hermeneutics explores how fault, guilt, and evil are narrated and confronted.
