Oneself as Another - Hardcover

Ricoeur, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226713288 ISBN 13: 9780226713281

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1992

Synopsis

Paul Ricoeur has been hailed as one of the most important thinkers of the century. Oneself as Another, the clearest account of his "philosophical ethics," substantiates this position and lays the groundwork for a metaphysics of morals.

Focusing on the concept of personal identity, Ricoeur develops a hermeneutics of the self that charts its epistemological path and ontological status.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Ricoeur (1913–2005) was the John Nuveen Professor in the Divinity School, the Department of Philosophy, and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He was the author of many books, including Memory, History, Forgetting, Oneself as Another, and the three-volume Time and Narrative, all published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews

Probing to the heart of selfhood, Ricoeur finds otherness. In this eminent thinker's theory of personhood, the self is a character-narrator of its own history, its autonomy intimately bound up with solicitude for one's neighbors and with justice for each individual. Professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, Ricoeur reads life histories as literary narratives and attempts to show how practical wisdom should flow from our intuitive moral judgments of what the good life might be like. His ethics of reciprocity and caring draws freely on the whole of Western philosophy, from Plato, Aristotle and Greek tragedy to Heidegger, language theory and John Rawls. An exciting work for specialists and advanced students, this dense, difficult treatise, which cuts across philosophy, semantics, literary theory and social science, will daunt the general reader.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The central theme here is the concept of personal identity, within which Ricoeur examines three major issues: the idea of self, of identity or sameness, and of relation to that which is not self. His intention is no less than a hermeneutics of the self, and toward this end he accomplishes much. This is not reading for the philosophical novice, but those familiar with Ricoeur's writings, or those who have a thorough understanding of the concepts employed here, will find this a rich and rewarding book. Based on Ricoeur's 1986 Gifford Lectures, this is recommended for academic libraries with comprehensive programs in philosophy.
- Terry Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226713288
• ISBN 13: 9780226713281
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 374