“Paul Ricoeur”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ricoeur, the well-known French philosopher, has passed away. There is coverage in “The Guardian”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5022031,00.html and “Le Monde”:http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3230,36-652552@51-652432,0.html and “Liberation”:http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=298162. Le Monde is also featuring articles by “Charles Larmore”:http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3232,36-652557,0.html on Ricoeur’s time in the United States, and republishing an “essay by Derrida honoring Ricoeur”:http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3232,36-652561,0.html.
Ricoeur had an enormous impact on my intellectual development. Despite the fact that he is not widely read by antropologists he was part of a time in social theory when metaphorical meaning and linguistic and cultural innovation were widely discussed — his work in Time and Narrative and La métaphore vive (which in English is given the terrible, terrible title of The Rule of Metaphor) is quite similar to the work that Sahlins was doing at that time. During my epic experience reading Time and Narrative in the study group I had at the time, we paused to read Mrs. Dalloway and The Phenomenology of Internal Time Consciousness so as to better understand volumes two and three. Always synthetic and multiply engaged, Ricoeur spread himself so thin that you sometimes wondered just how far his engagement with, say, Geertz or Rawls would get him. His own unique take on the field never failed to enlighten, however — both as a way to make sense of the literature, and as a model of what erudite scholarship should be.
The most thorough biographical treatment of Ricoeur that I know is “François Dosse’s biography”:http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2707133787/qid=1116719685/sr=1-10/ref=sr_1_8_10/402-7308679-6405712. The best English language source I can think of is Charles Reagan’s “Paul Ricoeur: His Life and Work”:http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2707133787/qid=1116719685/sr=1-10/ref=sr_1_8_10/402-7308679-6405712.
Yes, he has had a big effect on my thinking too. Particularly his writing on the relationship between narrative and human identity. Those texts I’ve read are in touch with the grubby realities of suffering, yet remain challenging and humane, and proffer a thread of hope.
Here a big collection of articles on Ricoeur:
articolifilosofici.blogspot.com
We just want to let known that in Recife (Brazil), on the 16th of June, as the closing activity of the Third Meeting of Philosophy involving three Brazilian federal universities (of Recife, João Pessoa and Natal), there will be a round table to honour Paul Ricoeur’s work and life. The round-table is composed by Dr. Vincenzo di Matteo, Ms. Sergio Ramos, Dr. Abrahão Costa Andrade, Ms. Gesuína Leclerc and Dr. Walteir Silva.