Paul Ricoeur Oneself As Another — Pdf
Paul Ricoeur’s Oneself as Another is not a self-help book; it is a rigorous, beautiful dismantling of the illusions of the ego. It asks us to look in the mirror and realize that the face looking back is shaped by the language we inherited, the stories we tell, and the people we hold in our care. To read it is to accept that to know oneself is, inescapably, to know another.
Paul Ricoeur’s Oneself as Another (Soi-même comme un autre), published in 1990 and translated into English in 1992, is widely considered his philosophical masterpiece. Originating as the 1986 Gifford Lectures, the book develops a comprehensive "hermeneutics of the self," exploring how we understand ourselves not through immediate intuition, but through the mediation of actions, narratives, and ethical relationships with others. Core Philosophical Themes
Ricoeur moves beyond the "shattered" Cartesian cogito—the idea of a self-founding, certain subject—to present a "capable self" that acts, speaks, and narrates. JURNAL LEDALERO
In his influential work Oneself as Another (1992), philosopher Paul Ricoeur
explores how we find our true selves not through looking inward, but by looking toward others and the stories we tell Here is a story to help illustrate his key concepts of (sameness), (selfhood), and narrative identity The Story of the Traveler and the Promise
Imagine a man named Leo who leaves his small village to travel the world. 1. The "What" (Idem-Identity)
When Leo returns twenty years later, he is physically unrecognizable. His hair is gray, his skin is weathered, and he speaks with a different accent. If you only looked at his "idem" identity—the stable, physical "sameness" of a thing—you might say he is a different person entirely. But Leo still has the same fingerprint and a shared history; these are the "what" of his identity that stay the same over time.
Paul Ricoeur's Oneself as Another Soi-même comme un autre ) is widely considered his magnum opus, offering a comprehensive hermeneutics of the self that distinguishes between "sameness" (idem) and "selfhood" (ipse). David Vessey
Below is a structured outline for a paper on the work, followed by a summary of its core arguments. Paper Outline: A Hermeneutics of Selfhood Introduction
: Situating Ricoeur between the "exalted" Cartesian cogito and the "shattered" Nietzschean anti-cogito.
: The self is not an immediate datum but is discovered through the "long detour" of interpretation, action, and relation to others. Linguistic and Action Theory Detours (Studies 1–4) Semantic Approach paul ricoeur oneself as another pdf
: Identifying the person as a basic particular among physical objects. Pragmatic Approach
: Transitioning from "what" and "why" to "who" through speech acts like promising. Narrative Identity (Studies 5–6) Idem vs. Ipse
: Distinguishing numerical sameness (idem) from the selfhood that maintains constancy over time through narrative (ipse). Emplotment
: How storytelling bridges the gap between biological life and ethical action. The "Little Ethics" (Studies 7–9) The Ethical Aim
: Defined as "aiming at the 'good life' with and for others, in just institutions". Ethical vs. Moral
: The primacy of Aristotelian ethics (teleological) over Kantian morality (deontological). Ontology and Attestation (Study 10) Attestation
: A form of self-certainty that is not absolute but a "trust" or "belief in" oneself.
: Encountering otherness within the self through the body (flesh), the other person, and conscience. Conclusion
Reflecting on the title: The self is constitutively bound to the "other". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Core Arguments of "Oneself as Another" 1. The Split Identity: Idem and Ipse Ricoeur argues that the word "same" is ambiguous. Idem-identity
(sameness) refers to permanence in time, like a substance that never changes. Ipse-identity Paul Ricoeur’s Oneself as Another is not a
(selfhood) refers to the constancy of a person who can change but still says "Here I am," most clearly seen in the act of keeping a promise. David Vessey 4 The Deferred Self: Paul Ricoeur's Oneself as Another
Paul Ricoeur's Oneself as Another (Soi-même comme un autre), published in 1990, is a landmark work that bridges analytic and continental philosophy to redefine personal identity. Core Philosophical Themes
The Capable Self: Ricoeur argues that the self is defined by its "power to do". This "capable self" emerges through specific human capacities: speaking, acting, narrating, and being held accountable. Dialectic of Identity (Idem vs. Ipse):
Idem (Sameness): Numerical and qualitative identity, or what remains the same over time (e.g., character traits or physical traits).
Ipse (Selfhood): A dynamic identity not based on permanence but on "self-constancy," best exemplified by the act of keeping a promise.
Narrative Identity: This is the "bridge" between idem and ipse. We understand who we are by "emplotting" our lives into stories, where we are both characters in others' narratives and authors of our own.
The Ethical Aim: Ricoeur famously defines the ethical life as "aiming at the 'good life' with and for others, in just institutions".
Solicitude: The "for others" part, where self-esteem is inextricably linked to the well-being of the neighbor.
Just Institutions: The extension of ethics into the political sphere to ensure fairness for "distant others". Key Term: Attestation
Ricoeur calls attestation the "password" for the book. It is the fundamental trust or assurance one has in their own ability to act and respond to others. It stands as a "third way" between Cartesian self-certainty and Nietzschean self-doubt, acknowledging that while the self is "fragile," it remains capable of responsibility. Resources for Further Study This is the densest section, engaging analytic philosophy
Full Text (PDF/Physical): You can find physical copies or digital access through academic repositories like JSTOR, De Gruyter Brill, or purchase it from Barnes & Noble and Target. Summaries & Commentary:
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy provides a comprehensive overview of Ricoeur's ethics.
Ricoeur as Another: The Ethics of Subjectivity is a notable collection of expert essays exploring the book's implications.
In Oneself as Another (1992), Paul Ricoeur reconceptualizes personal identity as a dynamic narrative process rather than a static Cartesian "I," blending selfhood (ipse) with permanence (idem) through time and interpersonal relations. The work introduces "narrative identity" and a "little ethics" that links the pursuit of a good life with care for others and ethical, just institutions. Digital, summarized versions of the text and analytical materials are available via the Internet Archive and repositories such as Scribd. Ricoeur Oneself as Another - David Vessey
This is the densest section, engaging analytic philosophy (Strawson, Derek Parfit) and phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger).
Ricœur engages heavily with analytic philosophy of language (e.g., Wittgenstein, Austin, Strawson). He asks: How do we speak about persons?
This is the most famous section. Ricœur argues that we understand ourselves by telling stories.
Ricœur structures Oneself as Another as a philosophical wager: He will move through three levels of "mediation" to prove that the self is not an immediate given but a result of interpretation.
To dismantle the traditional idea of a fixed, static "ego," Ricoeur divides human identity into two distinct categories:
Ricoeur argues that true selfhood (ipse) actually requires a degree of otherness. If a person never changed, never learned, and never adapted, they would be a static object, not a living, responsible self.
Identity of the self is not explained only by sameness-over-time (idem-identity) nor only by the narrative flux of experience (ipse-identity); it requires both. Ricœur distinguishes two poles:
Personal identity is achieved through narrative identity: the agent’s self-understanding emerges as the interpretive mediation between idem (what one is) and ipse (who one is, as a moral agent).