Guest guest Posted August 20, 1999 Report Share Posted August 20, 1999 [Max sent this to the list, but somehow it didn't arrive, so he sent it to me. With permission, I'm answering here... with his entire post. Sorry it took me so long, Max. ] >max_harris >Sun, 15 Aug 1999 21:57:12 >Re: RE: Ricoeur > >>Dharma <fisher1 >> >>Hi Max, >> >>>3) Hermeneutic Phenomenology (Heidegger and Ricoeur). >> >>I am familiar with Heidegger but not Ricoeur... which may tell you _when_ >>I was in school. )) Would you mind saying something about Ricoeur? > >I'll try, but like many philosophers who live a long life, >Ricoeur has had several phases in his career. > >When I first became influenced by Ricoeur in the 1970's, >his 'middle period' thinking was becoming influential in >American philosophical and theological cicles because >he was offering ways of thinking about hermeneutics >(interpretation theory) which were new and seemed sensitive >to the primacy of the symbolic to the logical, and yet >without abandoning critical rationalism. > >Unfortunately, it is difficult to talk about Ricoeur's ideas >without either dense awkward language, or an awfully lot of >words. This being the internet, I guess we go dense. > >R was initially an existential phenomenlogist, like Heidegger >or Merleu-Ponty, ie., someone who valued the phenomenological >approach of Husserl but recognized that it couldn't be as >hyper-rational as Husserl attempted. Like Heidegger, R turned >to analysis of language to seek insights into how we construct >our reality, but his approach is quite different from Heidegger. >Whereas Heidegger sought to break beneath the foundations of >language (hence his poetic, quasi-mystic later period), Ricoeur >boldly sought to continue to bring critical analysis to the >foundational dynamics of linguistic expression, and hence reached >beneath language to foundational symbolic activity. An important >work from his middle period which demonstrates this well would be >"The Symbolism of Evil." > >As Ricoeur continued his reflections, he incorporated insights >of a 'structuralist' nature and then came to focus on the role >of metaphor. This brings us into his early late period, and >an important work from that period would be "The Rule of Metaphor." > >But he didn't stop there. He then developed a concept of >'figuration' which is currently much discussed among those >interested in hermeneutics. The idea is that through linguistic >imagination we 'figure' or 'give shape' to aspects of experience, >thereby constructing a meaningful world of ideas and things. > >His thought is far more sophisticated than I can convey here. >One thing I'd like to point out is that Ricoeur is an alternative >to Derrida and deconstructionism. Ricoeur and Derrida both >come from the same continental traditions of phenomenology >and hermeneutics; both have worked through the Husserlian >enterprise and moved beyond it; both have been influenced by >structuralism and psychoanalysis and existentialism. But >they have taken different routes and offer different results. > >If you do a search at Amazon Books on Ricoeur, you'll get a >sense of how much output he has produced and how much impact >he has had and still is having. > >About 15 years ago I did some graduate work combining Jung >with Ricoeur, giving rise to a Jungian-Ricoeurian hermeneutics. >Others have also done so. I think it would be real interesting >to bring Aurobindo and Ricoeur together, especially since >Aurobindo also had an interest in language theory and poetics. > >But I'm neither a full-time student nor a professional scholar, >so if I do this in my spare time it will take years of labor. >Maybe I can talk a current grad student into doing this. > >Hope this is sort of what you wanted to know. > >Namaste, > >-- Max Hi Max, I'll probably have to do some catch-up to really get into this... I was a philosophy major in college and had an unofficial minor in it in grad school... aesthetics, philosophy of language, philosophy of symbolism, etc. But it's fascinating, and I want to read Ricoeur. Since he wrote so much, I'm glad you recommended certain things. My specialty is in symbol and myth, so I'll start with "The Symbolism of Evil." I taught briefly and wanted to make a career of it, but the recession came along... so I'm not a professional scholar either. Love, Dharma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 20, 1999 Report Share Posted August 20, 1999 Max Harris (by way of Dharma) [max_harris] Friday, August 20, 1999 6:54 AM [Fwd: Re: RE: Ricoeur] "Max Harris" <max_harris (by way of Dharma) [Max sent this to the list, but somehow it didn't arrive, so he sent it to me. With permission, I'm answering here... with his entire post. Sorry it took me so long, Max. ] Dharma, thanks for taking care of this. If anyone else is having any problems sending messages to the Sangha, please let us know. We certainly don't want any messages from Max (or anyone else) getting lost. I am not aware of any trouble with onelist servers. Thanks again Dharma and Max. By the way, I have a B.A. in Philosophy, so I recognize many of the names, but have forgotten many of the details. Glad for it! :--). Harsha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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