Philippine E-Journals

Paul Ricoeur’s Philosophical Anthropology

Christopher Ryan Maboloc

 

Abstract:

This paper addresses the specific gaps in Paul Ricoeur’s philosophical anthropology. Ricoeur’s view is presented in three phases – subjectivity, language, and ethics. First, a critique of Ricoeur’s idea of fallibility is presented; secondly, it is pointed out that Ricoeur does not provide a general theory of interpretation; and thirdly, the reality of structural injustices is mentioned to expose what is missing in Ricoeur’s conception of justice. The paper, however, argues that understanding existence dialectically from the perspective of the subject as a unity remains to be a strong way of responding to the question of what makes man fully human. Such a view potentially benefits future investigations with respect to the way society must think through I ts most important problems and issues.