From Vulnerability to Promise - (Studies in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur) by Sophie-Jan Arrien & Beatriz Contreras Tasso (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book brings together ten women philosophers to examine Paul Ricoeur's philosophical anthropology, focusing on the embodied dimension of existence, to reveal its ontological and ethical significance. The contributors examine Ricoeur's work in a variety of contexts, such as freedom and recognition, love and consent, and our inescapable finitude"--

Book Synopsis

This book brings together ten women philosophers to examine Paul Ricoeur's philosophical anthropology, focusing on the embodied dimension of existence, to reveal its ontological and ethical significance. The contributors examine Ricoeur's work in a variety of contexts, such as freedom and recognition, love and consent, and our inescapable finitude.

Review Quotes

Exploring the question of the incarnated self and its existential condition of finitude in Ricoelig;ur#39;s philosophical anthropology and starting from it, by giving a voice to women philosophers, is the challenge this book wants to address . In a highly innovative and convincing manner, Beatriz Contreras Tasso and Sophie-Jan Arrien introduce us to the plural, embodied and situated gaze of women philosophers ndash; from different generations, backgrounds, countries and languages ndash; on phenomenological and hermeneutical approaches to the central questions of affectivity, the lived body, narrative identity, the vulnerability and capability of the self at work in Ricoelig;ur#39;s philosophy.

It is rightly argued that women scholars often contribute to intellectual domains in three overlapping ways: by gaining an equal voice within a discipline, by offering a new voice that raises original issues within the discipline, and by providing a different voice that challenges and rethinks the discipline. All three are evident in this important text, where ten women philosophers build on and respond to the work of Paul Ricoeur. Arguing against historically prevailing theories, the contributions argue for a self that is relational both internallymdash;combining the rational and the affective, reason and embodiment, the voluntary and the involuntary, capability and fragility, narrative continuity and discontinuitymdash;and externallymdash;with others in horizontal recognition, including those often excluded and extending to relations with nature. In awareness of our finitude, the goal is situated practical wisdom. It is a tribute to Ricoeur that the authors find in his thought a sufficiently sympathetic sensibility that he is worth engaging, even as they enrich, extend, and restructure his work. The collection is also to be commended for bringing to readers in English the voices of talented women philosophers at varying stages of scholarly entry and of very diverse international and language backgrounds.

This is a timely and engaging volume on the hermeneutic conversation between affectivity, narrativity, and finitude in the work of Paul Ricoeur. It marks an invaluable contribution to the understanding of our fundamental human vulnerability.

About the Author

Sophie-Jan Arrien is full professor of philosophy at Université Laval, Québec.
Beatriz Contreras Tasso is tenured professor of philosophy at Pontifical Catholic University.