Fu Jen Catholic University

Selected Readings in the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur (Fall 2019)

Thursday/D2-D4/JS121
Ming-Yeung Cheung 張名揚 (Office: SL337B E-mail: 137027@mail.fju.edu.tw)
Office hour: Tuesday 15:40-17:40 or by appointment

Objectives:
In successfully completing this course, students will be able to
1. give an overview of the different stages of Ricoeur’s phenomenological and hermeneutical study of human
beings, through the reading of original texts.
2. put Ricoeur’s thinking about human subjectivity in its historical context.
3. discuss the significance of Ricoeur’s philosophical anthropology for cultural self-understanding and for
the study of religion and religious scriptures in the context of the intercultural dialogue between the East
and the West.
4. reflect on the possibility and mode of understanding one’s cultural and religious ‘others’ in the world
today.

Week Date Topic Reading Remarks

1 09/12 Introduction
2 09/19 Ricoeur’s Philosophical Project “Intellectual Autobiography”
3 09/26 Religious Language and Symbolism “Philosophy and Religious Rou Wen
(Phenomenology and Hermeneutics) Language” (in Figuring the
Sacred)
4 10/03 Language: on Metaphor and “The Metaphorical Process as Allen
Imagination Cognition, Imagination, and
Feeling.”
5 10/10 Holiday
6 10/17 Symbolism “The Hermeneutics of Symbols GP
and Philosophical Reflection: I”
7 10/24 Student-led study and discussion: Taylor, “Editor’s Introduction”
Ricoeur’s philosophy of language and pp. ix–xi and xxiii–xxxvi
the imagination. (LEST Conference in
Leuven)
8 10/31 Narrative: on Narrative and Metaphor “The Bible and the Imagination” Grace
(in Figuring the Sacred)
9 11/07 Action: From Text to Action “The Model of the Text: GP
Meaningful Action Considered
as a Text”
10 11/14 Love and Justice “Love and Justice” (in Figuring Emanuel
the Sacred)
11 11/21 Self-Interpretation I: Narrative Identity “Narrative Identity” Allen
12 11/28 Self-Interpretation II: the Called and “The Summoned Subject in the Emanuel
Responsive Self School of the Narratives of the
Prophetic Vocation” (in
Figuring the Sacred)
13 12/05 Student-led study and discussion: Abel, “Paul Ricoeur‘s
Ricoeur’s philosophy of language and Hermeneutics: From Critique to
the imagination. (DADH 2019) Poetics”
14 12/12 Discussions
15 12/19 Memory, History and Forgetting “The Memory of Suffering” (in Grace
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 (Human beings and history) Figuring the Sacred) +
“Memory, History, Oblivion.”
16 12/26 Religious Ethics “Ethical and Theological Rou Wen
Considerations on the Golden
Rule” (in Figuring the Sacred)
17 01/02 Ethics: Ricoeur’s “Little Ethics” Oneself as Another (pages to be
determined ~20pp.)
18 01/09 On Translation: Human beings in or On Translation (pages to be
communication / Concluding determined ~10pp.)
discussions

Alternate Theme: Time and Narrative:

“Time and Narrative: Threefold Mimesis,” in Time and Narrative, translated by Kathleen MacLaughlin and
David Pellauer, vol. 1, 52–87. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1984. (2 sessions)

Alternate Theme: Psychoanlysis

Ricoeur, Paul. “Life: A Story in Search of a Narrator.” In Facts and Values: Philosophical Reflections from
Western and Non-Western Perspectives, edited by M. C. Doeser and J. N. Kraay, translated by J.
N. Kraay and A. J. Scholten, 121–32. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1986.
———“A Philosophical Interpretation of Freud.” In The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in
Hermeneutics, edited by Don Ihde. Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and
Existential Philosophy. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1974.

Bibliographies

Ricoeur’s Works (required readings):

Ricoeur, Paul. “The Bible and the Imagination.” In Figuring the Sacred: Religion, Narrative, and
Imagination, edited by Mark I. Wallace, translated by David Pellauer, 144–167. Minneapolis,
MN: Fortress, 1995.
———The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics, edited by Don Ihde. Northwestern
University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy. Evanston, IL: Northwestern
University Press, 1974.
———“Ethical and Theological Considerations on the Golden Rule.” In Figuring the Sacred, 293–302.
———Figuring the Sacred: Religion, Narrative, and ImaginationEdited by Mark I. Wallace. Translated by
David Pellauer. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1995.
———From Text to Action: Essays in Hermeneutics IIEvanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1991.
———“Imagination in Discourse and in Action.” In Analecta Husserliana, 7:3–22, 1978.
———“Intellectual Autobiography.” In The Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, edited by Lewis Edwin Hahn, 3–
53. The Library of Living Philosophers 22. Chicago: Open Court, 1995.
———“Love and Justice.” In Figuring the Sacred, 315–29.
———“Memory, History, Oblivion.” In Carnal Hermeneutics, edited by Richard Kearney and Brian
Treanor, 148–56. Fordham Perspectives in Continental Philosophy. New York: Fordham
University Press, 2015.
——— “The Memory of Suffering.” In Figuring the Sacred, 289–292.
———“The Metaphorical Process as Cognition, Imagination, and Feeling.” Critical Inquiry 5 (1978): 143–
59.
———“The Model of the Text: Meaningful Action Considered as a Text.” In From Text to Action: Essays
in Hermeneutics II, translated by John B. Thompson, 144–67. Evanston, IL: Northwestern
University Press, 1991.
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———“Narrative Identity.” Philosophy Today 35, no. 1 (1991): 73–81.
———On TranslationAbingdon: Routledge, 2006.
———Oneself as AnotherTranslated by Kathleen Blamey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
———“The Summoned Subject in the School of the Narratives of the Prophetic Vocation.” In Figuring the
Sacred: Religion, Narrative, and Imagination, edited by Mark I. Wallace, translated by David
Pellauer, 262–75. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1995.
———Time and NarrativeTranslated by Kathleen MacLaughlin and David Pellauer. Vol. 1. Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Ricoeur’s Works (references):

Ricoeur, Paul. The Course of RecognitionTranslated by David Pellauer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2005.
———Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences: Essays on Language, Action and InterpretationEdited by
John B. Thompson. Cambridge Philosophy Classics. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
———Memory, History, ForgettingTranslated by Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer. Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press, 2004.
———“The Self in the Mirror of the Scriptures.” In The Whole and Divided Self: The Bible and Theological
Anthropology, edited by David E. Aune and John McCarthy, 201–20. New York: Crossroad,
1997.
———The Symbolism of EvilTranslated by Emerson Buchanan. Boston, MA: Beacon, 1969.

Secondary Literature:
Abel, Olivier. “Paul Ricoeur‘s Hermeneutics: From Critique to Poetics.” In Reading Ricoeur, edited by
David M. Kaplan, 183–96. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2008.
Kaplan, David M. Ricoeur’s Critical TheoryAlbany, NY: SUNY Press, 2003.
Reagan, Charles E. Paul Ricoeur: His Life and His WorkChicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Taylor, George H. “Editor’s Introduction.” In Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, by Paul Ricoeur, ix–xxxvi.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1986 (Read only pp. ix–xi and xxiii–xxxvi).

Assessment
1.Presentation of reading 40%
2.Participation in discussions 15%
3.Final Paper 45%

Students’ Responsibilities
Students are expected to read and be prepared to discuss the assigned reading material before each session
(each students should write down 3 questions about the reading before each session).
Depending on the number of students taking the course, each student should prepare to give a 30 mins
presentation of one or two of the readings.
Students should fully involve in discussions during the session.
Full attendance is strongly recommended.

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