Paul Ricoeur and Philosophic Anthropology

Dauenhauer (2008) asserts that the ultimate aim of Ricoeur's philosophy can be described as a philosophic anthropology. According to Dauenhauer, Ricoeur referred to his work as an anthropology of the "capable person". Ricoeur's aim was to give an account of the fundamental capabilities and vulnerabilities that we display, as humans, in our ordinary lives. The accent is always on the the possibility of self-understanding. However, he rejects any notition that the self can be transparent to itself without any reference to or knowledge of the an exterior world.


Dauenhauer, Bernard, "Paul Ricoeur", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).