Paul Ricoeur Quotes

Paul Ricoeur — French Philosopher born on February 27, 1913, died on May 20, 2005

Paul Ricœur was a French philosopher best known for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutics. As such, his thought is within the same tradition as other major hermeneutic phenomenologists, Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer. In 2000, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for having "revolutionized the methods of hermeneutic phenomenology, expanding the study of textual interpretation to include the broad yet concrete domains of mythology, biblical exegesis, psychoanalysis, theory of metaphor, and narrative theory.".. (wikipedia)

If it is true that there is always more than one way of construing a text, it is not true that all interpretations are equal.

The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism.

On a cosmic scale, our life is insignificant, yet this brief period when we appear in the world is the time in which all meaningful questions arise.

Testimony gives something to be interpreted.

So long as the New Testament served to decipher the Old, it was taken as an absolute norm.