Paul Ricoeur Dies

May 22, 2005 6:07 AM

Paul Ricoeur dies. A sketch of his life's work can be found here. (Warning, somewhat dense, NSF-sunday mornings). Here's a little on phenomenology, Ricoeur's philosophical paradigm.
posted by blindsam (6 comments total)

As a digression - I would really like philosophers to take a few design classes, and make their material a little visually accessible. They aren't doing themselves any favours - not that it should all be Flashy, but a little understanding of how the web has become more graphically sophisticated could better reflect the subtleties of their thinking and writing, and engage their audience more readily.
posted by blindsam at 6:12 AM on May 22, 2005

Can't really it was before his time or anything like that, but I'll dot to that, for an interesting and painfully intelligent guy. Thanks for the info link, too, it's hard to find useful stuff on him in english.


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posted by ITheCosmos at 6:24 AM on May 22, 2005

Reading Ricoeur in college had a tremendous impact on me. Sadly, I missed a chance to hear him speak a few years ago. He'd been ill for quite some time.

I read a biography a few years back that said he did his first reading in the German phenomenological tradition while he was interned as a POW of the Germans during WWII. If I remember correctly, he was in a French army unit comprised (only in France!) predominantly of intellectuals; they set up seminars and classes and spent the war studying philosophy.

What I love primarily about Ricoeur is the sheer breadth of his work. He was a literary theorist, a philosopher, a theologian, a biblical critic, an ethicist. He even wrote some extraordinarily cogent essays on the sociologist Max Weber. One may take issue with elements of his approach, but his willingness to reach across disciplinary boundaries and link systems of knowledge, especially during a period when the academy was becoming increasingly specialized, will stand as an extraordinary achievement.
posted by felix betachat at 6:32 AM on May 22, 2005

great eulogy felix!
posted by blindsam at 6:53 AM on May 22, 2005

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Great thinkers will be known.
posted by Benway at 8:04 PM on May 22, 2005

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Thanks for the post.
posted by OmieWise at 6:28 AM on May 23, 2005