Ricoeur, Culture, and Recognition

Reviews / Votes

Timo Helenius's Ricoeur, Culture, and Recognition importantly and rightly contends that the work of Paul Ricoeur rests in a hermeneutic of culture. This thesis is an important corrective to any view that Ricoeur concentrates on individual understanding or individual ethics. The book is insightful also in linking the role of culture to what typically has been viewed as Ricoeur's separate work on recognition. It is through cultural recognition that someone can find himself or herself as an ethico-political subject. This book is particularly perspicacious in its understanding and delineation of the sweep of Ricoeur's corpus. -- George H. Taylor, Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh This book makes a compelling argument that we have not understood Ricoeur until we have understood his work as a cultural theorist, and that we cannot understand that work without understanding the role played by recognition in his hermeneutics. As such, it represents a provocation-though a friendly one-to the more established work on Ricoeur's philosophical anthropology. This is a book that springs from a close and careful reading of Ricoeur's work, and will be a source insight and debate for philosophers pursuing his hermeneutic project. -- Brian Treanor, Charles S. Casassa Chair and Professor of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University Timo Helenius offers a scholarly and pioneering insight into Paul Ricoeur's philosophy of culture. His analyses of the ethical and political role of symbolism and selfhood are breathing in their originality and depth. An invaluable contribution to contemporary hermeneutical debate. -- Richard Kearney, Charles Seelig Professor of Philosophy, Boston College