Abstract

This paper develops some issues of the philosophy of Ricoeur. This French philosopher when interviewed about his philosophical work, stated that Philosophy is a form of life. This assertion justified the varieties of themes in his philosophical inquiry. From this global horizon, it was chosen to discuss some issues, such as phenomenology, hermeneutics and anthropology reflections. Ricoeur stated that phenomenology and hermeneutics could be two branches of the same tree. He criticized the phenomenology of Husserl as transcendental and idealistic and proposed a comprehensive hermeneutics trend to settle this excess of idealistic vision. Thus, it is necessary to introduce hermeneutics in phenomenology to attain a better comprehension of the human historical narratives and texts. We could highlight two anthropological conceptions in his great work. First, Ricoeur used phenomenology to describe the human being as fallible and finite. Moreover, he observed that the human being is also capable of exercising narratives about himself and about the other. This comprehension makes human a powerful being. Ricoeur criticized the metaphysical approach as a circular thought and asked for new motives to make philosophers, mainly after Heidegger and Gadamer, ever looking for new motives to do philosophy.