Feminist Explorations of Paul Ricoeur's Philosophy

Feminist Explorations of Paul Ricoeur's Philosophy gathers contributions from both world-renowned scholars of Ricoeur's thought and leading feminist thinkers. It is a provocative and ambitious book that both locates in Ricoeur's philosophical project voices not commonly associated with his work and demonstrates their significance. Halsema and Henriques provide Ricoeur scholars and philosophy students in general with a multi-perspective view on how far the conflict of interpretations can go without losing sight of the central tenets of Ricoeur's phenomenological hermeneutics.... [I]t will certainly provide those with a philosophical background with a subtler grasp of topics and arguments the neutrality of which is often, wrongly, taken for granted. * Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy *
This book provides an implicit answer to the main dilemma of Feminist theories facing philosophical traditions. These didn’t pay enough attention to discrimination of women and to inequalities; should critical approaches prevail over a close exploration of classic and contemporary texts? How could we re-examine the philosophical canon from gender perspective? In this book, multidisciplinary and multinational, the authors analyze Hermeneutics and, in particular, P. Ricoeurs’s contribution; they explore an alternative version of some practical issues, such as ethical capacities, the quest for recognition, cosmopolitanism, hospitality, and universal principles like justice. The book brings together updated interpretations of P.Ricoeur’s theory and gender accounts of current and complex questions. It is organized into three sections that draw close hermeneutic Phenomenology to other philosophical voices, from S. de Beauvoir to J. Butler and N. Fraser. It also demonstrates that this dialogue or appropriation was possible and, now, it could continue. -- M.T. López de la Vieja, Universidad de Salamanca
In Feminist Explorations of Paul Ricœur's Philosophy, fourteen younger philosophers and feminists lead the mutually productive confrontation between Paul Ricœur’s hermeneutics and feminist thinking. The editors point out that though Ricœur himself did not pay attention to questions pertaining to gender, the articles in this volume show that it not only makes sense to approach his philosophical thought from a feminist point of view, but also that something philosophically new results of this exploration of his thought. The result is very gratifying. What would have pleased Ricœur more, he who believed when reading the philosophers of the past, ‘in this strange form of contemporaneity, a sort of conversation with the dead yet conducted by the living’? -- Catherine Goldenstein, Scientific Counsil and Editorial Committee, Fonds Ricœur
Even though Ricœur himself never engaged a dialogue with feminist thinkers, this important collection of essays, edited by Annemie Halsema and Fernanda Henriques, demonstrates, in a very convincing way, the rich potential of his thought for feminist theory. For the first time, Ricœur's hermeneutics is not only critically approached from a feminist point of view, but his thought proves to be an extraordinary laboratory for the renewal of the concepts and arguments of feminist theory. Thanks to a comparative and fruitful analysis of Ricœur's critical hermeneutics and the great names of feminist thinking (Beauvoir, Fraser, Butler, etc.), the various contributors show the interest of this philosophy for feminist reflection, both in regard to the method of thinking (dialogue, conflict of interpretations, creativity of language) and in regard to the topics (the self, identity, justice, recognition, etc.) discussed by the French philosopher. -- Jean-Luc Amalric, Etudes Ricœuriennes/Ricœur Studies