Ricœur’s Own Linguistic Turn

 AbstractI want to discuss why it makes sense to speak of a linguistic turn in the philosophy of Paul Ricœur. He early on had said that “the word is my kingdom and I am not ashamed of it” without, at that time, spelling out just what this claim meant as regards a broader philosophy of language. Nor would he have had any difficulty in admitting that his attitude toward language and questions about language changed over time.Keywords : Analytic Philosophy, Linguistic Turn. RésuméJe souhaite discuter pourquoi il y a un sens à parler de tournant linguistique dans la philosophie de Paul Ricœur. Il avait dit dès le début de son travail “la parole est mon royaume et je n'en ai point honte,” sans, à ce moment-là, spécifier ce que cette affirmation signifie au regard d'une philosophie du langage. Et il n'aurait pas eu de difficulté à admettre que son attitude envers le langage et les questions sur le langage a changé au fil du temps.Mots-clés: Philosophie analytique, Tournant linguistique

Looking for the Just

This essay explores the idea of the just which allowed Ricoeur to move beyond and expand the “little ethics” presented in Oneself as Another. One key development is that he moves beyond the idea of solicitude as a kind of benevolent spontaneity on the basis of the insight that not all intersubjective relations are face-to-face. This recognition that who the other is can be important allows him to show why the just is a notion that explicitly arises at the level of the distant and often anonymous other, which is that of social and political institutions where the question of justice rather than friendship is central. Another related development is that the idea of reciprocity is shown still to fall short of truly mutual recognition. Pursuing a just solution to social problems leads to the question of a limited but bounded pluralism and a concomitant role for tolerance at the level of society and politics