Ricoeur, Culture, and Recognition: A Hermeneutic of Cultural Subjectivity

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Ricoeur, Culture, and Recognition: A Hermeneutic of Cultural Subjectivity presents Paul Ricoeurs workfrom its beginning to its endas a form of a cultural theory. Timo Helenius proposes a cultural hermeneutic that clarifies the cultural facilitation in a persons process of attaining a sense of being a human. Incorporating insights from Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger, this exploration of human beings as being profoundly formed and influenced by the cultural condition also enables a new understanding of intercultural questions by revealing the common human condition that the various cultures manifest. Ricoeur, Culture, and Recognition will be of interest not only to philosophers, but also to scholars in theology, linguistics, cultural studies, and the social sciences.

Reviews

Timo Heleniuss 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 Ricoeurs 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 Ricoeurs 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 provocationthough a friendly oneto the more established work on Ricoeurs philosophical anthropology. This is a book that springs from a close and careful reading of Ricoeurs 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

Author Bio

Timo Helenius is Alfred Kordelin Research Fellow at Boston College.