Ricoeur's Early Ethical Philosophy: Explorations of Responsibility and Hope

Using the themes of responsibility and hope, this introduction to the thought of Paul Ricoeur addresses both the beginner and the specialist. By focusing on the early essays and early mature works—including the Philosophy of the Will volumes: Freedom and Nature, Fallible Man, and The Symbolism of Evil—Leovino Garcia shows that Ricoeur’s entire orientation is primarily ethical in that it awakens in us the power to exist creatively. Ricoeur brings the Joy of the Yes to the sadness of the finite, the passion for the possible to the resignation to necessity, and the vehemence of the primary affirmation to the radical negation.