Methodological Perspectives: from Phenomenology to Hermeneutic Phenomenology

Abstract

Freedom, the subject of the final discussion of the first volume of Paul Ricoeur’s Philosophy of the Will, is defined as solely human, the telos of his philosophical anthropology. Under the methodological rubric of the qualified phenomenological reduction which characterized this work, freedom is presented as a “radical paradox” which balances uneasily in deciding, moving, and consenting... the three distinct movements of the will as “incarnate,” “contingent,” and “motivated,” emerging “ceaselessly out of indecision,” a “kind of process” arising as a “risk and not from a decree,” “gracious” and “spontaneous.” Although the thematic properties of Ricoeur’s thought are not confined to considerations of freedom alone, this subject presents the reader with the first clue to the emerging combination of issues which coalesce to illustrate the direction and scope of his work.