Mito, símbolo e imaginação: um percurso a partir da hermenêutica de Paul Ricouer

Abstract

The guiding principle of this work is the relationship between myth, symbol and imagination in the philosophical hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur. The consideration of these themes is supported by the major works of the philosopher published in the 1960's: La Symbolique du Mal (1960), De l'interprétation: essai sur Freud (1965) and Le conflit des interprétations: essais d'herméneutique (1969). The analysis of these works leads, from an interpretation of multiple symbols and myths of evil in various religions and cultural traditions, to a new understanding of imagination and subjectivity. The research aims to show how the philosophy proposed by the author refereed the different and sometimes conflicting hermeneutics approaches around the problem of the symbol. Since the beginning of his itinerary, Ricoeur makes clear its link with two cultures that are, according to him, the first layer of our philosophical memory: the Greek and Jewish culture. More precisely, the meeting of the Jewish source with the Greek origin is the the fundamental intercession and founder of our culture. The Jewish source is the first other of philosophy, his closest other. Our investigation is motivated by the expression as soon as dense and emblematic coined by Ricoeur at the conclusion of La symbolique du mal (1960): “the symbol causes us to think”. With this maxim, explains the symbol as a means of access to a renewal of the reflective philosophy. This route becomes effective by a detour: in fact, the first truth of the philosophies of consciousness — I exist, I think — can only be achieved through a long detour, as far as the Cogito was objectivated: his works, actions, representations and institutions. The decipherment of this objectification reveals the understanding of the self. The research shows that a philosophy of reflection does not identify with a philosophy of consciousness, if by consciousness we understand the immediate consciousness of self. Hence the need for mediation, scope where the symbols are located. The conscience, then, wouldn't be a datum, but a task. The research proposal also tries to assess the confrontation between the critique of Freud and symbolic analysis of evil through a critical reading of the book De l'interprétation: essai sur Freud. This step leads to the point where the archaeology of Freudian Cogito, allied to a teleology of the self, provide a dialectical mediation to the conflict of two rivals hermeneutics: the hermeneutics of suspicion (or reduction) and the hermeneutics of restoration. Finally, evaluates the conception of imagination that emerges of the war of interpretations, assessing the role that a theory of the imagination can play as an element which reveals the articulation and coherence of the author's philosophical itinerary.