Paul Ricoeur and a new concept of interpretation: from the hermeneutics of symbols to the hermeneutics of discourse

Abstract

This text is a reflection on the richness of the hermeneutical problematic as structuring of Ricoeur's thought, following the author's own course and clarifying the transition from a hermeneutic of the symbols to a hermeneutic of the discourse, not forgetting that the philosopher's project and the horizons of the his thinking is the construction of a new anthropology and an ontology of the understanding of the human being, applicable to educational problematic. We shall clarify what is meant by the hermeneutics of the long way, as opposed to the short or immediate path advocated by Husserl and Heidegger; the question of evil emerges from our reflections through an approach to the hermeneutics of symbols and myths. Finally, the hermeneutics of discourse as production of meanings will occupy the latter part of this text. The human world is made up of all the references open to texts, be they poetic, mythical or otherwise. The ontology proposed by Ricoeur, a broken ontology, gains greater density through the transitory course between symbolic hermeneutics and the hermeneutics of the restorative discourse of meaning. The plurality of meanings that the narratives enable represents a greater breadth for the understanding of the human being in the world and for a reflection on the truth.