Oneself as Another

Introduction

Oneself as Another (1990) grew out of Ricoeur’s Gifford Lectures in Edinburgh in 1986 and consists of ten studies. It asks who speaks, acts, narrates and is responsible, and distinguishes two senses of identity: sameness (idem), as in a fingerprint or a stable character, and selfhood (ipse), whose model is keeping a promise. Narrative mediates between the two. Against Parfit’s puzzle cases, Ricoeur argues that they presuppose the very self they claim to dissolve. Studies seven to nine contain what he called his “little ethics”: aiming at the good life, with and for others, in just institutions. The last study discusses otherness in one’s own body, in other people and in conscience.

Connections

Builds on

• Totality and Infinity1961 · Emmanuel Levinas
• Time and Narrative1983 · Paul Ricœur

Criticizes

• Reasons and Persons1984 · Derek Parfit

More works by Paul Ricœur

• 1965Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation
• 1983Time and Narrative