paul ricoeur, solicitude, love, and the giftdealings in the philosophy of religion it is Kant who is his principal
mentor when he undertakes a philosophical hermeneutic approach.
One of the major motifs of Kant’s philosophical hermeneutics of
religion is to give an account, within the limits of reason alone, of the
interweaving of the confession of radical evil and the assumption of
the means of regeneration. And consequently, to the extent that this
interweaving is constitutive of the motif of hope, we can say that hope
is the specific object of the philosophical hermeneutic of religion.^7
Ricoeur remained a man of hope throughout his life, despite the
many travails he suffered. The problem of evil, particularly from a
Kantian perspective, continued to preoccupy him. In the latter part
of his life, he became especially concerned with evil as violence,
particularly as it manifested itself in the unmerited suffering he
observed human beings inflicting upon one another. Yet, as did Kant,
he believed in the inherent goodness of human beings and the
possibility of regeneration. Despite the awareness of mortality which
he notes “traverses everything through and through” in his own work,^8
he continued to radiate a sense of wonder at the magnificence of life.
In an interview with Sorin Antohi, Ricoeur declares:
[When I wrote Fallible Man]... I concluded my book with the idea of
assenting to finitude. I was an avid reader of Rilke and I ended with the
verse: Hier sein ist herrlich: “Being here is sumptuous, wonderful,
magical.” Now, in my old age, with the proximity of death, I repeat
again: Hier sein ist herrlich.^9Ricoeur then continues with the advice not to become submerged by
what Spinoza termed the “sad passions,” but to live animated by what
Descartes nominated as the first of all the passions — wonder. He also
found a kindred spirit in Hannah Arendt, specifically in her concept
ing to objectivize the unconditional.”
- Ricoeur, “A Philosophical Hermeneutics of Religion: Kant,” in Figuring the
Sacred: Religion, Narrative and Imagination, trans. David Pellauer; ed. Mark Wal-
lace, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995, 77. - See Ricoeur in Sorin Antohi, “Memory, History, Forgiveness: A Dialogue
Between Paul Ricoeur and Sorin Antohi,” Janus Head, 8.1 (2005): 20. - Ibid.