paul ricoeur, solicitude, love, and the giftIn Studies 5 and 6 he documents various dimensions of the narrative
self and the capability of identity-formation he investigated previ-
ously in the three volumes of Time and Narrative (1984–88). It is in
Studies 9 and 10, however, that Ricoeur expands on the term “imputa-
tion,” and its association with self-esteem as a mode of self-reflection.
As such, it is tantamount to an exercise of self-evaluation, or a form of
a hermeneutics of self-suspicion.^17 Ricoeur situates this final explora-
tion within the wider framework of an Aristotelian-influenced teleo-
logical ethical project: “The wish to live well with and for others in
just institutions.”^18 Such a project for an ethical existence within a
community can only be realized, according to Ricoeur, if the self-
esteem resulting from personal accountability is connected with a
sense of solicitude and responsibility that are exercised at the per-
sonal and interpersonal levels respectively.
Ricoeur begins by connecting the interpersonal dimension of
solicitude — which he appreciates as arising from a “benevolent
spontaneity” — with the notion of self-esteem, so that they can
mutually reinforce and correct one another in a system of critical
checks and balances. Ricoeur’s understanding of solicitude thus re-
vises and enhances Heidegger’s basic postulate of care, which is
basically concerned with realizing one’s “ownmost possibilities” and
also with not hindering others from realizing their own: “To self-
esteem, understood as a reflexive moment of the wish for the ‘good
life,’ solicitude adds essentially the dimension of lack, the fact that we
need friends.”^19 In addition, according to Ricoeur, “Solicitude adds
the dimension of value, whereby each person is irreplaceable in our
affection and our esteem.”^20 This demanding exercise, involving the
need of others, tempered by solicitude, and further enhanced by a
judgment of self-accountability as self-estimation, is rendered feasible
- Ricoeur termed Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx as the “masters of suspicion” and Ricoeur termed Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx as the “masters of suspicion” and
thus introduced what he termed the “hermeneutics of suspicion.” In his herme-
neutic work, this indicated that no text was to be regarded as innocent, or that
human consciousness was as much in control of its conscious thoughts and actions
as was believed. - Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 180.
- Ibid., 192. Ibid., 192.
- Ibid., 193. Ibid., 193.