Mythic-Symbolic Language and Philosophical Anthropology: A Constructive Interpretation of the Thought of Paul Ricoeur

ISBN-13: 9789401185639 / Angielski / Miękka / 1971 / 158 str.

David M. Rasmussen

Opis

This book will attempt to achieve a constructive and positive correla tion between mythic-symbolic language and philosophical anthropolo gy. It is intended as a reflection on the philosophical accomplishment of Paul Ricoeur. The term mythic-symbolic language in this context means the language of the multivalent symbol given in the myth with its psychological and poetic counterparts. The term symbol is not con ceived as an abstract sign as it is used in symbolic logic, but rather as a concrete phenomenon - religious, psychological, and poetic. The task inherent in this correlation is monumental when one considers the dual dilemma of problematic and possibility which is at its heart. The prob lematic arises out of the apparent difficulty presented by the so-called challenge of modernity which seems to require the elimination of my thic-symbolic language as an intelligible mode of communication. Mythic-symbolic language is sometimes eliminated because in a world molded by abstract conceptualizations of science, such a language is thought to be unintelligible. The claim is that its "primitive" explana tions have been transcended by our modernity. Others believe that the problem of mythic-symbolic language is the problem of the myth. If the mythic forms of language could be eliminated, the truth of such language could be preserved through its translation into an intelligible mode of discourse. The problematic is heightened further by the relation of consider ations of language to philosophical anthropology. Any consideration of language involves a related view of the nature of man."

Spis treści

I. A Negative Correlation Between Mythic-Symbolic Language and the Nature of Man.- A. From Language to Special Language.- B. Bultmann: Hermeneutics and the Nature of Man.- 1. The Definition of Myth.- 2. The Problem of Hermeneutics.- C. The Problem of a Negative Definition of Mythic-Symbolic Language.- II. Methodological Perspectives: from Phenomenology to Hermeneutic Phenomenology.- A. Global Philosophical Anthropology.- 1. The Eidetic Method and Its Limitations.- 2. Existential Description and Its Limits.- 3. Hermeneutic Phenomenology and Language.- III. Freedom and Global Anthropology.- A. Freedom and Nature.- 1. Freedom and Decision.- 2. Freedom and Action.- 3. Freedom and Consent.- 4. Freedom, Nature, and the Eidetic Method.- B. Freedom and Fallibility.- 1. The Hypothesis.- 2. Epistemology and Fallibility.- 3. Action and Fallibility.- 4. Feeling.- 5. Freedom and Fallibility.- C. Freedom and Fault.- 1. Symbol and the Servile Will.- a. Stain.- b. Sin.- c. Guilt.- 2. The Symbols and the Servile Will.- D. Myth and the Problem of Evil.- 1. The Cycle of Myths.- IV. Hermeneutic Phenomenology and Language.- A. Philosophy as a Hermeneutic.- B. Philosophy as a Reflective Task.- C. Structuralism and Phenomenology.- D. Ricoeur’s Hermeneutic: An Evaluation.- E. Conclusion.- V. Toward a Working Theory of Language Correlated with a Philosophical Anthropology.- A. Theory.- 1. Phenomenological Epistemology and the Possibility of a New Anthropological Model.- 2. Hermeneutics: The Initial Validity of the Mythic-Symbolic Form.- 3. Mythic-Symbolic Language and the Problem of Definition.- 4. Definition: The Validity of Mythic-Symbolic Language.- a. Uniqueness.- b. Dimensions of Experience.- c. Meaning.- 5. Mythic-Symbolic Language and the Theory of Language.- 6. Mythic-Symbolic Language and a Global Understanding of Man.- 7. Conclusion.- B. Methodology.- 1. Hermeneutic Phenomenology and the Philosophy of Religion.- What is a Text? Explanation and Interpretation.- I. What is a Text?.- II. Structural Analysis as “Explanation”.- III. Towards a new Concept of Interpretation.