Rethinking ethics with Paul Ricœur

Discussion
Nursing: Between responsibility, care, and justice
By Philippe Svandra
English

In this article, the purpose is less to praise Paul Ricœur’s work than to shed light on how the reader may actually find some practical, even operative help in this philosophical thought. This is particularly true regarding the fields of medicine and care. Paul Ricœur is now renowned worldwide as a major philosophical figure of the twentieth century, and with books such as Oneself as Another, he occupies a very peculiar place at the crossroads of phenomenology and hermeneutics. Through both these philosophical traditions, Paul Ricœur offers some narrative ethics that may prove highly fruitful for caregivers in their reflections. Yet, the aim of this article is to focus on this philosopher who invites us to inhabit and play a role in this world. The goal is also to bring out the pragmatic ethics that this thinker developed, based on Aristotelian and Kantian traditions. This article thus seeks to demonstrate how the three stages of Ricœur’s “petite éthique” (his “small ethics”), which are the self’s aim “for the good life with and for others in just institutions” can shed some light on the ethical and political considerations of caregivers.

Keywords

  • ethicsphenomenology
  • hermeneutics
  • solicitude
  • caring
  • Ricœur
Go to the article on Cairn-int.info