Description
Book SynopsisPaul Ricoeur's first book, Freedom and Nature, introduces many themes that resurface in various ways throughout his later work, but its significance has been mostly overlooked in the field of Ricoeur studies. Gathering together an international group of scholars, The Companion to Freedom and Nature is the first book-length study to focus exclusively on Freedom and Nature. It helps readers to understand this complex work by providing careful textual analysis of specific arguments in the book and by situating them in relation to Ricoeur's early influences, including Merleau-Ponty, Nabert, and Ravaisson. But most importantly, this book demonstrates that Freedom and Nature remains a compelling and vital resource for readers today, precisely because it resonates with recent developments in the areas of embodied cognition, philosophical psychology, and philosophy of the will. Freedom and Nature is fundamentally a book about embodiment, and it situates the human body at the crossroads of act
Trade ReviewWith his usual, gifted editorial acumen, Scott Davidson has drawn together an impressive international group of Ricoeur scholars to help demonstrate the continuing vitality of Ricoeur’s book Freedom and Nature for the 21st century. The present volume is to be commended for its elucidation and deepening of Ricoeur’s themes in Freedom and Nature on their own terms, in relation to Ricoeur’s subsequent corpus, and in dialogue with contemporary scholarly debates. -- George H. Taylor, Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh
This companion to one of Ricoeur’s earliest and perhaps least accessible works brings together an impressive group of commentators who ably demonstrate the originality and significance of Ricoeur's thought as it bears on traditional and current debates in phenomenology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, and ethics. The companion is not only a guide to an essential and often overlooked text, but it also re-interprets Ricoeur’s philosophical foundations in view of his overall project and how it bears on key convergences in today’s post-continental-analytic milieu. -- Todd Mei, University of Kent
Table of ContentsEditor’s Introduction: Freedom and Nature, Then and Now Scott Davidson Part I: Historical Influences 1. Ricoeur and Merleau-Ponty: From Perception to Action Marc-Antoine Vallée 2. Act, Sign and Objectivity: Jean Nabert’s Influence on the Ricoeurian Phenomenology of the Will Jean-Luc Amalric 3. Ravaisson and Ricoeur on Habit Jakub Čapek 4. The Influence of Aquinas’s Psychology and Cosmology on Ricoeur’s Freedom and Nature Michael Sohn Part II: Key Themes 5. The Paradox of Attention: The Action of the Self upon Itself Michael A. Johnson 6. The Status of the Subject in Ricoeur’s Phenomenology of Decision Johann Michel 7. Volo, ergo sum: Ricoeur Reading Maine de Biran on Effort and Resistance, the Voluntary and the Involuntary Eftichis Pirovolakis 8. On Habit Grégori Jean 9. The Phenomenon of Life and its Pathos Scott Davidson Part III: New Trajectories 10. A Descriptive Science of First-Person Experience: For an Experiential Phenomenology Natalie Depraz 11. Ricoeur’s Take on Embodied Cognition and Imagination: Enactivism in Light of Freedom and Nature Geoffrey Dierckxsens 12. Freedom and Resentment and Ricoeur: Towards a Normative-Narrative Theory of Agency Adam J. Graves
