Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics as a Model for Environmental Philosophy

Abstract

Those acquainted with the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, whether they are Ricoeur enthusiasts or just polite readers, will readily acknowledge the remarkable scope of his thought. True as this may be, Ricoeur never directed his powers of philosophical reflection toward the natural environment. The reasons for this are easy enough understand. Environmental philosophy as a distinct branch of philosophy has scarcely appeared on the scene for more than a generation. ' Over that period of time Ricoeur was obviously busy with otiier questions that ran through his thought nearly all of his Ufe. Who knows, had Ricoeur miraculously overcome the strictures of mortaUty for another forty or fifty years, he may very well have had something say philosophically about the environment. That is all, of course, speculative. Nonetheless, philosophy is a logical place for an expanding hermeneutics2 turn. If the claim of the universality of that aU experience is methated through language3 is so, then experience also calls for hermeneutics. Language is related the ontological condition of beingin-the-world and we bring experience language;4 thus we can infer that the encounter with environments - natural, cultural and so on - is Ukewise expressed (or understood) in language, making them a meaningful locus of interpretation. What I propose in this essay is that Paul Ricoeur's provides a model for various forms of discourse and, in particular, the growing field of philosophy. I am not so ambitious claim do so in any comprehensive manner here. The vast scope of Ricoeur's work alone is prohibitive of any such attempt in a single essay. What I will do is provide some examples illustrate me claim that Ricoeur's work can be employed in me service of philosophy. And while this specific application of his work does not seem have been in Ricoeur's mind, I will rely on one of Ricoeur's fundamental hermeneutical principles of the distanciation of the writer and the reader by the text. Namely, interpretation is not ultimately about deciphering the intentions of the author; to interpret is explicate the type of being-in-die-world unfolded in front of the text.5 The importance of Ricoeur's philosophy for philosophy I will take be one such possibility that may unfold in front of his work. With that in mind, I will first give a brief description of philosophy. Then I will consider in relation philosophy Ricoeur's hermeneutics of the self, his treatment of distanciation and belonging in terms of Gadamer's hermeneutics, and finally the possible role of a critical in discourse. From Environmental Philosophy Environmental Hermeneutics Environmental philosophy, I think, is still trying find its feet. It has its origin in the growing awareness of me consequences of devastation. The concern for the effects of human activity on the environment led some philosophers ask what philosophy might contribute the discussion.6 Environmental philosophy, then, was really an ethics first. And in the mind of some, philosophy isn't philosophy at all but at best perhaps an appUed philosophical ethics. Philosophical reflection on the environment, however, did not remain merely in the realm of ethics but has expanded include environmental aesthetics, ontology, theology, the philosophy of science, political philosophy, philosophy of technology, ecofeminism, and other areas.7 Phenomenologists who have turned toward questions have begun speak of eco-phenomenology and going back the earth itself as a way of giving phenomenological descriptions of experience.8 If all of this, why not, then, an eco-hermeneutics? Going further still, I would speak more broadly of an that includes not only ecology or nature, but built environments, social and cultural environments, and any sort of environs of which we may speak. …