The human conscience between witnessing and discernment: Heidegger, Ricoeur and beyond

Abstract

The paper deals with the problem of human conscience as an attentional mode of being that effectuates an original capacity for discernment. Such an undertaking, after the necessary terminological and phenomenological clarifications, requires one to cope with its specific background, especially the critique of the moral worldview and the postmetaphysical setting of contemporary thinking. Taking into consideration the Heideggerian view of the matter, I reflect on the doubts Ricoeur addressed to the former, and take advantage of Ricoeur’s early philosophy to reinterpret and develop his own stance as expounded in Oneself as Another. His later work on ideology and utopia may contribute to helping to establish some criteria for the functioning of the conscience.