Les traditions de l'imaginaire

Réflexions sur les conditions de l'imagination politique

Authors

  • Olivier Abel Fonds Ricoeur/Faculté protestante de Paris

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/errs.2025.717

Keywords:

social imagination, tradition and innovation, institutions, democracy, non-congruence, plurality of co-founding traditions, Ricœur, Castoriadis, Lefort

Abstract

Ricœur's philosophy of imagination touches on the political question of power (and also the power of‘falsehood’), through the social imagination, ideology and utopia. However, this study focuses on the notion of ‘traditions of the imagination’, which Ricœur very early on linked to the idea of institutions of theimagination, thereby considerably broadening the scope of the institution. In his dialogue with Castoriadis, he shows that we must think about the instituting imagination and the instituted imagination together. Traditions of the imaginary are long-established mediations, particularly in works of art, which convey different styles of traditionality. But the constitution of a tradition is based on the interplay of innovation and sedimentation, and utopian criticism of established representations, which explores other possible configurations, will in turn establish traditionalised configurations. Here we find the terms of a discussion by Claude Lefort, as recounted by Ricœur, on the lack of foundation inherent in democracy: “For him, democracy is the first regime that is based on nothing but itself, that is to say, on emptiness. Hence its extreme fragility. I try to say, for my part, that it is always founded on its own anteriority in relation to itself.” This noncongruence of societies with themselves, which forces them to imagine themselves, is what allows them to resist a total and complete imaginary remodelling. The vibrant plurality of traditions of the imagination, which together co-founded public space and civil society, and the incessant emulsion between the already existing sedimented traditions and the poetic and critical innovation that reopens them and draws new figures from them, are essential to the political life of our societies.

References

Cornélius Castoriadis, L’Institution imaginaire de la société (Paris : Seuil, 1975).

Cornélius Castoriadis et Paul Ricœur, Dialogue sur l’histoire et l’imaginaire social, édité et préfacé par Johann Michel (Paris : INA/Éditions EHESS, Collection « Audiographie », n°15, 2016).

Edmund Husserl, La Crise des sciences européennes et la phénoménologie transcendantale, trad. Granel, (Paris : Gallimard, 1976).

Claude Lefort, Essais sur le politique (Paris : Seuil, 1986).

Pierre Legendre, Dieu au miroir, Étude sur l’institution des images (Paris : Fayard, 1994).

André Malraux, Les Voix du silence, (Paris : Gallimard, 1951).

Karl Mannheim, Le Problème des générations, trad. Mauger (Paris : Nathan, 1990).

Paul Ricœur, L’homme faillible (Paris : Aubier, 1960).

Paul Ricœur, Histoire et vérité (Paris : Seuil, 1964).

Paul Ricœur, Du texte à l’action (Paris : Seuil, 1986).

Paul Ricœur, Temps et Récit, II (Paris : Seuil, 1985).

Paul Ricœur, Temps et récit, III (Paris : Le Seuil, 1985).

Paul Ricœur, À l’école de la phénoménologie (Paris : Vrin, 1987).

Paul Ricoeur, Soi-même comme un autre (Paris : Seuil, 1990).

Paul Ricœur, Lecture 1 (Paris : Seuil, 1991).

Paul Ricœur, Lectures 2 (Paris : Seuil, 1992).

Paul Ricoeur, La Critique et la conviction (Paris : Calmann-Lévy, 1995).

Paul Ricœur, La Mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli (Paris : Seuil, 2000).

Paul Ricœur, L’Idéologie et l’utopie (Paris : Seuil, 1997).

Downloads

Published

2026-02-19

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2025): Contemporary Challenges confronted by Critical Hermeneutics: Ricœurian perspectives

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Olivier Abel

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.


Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

    1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.

    2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.

    3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons 4.0 License (Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works), or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
      1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
      2. Noncommercial—other users (including Publisher) may not use this Work for commercial purposes;
      3. No Derivative Works—other users (including Publisher) may not alter, transform, or build upon this Work,with the understanding that any of the above conditions can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.

    4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

    5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a pre-publication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.

    6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.

    7. The Author represents and warrants that:

      1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
      2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
      3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
      4. the Work has not previously been published;
      5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
      6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
         
    8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.