“Who do you say that I am?” Truth in Narrative Identity

Authors

  • Inês Pereira Rodrigues Universidade da Beira Interior (Praxis)/Centro de Filosofia e Género

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/errs.2023.605

Keywords:

Identity, Truth, Ethics, Butler, Vulnerability

Abstract

The following article explores what notion of truth is possible in Ricœur’s narrative identity. It is motivated by the question of how our identity can be constituted in narratives of self when we are often easily self-deceiving and do not choose the building blocks of our narratives. It explores how our identities are constituted in narrative, with others, in order to see what dimensions of truth this allows. Narrative identity implicates a novel notion of truth that is intrinsically ethical, which gives rise to a set of ethical issues. In particular, a truth of self that occurs in relation to others is open to violence and abuse—our very identity is, to varying degrees, in others’ hands. Butler’s ethics of fragility may offer a positive solution.

Author Biography

Inês Pereira Rodrigues, Universidade da Beira Interior (Praxis)/Centro de Filosofia e Género

Post-doctoral researcher at Praxis (UBI)

References

Judith Butler, Giving an Account of Oneself (New York: Fordham University Press, 2005).

Stanley Cavell, “The Avoidance of Love. A Reading of King Lear,” in Must We Mean What We Say? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 267-353.

Marjolaine Deschênes, “Ricœur et Butler. Lumières sur le débat sexe/genre à travers le prisme de l’identité narrative,” Études ricoeuriennes/Ricœur Studies, vol. 1 (2013), 113-29.

Friedrich Dürrenmantt, O Acidente (Lisboa: Publicações Europa-América, 1963).

Sara Fernandes, “Identidade narrativa e identidade pessoal. Uma abordagem da filosofia de Paul Ricœur,” Philosophica, vol. 33 (2008), 75-94.

Hille Haker, “The Fragility of the Moral Self,” Harvard Theological Review, vol. 97/4 (2004), 359-81.

Annemie Halsema, “The Subject of Critique. Ricœur in Dialogue with Feminist Philosophers,” Études ricœuriennes/Ricœur Studies, vol. 1 (2013), 21-39.

Todd Mei, “Constructing Ricœur’s Hermeneutical Theory of Truth,” in Scott Davidson and Marc-Antoine Vallée (eds), Hermeneutics and Phenomenology in Paul Ricœur. Between Text and Phenomenon (New York: Springer, 2016), 197-214.

Jan Patočka, Papiers phénoménologiques, trans. Erika Abrams (Grenoble: Jérôme Millon, 1995).

—, “Qu’est-ce que l’existence ?,” in Le monde naturel et le mouvement de l’existence humaine, trans. Erika Abrams (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1988), 243-64.

Sebastian Purcell, “Hermeneutics and Truth. From Aletheia to Attestation,” Études ricœuriennes/Ricœur Studies, vol. 1 (2013), 140-58.

Paul Ricœur, Oneself as Another, trans. Kathleen Blamey (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).

—, “Life in Quest of Narrative,” in David Wood (ed.), On Paul Ricœur. Narrative and Interpretation, (London: Taylor and Francis, 1992), 20-33.

—, Time and Narrative, vol. III, trans. Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).

—, “The Model of the Text. Meaningful Action Considered as a Text,” Social Research, vol. 51 (1984), 185-218.

—, “Phenomenology and Hermeneutics,” Noûs, vol. 9/1 (March 1975), 85-102.

—, “Truth and Falsehood,” in History and Truth, trans. Charles A. Kelbley (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1965), 165-91.

Claude Romano, “Identity and Selfhood. Paul Ricœur’s Contribution and its Continuations,” in Scott Davidson and Marc-Antoine Vallée (eds.), Hermeneutics and Phenomenology in Paul Ricœur. Between Text and Phenomenon (New York: Springer, 2016), 43-59.

Margaret Somers, “The Narrative Constitution of Identity. A Relational and Network Approach,” Theory and Society, vol. 23 (1994), 605-49.

Marc-Antoine Vallée, “Quelle sorte d’être est le soi ?,” Études ricœuriennes/Ricœur Studies, vol. 1 (2010), 34-44.

Pol Vandevelde, “Two French Variations on Truth. Ricœur’s Attestation and Foucault’s ‘Parrhesiastic’ attitude,” Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, vol. 46/1 (2015), 33-47.

Kathleen Wallace, “A Theory of the Relational Self. The Cumulative Network Model,” Humana.Mente Journal of Philosophical Studies, vol. 19 (2019), 189-220.

Dan Zahavi, “Self and Other. The Limits of Narrative Understanding,” Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, vol. 60 (2007), 179-202.

Downloads

Published

2023-07-17

Issue

Section

Varia