The Symbolism of Evil

by Paul Ricœur, Emerson Buchanan (Translator)

The Primary Defilement, Sin, Guilt
Phenomenology of Confession
Defilement
Sin
Guilt
Recapitulation of the Symbolism of Evil in the Concept of the
Servile Will
The Symbolic Function of Myths
The Drama of Creation & the Ritual Vision of the World
The Wicked God & the Tragic Vision of Existence
The Adamic Myth & the Eschatological Vision of History
The Cycle of the Myths
The Myth of the Exiled Soul & Salvation Thru Knowledge
The Symbol Gives Rise to Thought

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Nonfiction, Theology, Sociology, France, Theory

362 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Paul Ricoeur (1913–2005) is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished philosophers of the twentieth century. In the course of his long career he wrote on a broad range of issues. His books include a multi-volume project on the philosophy of the will: Freedom and Nature: The Voluntary and the Involuntary (1950, Eng. tr. 1966), Fallible Man (1960, Eng. tr. 1967), and The Symbolism of Evil (1960, Eng. tr. 1970); a major study of Freud: Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation (1965, Eng. tr. 1970); The Rule of Metaphor (1975, Eng. tr. 1977); Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning (1976); the three-volume Time and Narrative (1983-85, Eng. tr. 1984–88); Lectures on Ideology and Utopia (1986); the published version of his Gifford lectures: Oneself as Another (1990, Eng. tr. 1992); Memory, History, Forgetting (2000, Eng. tr. 2004); and The Course of Recognition (2004, Eng. tr. 2005). In addition to his books, Ricoeur published more than 500 essays, many of which appear in collections in English: History and Truth (1955, Eng. tr. 1965); Husserl: An Analysis of His Phenomenology (1967); The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics (1969, Eng. tr. 1974); Political and Social Essays (1974); Essays on Biblical Interpretation (1980); Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences (1981); From Text to Action (1986, Eng. tr. 1991); Figuring the Sacred: Religion, Narrative, and Imagination (1995); The Just (1995, Eng. tr. 2000); On Translation (2004, Eng. tr. 2004); and Reflections on the Just (2001, Eng. tr. 2007).

The major theme that unites his writings is that of a philosophical anthropology. This anthropology, which Ricoeur came to call an anthropology of the “capable human being,” aims to give an account of the fundamental capabilities and vulnerabilities that human beings display in the activities that make up their lives. Though the accent is always on the possibility of understanding the self as an agent responsible for its actions, Ricoeur consistently rejects any claim that the self is immediately transparent to itself or fully master of itself. Self-knowledge only comes through our relation to the world and our life with and among others in that world.

In the course of developing his anthropology, Ricoeur made a major methodological shift. His writings prior to 1960 were in the tradition of existential phenomenology. But during the 1960s Ricoeur concluded that properly to study human reality he had to combine phenomenological description with hermeneutic interpretation. For this hermeneutic phenomenology, whatever is intelligible is accessible to us in and through language and all deployments of language call for interpretation. Accordingly, “there is no self-understanding that is not mediated by signs, symbols, and texts; in the final analysis self-understanding coincides with the interpretation given to these mediating terms” (Oneself as Another, 15, translation corrected). This hermeneutic or linguistic turn did not require him to disavow the basic results of his earlier investigations. It did, however, lead him not only to revisit them but also to see more clearly their implications.

Reviews

[David M · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The whole is the false' - Adorno

From his own very different perspective, Paul Ricoeur would agree. This is why evil is the philosophically privileged symbol. It gives the lie to wholeness - the limit to any theodicy or theoretical system. Philosophy then must become a never finished, ever renewed act of interpretation.

*
Words to contemplate perpetually:

Guilt cannot, in fact, express itself, except in the indirect language of "captivity" and "infection," inherited from the two prior stages. Thus both symbols are transposed "inward" to express a freedom that enslaves itself, affects itself, and infects itself by its own choice. Conversely, the symbolic and non-literal character of the captivity of sin and the infection of defilement becomes quite clear when these symbols are used to denote a dimension of freedom itself; then and only then do we know that they are symbols, when they reveal a situation that is centered in the relation of oneself to oneself. Why this recourse to the prior symbolism? Because the paradox of a captive free will - the paradox of a servile will - is insupportable for thought. That freedom must be delivered and that this deliverance is deliverance from self-enslavement cannot be said directly; yet it is the central theme of "salvation".

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read "The Symbolism of Evil" in a seminar class in college. This is not light reading and I found it frustrating at times to decipher; however, when I took the time to read each line carefully and write my own translation in a simplified way, I was usually on track. The ideas can be disheartening because it does question some of our more delicate and possibly naive truths. Half of the students in my class dropped the class before the end for various reasons, and this was an honors college course.

I recommend this book if you're ready to dive in head first with determination to understand complex ideas via a slightly convoluted delivery.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

My stepbrother handed me a paper entitled "The Myth of Redemptive Violence" by Walter Wink yesterday. Reading it reminded me of his assignment of Ricoeur's The Symbolism of Evil during my first class with him during the first semester at Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan. Wink is a very clear and compelling writer. Ricoeur, in translation at least, is not.

[Cameron Cook]

Too fantastic to put into words. An essential text. Absolutely essential.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to read this book again. Ricoeur is just too deep and profound.I would like to read Ricoeur seriously at some other time.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

If this book is a good demonstration of phenomenology, then phenomenology is a series of arrogant assumptions, linguistic fallacies, and logical fallacies.

[Lenhardt Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is nothing short of a scandal that anyone was ever allowed to write like this. Such is the nature of the beast, I suppose. Paul Ricoeur may have had insightful things to say in these 360 pages, but they are buried beneath impenetrable prose, each turn of phrase more indecipherable than the last. I’d love to read a summary or an introduction to the material—hermeneutics is an important subject, but as you slog through this text, you’ll find yourself wondering who this was written for. For a taste of the madness, look no further than the glowing reviews and their extracted quotations—revel in the sheer obscurity. No, thank you.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little esoteric, but overall a stimulating survey of ancient mythology that tries to correlate what those myths have come to mean, how they developed, and how we can engage them in a philosophical commitment to seeking understanding.

[carol. · Rating 5 out of 5]

czytałam tę książkę ponad rok, napisałam na jej podstawie dwa całkiem błyskotliwe eseje i odkryłam wiele na swój temat. symbol daje do myślenia. w istocie. odbudowuje tkanki duszy tam, gdzie obecna kultura je poszarpała. lub jej brak. niemniej: absolutnie istotne, genialne dzieło

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in the way Ricoeur identified a synthesis of the 'Adamic myth' and the problem of theodicy in Job in the Suffering Servant prophecies of Isaiah.

[Carl]

I want to get to this one day. I've previously read an article by Ricoeur on the subject of evil which I liked (and just bought a hard copy version of it-- though you can find it on JSTOR I believe, under the title of Evil: A Challenge to Philosophy and Theology, if you have access to JSTOR)

[Masha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really intersting scholarly discussion of the way that evil exists in contemporary western culture that begins with pre-biblical texts. Kind of dense, but really fascinating.

[Gabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I remember correctly this book gets medieval on your ass.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense, but fascinating for its content and for Ricoeur's (early) method of reading Scripture.

[Michael Mayor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seminal work on language, metaphor, and symbol. Essential to my development as a theological thinker and preacher.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente

[John Hawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in college in January 1976. The first part has stuck with me. The difference between signs and symbols have helped me in many areas of life.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

hermeutics/phenomenologistics are hard. intriguing in many places, however.

[Jonathan]

None

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

i am rereading it