Paul Ricoeur
Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) was a French philosopher whose work explored interpretation, language, narrative, action and personal identity. His writing on metaphor is particularly concerned with the creation of meaning, rather than treating a metaphor as decorative wording for something already fully expressed.
Life and recognition
Ricoeur taught in France and at the University of Chicago, where the university records his teaching appointment as 1971-1991. He was the John Nuveen Professor Emeritus in the Divinity School. He died on 20 May 2005. University of Chicago obituary.
He received the Balzan Prize for Philosophy in 1999 and the Kyoto Prize in 2000.
Metaphor and the creation of meaning
In La métaphore vive (1975), known in English as The Rule of Metaphor, Ricoeur examines how metaphorical discourse can generate meaning. The study moves between words, sentences and wider discourse, and considers resemblance, reference and the relation between metaphor and philosophy. Publisher's account and contents.
One useful distinction is between replacing a word with a familiar equivalent and understanding a new relation expressed by a whole statement. If a metaphor changes how a subject is seen, a simple literal paraphrase may fail to preserve what the expression contributes. The interpretation concerns the statement in context, not merely the isolated word that looks figurative.
Ricoeur described metaphor and narrative as related areas of investigation in his own 1999 account of his philosophical work. Both concern the production of meaning, although a metaphorical statement and the organisation of events into a narrative are not the same thing.
Interpretation and context
Ricoeur's work invites attention to what an expression makes possible for a reader or listener to understand. This differs from assuming that every image is a code with one hidden equivalent. A reading should be answerable to the wording and context, while recognising that interpretation is an activity rather than a mechanical substitution.
For this wiki, that distinction is useful when comparing literary metaphors, everyday idioms and personal descriptions. The philosophical discussion does not itself specify a method for eliciting or changing someone's metaphor.
Selected reading
- La métaphore vive (1975); English title The Rule of Metaphor. The linked Routledge edition provides the contents and edition details.
- Time and Narrative, his three-volume investigation of narrative and time, discussed in the Kyoto Prize profile.
- Oneself as Another, on selfhood and the relation to others, also discussed in the Kyoto profile.
- Ricoeur's own retrospective account, delivered for the Balzan Prize in 1999 (French).
Related pages
- Metaphor Categories
- Idiomatic, Literal and Figurative Communication
- George Lakoff
- Semiotics
- Stories and literature