The Conflict of Interpretations

What is the origin of evil? Where does what we term evil come from? According to Paul Ricoeur, to think through evil is to think through fallibility; because human freedom is summed up as existence prior to evil. Deriving from a lecture given in Lausanne in 1985, this small text adds to the immense ouevre of this philosopher who is not regarded as a theologian but whose thinking readily shares some kinship with certain characteristics of Protestantism. The problem of evil was a question which dogged Paul Ricoeur throughout his reflection and his philosophical works. This is a man who has thought about vulnerability in moral evil with both an exemplary profundity and sensitivity. ??*Evil: a challenge to philosophy and theology* contains a new extended introduction by Graham Ward which reflects on the significance of Paul Ricoeur's approach to philosophy and to the question of evil for 20th-century theology and philosophy, and a preface by Pierre Gisel.  
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Paul Ricoeur (1913-) is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Chicago and Dean of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at the University of Paris X, Nanterre. One of the foremost contemporary French philosophers, his work is influenced by Husserl, Marcel and Jaspers and is particularly concerned with symbolism, the creation of meaning and the interpretation of texts.The Conflict of Interpretations ranges across an astonishing diversity of fields: structuralism, linguistics, psychoanalysis, religion and faith. The essays it comprises are bound together by Ricoeur's customary concern for interpretation and language and all bear the stamp of the systematic and critical thinking which has become his hallmark in contemporary philosophy. Edited by Don Ihde>Read less