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SEMANTICS OF ACTION I: ON RICOEURВ’S DISTINCTION BETWEEN LINGUISTIC AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

V. Busacchi

Abstract

From the beginning of his book Le discours de lВ’action (1977), Paul Ricoeur empha-sised the fact that a В‘philosophy of actionВ’ is not a В‘science of actionВ’. He underlines that the practical ethical dimension is the specific kind of discourse that the question of ac-tion has had since the ancient era in philosophy. The dialectics between the practical dimension both as a В‘physicalВ’ dimension and as an В‘ethicalВ’ dimension have not only been the basis for the rationalisation and differentiation of philosophy in Aristotle. It has been maintained until Kant, who puts the polarity between physics and ethics as the ba-ses of the distinction between the Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of Practical Reason. In fact, the Critique of Practical Reason is defined as a theory of principles considered as the determinant of will. And precisely, the (a priori) determinant princi-ple of will is moral law. Thus, the entire theory of practical reason is reduced to the rela-tionships between freedom and moral law. In philosophy, the comprehension of human action would have a practical ethical reference. However, it contradicts the scientific approach to the comprehension of human action, as in the case of Alain TouraineВ’s so-ciological theory. This theory, in fact, focuses social systems and the mechanisms of social control (it is different from Talcott ParsonsВ’ research, which is more sensitive to individual motions and choices). Ricoeur originally approaches this theme by trying to intertwine it with a parallel dialectics developed between phenomenology and herme-neutics. He declares his intention to explore the contribution of language to philosophy of action. Without a doubt, he wants to offer even specific and concrete advancements for science, from the perspective of a research (which is not simply an В‘exerciseВ’ of in-terpretation and phenomenological description). This paper aims to explore RicoeurВ’s orientation to profile a new theoretical speculative model of philosophy of action which is realised on the one hand through a methodology articulated between linguistics, phe-nomenology and hermeneutics and, on the other, through a philosophy practically ethi-cally oriented.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/SGEMSOCIAL2017/HB21/S06.041

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