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HUMAN IDENTITY AND HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE
Abstract
Human identity is constitutively historical, as well as cultural and a narrative. History is the quintessence of us, as human beings that live in a certain epoch and within a certain culture. But because of the fact that this formation and configuration of our personal identity is rooted in historical, psychological and linguistic (Steiner) mechanisms of representation, then by modifying certain representational axes (i.e., modifying culture, narration, lifestyle practices ) not only may we modify the meaning and representation of our past, but we may act in some way more free from it. This does not represent a denial of the role of the past but an aspect which must be considered and investigated, examining the challenges represented by the realisation of a life which is, on one hand, in a dialectical connection with the past and tradition, and which is, on the other hand, a form of action under a horizon of expectation (Koselleck) and a present full of new possibilities (Ricoeur). Referring to Kosellecks research, Ricoeur develops the theme of historical consciousness, interpreting it as the ceaseless dialectics of counterposition between the space of experience, which is inevitably rooted into the past, and the horizon of expectation, which always addresses the future. A living present culture constitutes the point of convergence between past and future, because in the human being there is this perpetual connection between space of experience and horizon of expectation, between memory and hope. This paper aims to explore the consequences of such a vision for an anthropological philosophy.
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References15
see Ricoeur, P., Lectio magistralis. University of Barcelona, Spain, 24 April 2001.
see Jervolino, D., Introduzione a Ricœur. Brescia: Morcelliana 2003, p. 79.
see Ricoeur, P., Lectio magistralis, op. cit.
see Ricoeur, P., Lectio magistralis, op. cit.
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see Ricoeur, P., Memory, History, Forgetting, op. cit., p. XVI.
see Ricoeur, P., Memory, History, Forgetting, op. cit., p. 3.
see Ricoeur, P., Memory, History, Forgetting, op. cit., p. 28.
see Busacchi, V., ‘Imagine and Representation in Historical Knowledge’. AIJSS, 6(3), (2017), pp. 26–33; Id. & Lecis, P. L., ‘L’imagination apprivoisée’. Critical Hermeneutics, 1(1), (2017), pp. 125–154.
see Ricoeur P., Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation. trans. by Denis Savage, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1970.
see Steiner, G., After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. 1992.
see Busacchi, V., ‘The Human and Its Discourse: From Fragmentation to Unification’. IJHSS, 6(7), July 2016, pp. 1–11.
see Ricœur, P., ‘La crise: un phénomène spécifiquement moderne?’. Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie, 120, (1988), [pp. 1–19] p. 1.
see Ricoeur, P., ‘La crise: un phénomène spécifiquement moderne?’, op. cit., p. 16.
see Ricoeur, P., ‘La crise de la conscience historique et l’Europe’. In AA. VV., Ética e o futuro da Democracia, Lisboa: Edições Colibri / S. P. F., 1998, p. 30.
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