Paul Ricoeur, February 27, 1913 - May 20, 2005.
There will be more to follow, but for now, the A.P.'s obituary, complete with a highly misleading description of phenomenology and none at all of hermeneutics (see also a good Ricoeur page at Wikipedia, with helpful links):
French Philosopher Paul Ricoeur Dies
By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press Writer
PARIS -- Paul Ricoeur, a French philosopher whose broad
interests included biblical interpretation and the study of human
perception, has died. He was 92.
Ricoeur
died from natural causes in his sleep overnight at his home in the town
of Chatenay-Malabry, west of Paris, his son Marc said Friday.
Born in the southeastern town of Valence, Ricoeur was orphaned at an
early age. But he was able to go to school and earned a doctorate at
the University of Rennes in western France.
Ricoeur
was teaching high school in western France when World War II broke out,
and ended up spending most of the war in a German prison camp.
After
the war, he held various teaching positions -- including prestigious
posts at Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Chicago. He also
worked for the elite National Center for Scientific Research, and was
active in the Socialist Party.
He was perhaps best known for
his work in the field of phenomenology -- the study of how perceptions
of events shape a person's reality -- and sought to understand how
people could overcome weaknesses and doubts by looking at their
spiritual heritage.
"If I had to lay out my vision of the
world ... I would say: given the place where I was born, the culture I
received, what I read, what I learned (and) what I thought about, there
exists for me a result that constitutes, here and now, the best thing
to do," he told French daily newspaper Le Monde in January 2004. "I
call it the action that suits."
The author of at least 20
books, Ricoeur examined an array of subjects, including guilt and evil,
linguistics, psychology, Marxism, religion and the role of ethics in
politics.
In November, Ricoeur and U.S. historian Jaroslav
Pelikan were each awarded a share of the $1 million Kluge prize, set up
in 2003 to honor achievement in fields not covered by the Nobel prizes.
He also received the 1939-45 Croix de Guerre medal and the Grand Prize
of Philosophy from Academie Francaise in France.
"We lose
today more than a philosopher," said Prime Minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin in a statement. "The entire European humanist tradition is
mourning one of its most talented spokesmen."
Ricoeur left
instructions that his funeral be limited to friends and family members,
his son said. The date and place were to be made public only after the
ceremony.