A Study Of Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutic Subject Theory

Paul Ricoeur is an important leading figure in the field of European hermeneutics after Heidegger and Gadamer.He is also a great hermeneutic master with wide influence in the 20 th century.The study of reflective hermeneutics advocated by him has also become an important part in the pluralistic pattern of modern hermeneutics.Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic theory characterized by reflection is very attractive,which is not only reflected in the inclusiveness and openness of his hermeneutic theory,but also in his unique subjectivity theory in the perspective of reflective hermeneutics.Here by Paul Ricoeur,we can not only see the traces of western traditional hermeneutics since ancient Greek philosophy,but also experience the flavor of contemporary hermeneutic philosophy;not only can we see the transcendence of phenomenological theory,but also the application of psychoanalysis,semiotics and structuralist theoretical linguistic methods;not only can we see that Descartes is characterized by "I think".The negation of the subjective philosophy of self-evident direct consciousness can also be seen in the questioning of Heidegger’s subjective theory characterized by "I am".It can not only discover Spinoza’s efforts,but also find Plato’s and Freud’s desires.It can not only attach importance to Habermas’ s critical hermeneutics psychological analysis method,but also restore Gadamer’s rejection of the "gap" theory.Therefore,Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic theory is the result of active dialogue and communication with contemporary philosophers.Rather than saying that Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic theory is eclectic,neutral or harmonious,his hermeneutic theory is an interpretation based on reflection as the intermediary,text as the medium,and pluralism and symbolism of semantics as the starting point of interpretation.Learn the subject theory.Paul Ricoeur not only regards the external natural world and the whole human society as a special text,but this text is not an object,but also another subject,which communicates the relationship between nature and human with inter-subjectivity and realizes the unity of human and nature.By introducing the explanatory method of natural science into humanities with the theory of structuralist linguistics,and endowing comprehension with new meanings through the pluralism and symbolism of semantics,it not onlyrealizes the identity of explanatory and understanding methods,but also endows comprehension with creative features.At the same time,text theory endows gap with positive and constructive meaning.It holds that gap is not only the disadvantage that should be overcome in interpretation activities,but also the necessary condition for interpretation to come into being.Spacing not only endows the creative features of understanding and interpretation,but also makes the meaning of truth run on the road of constant innovation.Therefore,the understanding formed by text intermediaries.The circuitous method is unified with the historical creativity of truth.His unique theory of reflective hermeneutics not only adheres to the unity of nature and man,but also insists on the unity of explanation and understanding,and the unity of truth and method,which is a new peak of modern hermeneutic theory,which can not be overstated.Paul Ricoeur’s philosophical hermeneutics is a kind of reflective hermeneutics.Paul Ricoeur attempts to reflect on human beings through the detours of humanistic symbols deposited in the text.Reflection is neither intuition nor the return of so-called direct conscious self-evidentity.Reflection is the medium of communication between the subject’s interpretation of himself and the interpretation of text symbols.He needs to take a look at it.Ideas,actions,works,systems,and the text of his objectified markers are used as intermediaries to discover and construct themselves.From Paul Ricoeur’s point of view,the whole sensible world and all the beings we deal with are texts that need to be understood and interpreted,and treat the whole social behavior as some kind of texts.Text is the medium for the subject to construct.The subject’s understanding of himself must be realized,generated and constructed through text,other’s circuitous and interval.While interpreting the symbolic world,the subject is explaining itself.The subject is open or exposed to historical actions and texts,and constantly in historical actions,generates the subjectivity of self-construction.In the perspective of expectation,the subject constantly breaks through the world set by the existing historical experience and is able to expand,enrich and generate,or historical actions are continuous.Providing the subject with the material to construct itself,the subject generates and constructs in our historical action.The text under Paul Ricoeur’s vision is an expanded text.It is not only textual in action and history,but also in dreams,myths,sculptures,the natural world and all human-related beings.Because the text calls for reading,in the practice of text reading,the subject constantly generates self and constructs self.The understanding of the text is not to enter the text,but to expose itself thoroughly to the text.It is the subject’s self-acceptance through the text,and the self is expanded by grasping the world set by interpretation.The reader’s reading of the text is not a matter of devoting himself to the text,but of expanding the world of existence in which the text belongs and creating the reader for himself.But it is not a matter of imposing our limited ability of understanding and interpretation on the text,but of exposing ourselves completely to the text by a reader subject and obtaining one from the text.An enlarged ego is the kind of life which unfolds in front of the texts.What is the Understanding is to understand oneself in front of the text.The man doesn’t need to impose his limited understanding ability on the text at all,but opens oneself to the text and receives a broader self from it.The subject is to construct oneself continuously through the roundabout of others.Therefore,the real purpose of text reading is to understand and construct oneself.In the process of transforming the world of text into one’s own,the reader receives a new enlarged oneself.