The wisdom of the flesh:

a philosophy of incarnation in Paul Ricœur

Abstract

This paper seeks to present the Ricœurian concept of incarnation (body and flesh), its relation to ethics and ontology and, consequently, to phenomenological and hermeneutic methods. Our general hypothesis is that the Ricœurian understanding of incarnation presents both an original and foundational thought. However, in an attempt to limit the scope of the problem we investigate this notion mainly in Philosophy of the Will (Philosophie de la volonté) and in Oneself as another (Soi-même comme un autre). Thus, we find in these works—which have their roots in the "classical treatises on the passions", through Maine de Biran to the meditations of Gabriel Marcel, Merleau-Ponty and Michel Henry—the originality of the concept of incarnation and its phenomenological description of the body in action (ethics) and its hermeneutic interpretation of the passivity of the flesh (ontology).