Mr. Poulos’ acute observations prompted these thoughts on the subject of Mr. Ricoeur:
Paul Ricoeur, in Oneself as Another , strives to reconcile the ancient quest for a substantive good with the modern respect for formal individual rights – which is not unlike Tocqueville’s enterprise and thus of great interest to us ever-alert postmodern conservatives. But Ricoeur’s scales tip finally in favor of formalism and rights. Commitment to particular conceptions of the good must yield finally to participation in the process of adjusting and reconciling such conceptions, a process which is authorized (implicitly - p. 290) by an arbitrary resort to faith in "Progress" to take precedence over particular conceptions. The only solid and determinate constraints on arguments are formal and negative; they are embodied in the Kantian & universalistic "path of justification"; concrete notions of the good, which arise along the "path of actualization," are thus by nature provisional - they are "grist for the mill" of universalization. But if the good can never be justified in its own name, then how can it avoid being ground down to nothingness?
Ricoeur’s commitment to universal actualization finally prevails over his interest in a concrete notion of the good life or of happiness. The horizon of (human) "recognition" has the last word over any horizon of the Good, or of God. Rather than talking about the good, he can go no further than talking about talking about the good. The "narrative" which enframes the work is a narrative determined by the conventions of the modern intellectual and therefore, finally, by the progressive, scientific, objectivist pretentions that lie behind those conventions. Like Derrida, though in much more moderate tones, Ricoeur accepts the negative directionality implicit in the modern intellectual standpoint: though he cannot yet name what he is for, Ricoeur knows what obstacle must be overcome: the moral prejudices of non-intellectuals.
We must conclude, alas, that the great Ricoeur falls just short of the demanding standards of postmodern conservatism.
