Bloomsbury Hermeneutics After Ricoeur (Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy)

There has been renaissance of interest in the work and thought of Paul Ricoeur, one of the great hermeneutic scholars of the twentieth century. Marginalized much of his life by more popular currents of critical and analytic thought, Ricoeur worked both out of sync with, and ahead of, his time. His characterization of intellectual culture as a battle between the masters of suspicion and the masters of faith has become the dominant frame of continental thought; yet his vast body of work is still a relatively untapped resource for theorists, critics, and educators in the humanities. It is time to assess the future landscape for hermeneutics as a scholarly field and an educational curriculum after the momentous impact of Paul Ricoeur, who extended and deepened its trans-disciplinary reach, and pushed its profile substantially beyond its German legacy. There tends to be the misunderstanding that his thought is simply an extension or revision of Heidegger and Gadamer. Hermeneutics After Ricoeur ably sets out the differences and tensions, establishing the originality of Ricoeurs thought and its application beyond hermeneutic studies, with a thematic focus on education, the humanities, and the liberal arts. It will be of use in conversations around curricular reform in the modern university, and for anyone seeking the political and practical applications of philosophy.