Finitude and Meaning. Understanding History with Ricoeur and Patocka

The question of history lies at the very core of the phenomenological project. The purpose of the volume is therefore to unfold and clarify the polyphonic dimensions of this topic, as they emerge from a thoughtful engagement with the works of Paul Ricœur and Jan Patocka. To do this, the studies gathered here adopt a particular interpretative stance : they explore themes and aspects that, although specific to one of the two phenomenologists, allow, promise, and awaken a complex problematization of the other’s conception of history. And this effect of mirrored illumination and resonance is all the stronger when it takes place on the horizon set forth by the conceptual tie between finitude and meaning. Within this setting, acknowledged scholars and academics critically revisit the loci classici and core ideas of Ricœur and Patocka’s thinking and outline the enduring relevance of their accounts of history.