Call for Proposals

This Group’s primary focus for this year is on Ricoeur and ethics. Paul Ricoeur spent a significant amount of time on the question of ethics and morality. Though the terms “ethics” and “morality” are often used interchangeably, Ricoeur stipulates a distinction between them. In his usage, ethics deals with the domain of that which is taken to belong to a good human life. It is concerned with the overall aim of a life of action. Morality refers to the expression of this aim in terms of norms that are regarded as somehow obligatory. Moral norms are taken to be universal and to exercise some constraint on conduct. In standard terminology, ethics is teleologically-oriented and morality is deontologically-oriented. For Ricoeur, these orientations are complementary, and not incompatible. We are seeking papers addressing how Ricoeur’s notion of ethics and morality are framed with particular attention to the following topics:

• Ricoeur’s understanding of what constitutes ethical institutions “that meet our sense of justice in the obligations they impose and the privileges and opportunities they grant” (Oneself as Another, University of Chicago Press, 1995: 180) and how this understanding can be applied to institutions in the twenty-first century
• Feminist readings of Ricoeur
• For a cosponsored session with the Religion, Holocaust, and Genocide Group — Ricoeur and the Holocaust
• For a cosponsored session with the Arts, Literature, and Religion Section — how Ricoeur’s Time and Narrative (University of Chicago, 1983–1985) continues to call for an interdisciplinarity of religious and aesthetic experiences of identity
• How Ricoeur’s notion of personhood as “the inter-esse [being-with]” is practically worked out in Oneself as Another, The Just, and his later collected essays demonstrating how personhood lives from “the wish for a good life to find its fulfillment”'(The Just, University of Chicago Press, 2000: xv–vi)

Mission

The purpose of this Group is to promote the work of Paul Ricoeur within the broad fields of theology and religious studies. We believe that Paul Ricoeur, as a dialogue partner, has continued relevance to the manifold disciplines that constitute the AAR. Yet more than a group dedicated to the study of a particular scholar’s work — as a form of academic fandom — this Group seeks to build up and creatively utilize Ricoeur’s work in a way that enriches a wide range of theological and religious subdisciplines.

Anonymity of Review Process

Proposals are anonymous to Chairs and steering committee members until after final acceptance/rejection.

Questions?

Michael De Lashmutt
Luther Seminary
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Jeffrey F. Keuss
Seattle Pacific University
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Method of Submission