Appearing to oneself (or not). Phenomenology and the linguistic turn

  • Pierre-Jean Renaudie Université de Lyon

Abstract

Do we appear to ourselves in a specific way that requires a phenomenological description? Do we need a phenomenology of self-knowledge? Another way to raise this question about the legitimacy of a phenomenological approach to the Self is to ask whether a philosophical analysis of the linguistic use of the personal pronouns is able to provide a satisfactory account of self-knowledge. Does the linguistic turn make phenomenology superfluous? Discussing the respective merits of the linguistic and phenomenological approaches to the concept of the Self through a crossed analysis of Sartre, Ricoeur, and Descombes, this paper stresses the complementarity between a phenomenological approach that focuses on the way we appear to ourselves and a linguistic analysis of the first-person pronoun. It claims that this relation of complementarity makes both approaches necessary to put forward the paradoxes of self-knowledge.

References

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DESCARTES, R. (1982). Méditations métaphysiques touchant la première philosophie. Adam et Tannery (eds.). Paris: Vrin. Eng. trans.: E. S. Haldane and G. R. T. Ross, London, Routledge, 1993; Eng. trans.: John Cottingham. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1996
DESCOMBES, V. (2014). Le parler de soi. Paris: Gallimard.
SARTRE, J.-P. (1936). La transcendance de l’ego. Paris: Vrin, 1936. Eng. trans.: Williams and Kirkpatrick. New York: Hill and Wang, 1960.
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RICOEUR, P. (1990). Soi-même comme un autre. Paris: Seuil. Eng. trans.: Kathleen Blamey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Published
2017-10-31
How to Cite
RENAUDIE, Pierre-Jean. Appearing to oneself (or not). Phenomenology and the linguistic turn. Phainomenon, [S.l.], n. 26, p. 139-153, oct. 2017. ISSN 2183-0142. Available at: <http://phainomenon-journal.pt/index.php/phainomenon/article/view/356>. Date accessed: 03 dec. 2024.
Section
Articles