Justice, Rights, and the Law in Paul Ricoeur’s Political Philosophy

Abstract

The aim of my essay is to point out Paul Ricoeur’s conception of justice as a crucial dimension of his political philosophy. A further emphasis is given to the term “subject of rights” and the term “law,” which are tightly connected with Ricoeur’s idea of justice and his conception of responsibility. In the following, the emphasis is laid on Ricoeur’s notion of justice, embedded within the “little ethics [petite éthique]” of his book Soi-même comme un autre [Oneself as Another]. In several of his texts, Ricoeur deals, from different points of view, with the heterogeneous character of the just. He is particularly interested in anthropological, ethical, legal, socio-political, and philosophical aspects of the just as a multifaceted phenomenon.

Keywords

• justice
• law
• rights
• ethics
• subject