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Hope and the Embodied Will for Life. Revisiting Paul Ricœur’s Original Affirmation through a Dialectic of Actuality and Potentiality

Croton Runnström, Sarah LU (2024) TLVM77 20241
Centre for Theology and Religious Studies
Studies in Faith and World Views
Abstract
With his notion of original affirmation, Paul Ricoeur wishes to reinstate the primacy of being over nothingness, joy over anguish, and affirmation over negation. Having adopted the term from Jean Nabert, he draws from the tradition of French reflective philosophy to formulate his conception of the originally affirmative nature of existence. Ricoeur argues that positive values can be found in and through their lack in the world, and that it is via the reflective means of hope, imagination and myth, that such values can be attested to. In this regard, original affirmation signifies a potentiality of being, actualisable through reflection. However, there is another aspect to Ricoeur’s original affirmation, namely, its embeddedness in the very... (More)
With his notion of original affirmation, Paul Ricoeur wishes to reinstate the primacy of being over nothingness, joy over anguish, and affirmation over negation. Having adopted the term from Jean Nabert, he draws from the tradition of French reflective philosophy to formulate his conception of the originally affirmative nature of existence. Ricoeur argues that positive values can be found in and through their lack in the world, and that it is via the reflective means of hope, imagination and myth, that such values can be attested to. In this regard, original affirmation signifies a potentiality of being, actualisable through reflection. However, there is another aspect to Ricoeur’s original affirmation, namely, its embeddedness in the very foundation of being. Here, I argue that he takes Nabert’s reflective affirmation in a Spinozist direction, grounding it in the already actual power of life and in our desire to exist. Through applying a dialectic of actuality and potentiality as a theoretical lens, I identify and constructively engage with, what I refer to as, the reflective and the conative dimensions of original affirmation: between hope and the embodied will for life. Finally, I discuss how such understanding can have relevance in relation to present-day anguish. (Less)
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author
Croton Runnström, Sarah LU
supervisor
organization
course
TLVM77 20241
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Paul Ricœur, Philosophy of Religion, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Hermeneutics, Original Affirmation, Hope, Imagination, Myth, Jean Nabert, Spinoza
language
English
id
9174939
date added to LUP
2024-09-19 09:03:31
date last changed
2024-09-19 09:03:31
@misc{9174939,
  abstract     = {{With his notion of original affirmation, Paul Ricoeur wishes to reinstate the primacy of being over nothingness, joy over anguish, and affirmation over negation. Having adopted the term from Jean Nabert, he draws from the tradition of French reflective philosophy to formulate his conception of the originally affirmative nature of existence. Ricoeur argues that positive values can be found in and through their lack in the world, and that it is via the reflective means of hope, imagination and myth, that such values can be attested to. In this regard, original affirmation signifies a potentiality of being, actualisable through reflection. However, there is another aspect to Ricoeur’s original affirmation, namely, its embeddedness in the very foundation of being. Here, I argue that he takes Nabert’s reflective affirmation in a Spinozist direction, grounding it in the already actual power of life and in our desire to exist. Through applying a dialectic of actuality and potentiality as a theoretical lens, I identify and constructively engage with, what I refer to as, the reflective and the conative dimensions of original affirmation: between hope and the embodied will for life. Finally, I discuss how such understanding can have relevance in relation to present-day anguish.}},
  author       = {{Croton Runnström, Sarah}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Hope and the Embodied Will for Life. Revisiting Paul Ricœur’s Original Affirmation through a Dialectic of Actuality and Potentiality}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}