ABSTRACT

Thus far we have examined Ricoeur’s ethics in terms of the self and of others. But we recall that his definition of ‘the ethical aim’ was ‘aiming at the good life with and for others, in just institutions’ (Ricoeur 1992: 172). We must now look at what constitutes ‘justice’, and hence ‘just institutions’, for Ricoeur. The phrase ‘just institutions’ should serve as a clue that for Ricoeur, justice and politics are inextricably intertwined.

Ricoeur’s arguably most celebrated political essay, ‘The Political Paradox’, dates from 1957. The ‘paradox’ of the title refers to the fact that power is a necessary means of furthering the aims of politics, which is the same as the aim of philosophy, to expand the sum of happiness and the good. On the other hand, power inherently lends itself to perversion and abuse, and hence to the opposite of good, evil. More specifically, Ricoeur’s central question is, how could the phenomenon of Stalin be possible under a socialist regime? If socialism stands for the treatment of all equally, how could socialism be maintained by a tyrant, or, conversely, how could a tyrant exercise the perversion and abuse of power under the name of socialism?