ABSTRACT
I take as the starting-point for my reflection, in the pages that follow, the ethico-political thought of Paul Ricoeur, as elaborated both in and following the work Oneself as Another. I will focus on Ricoeur’s notion of practical wisdom-la sagesse pratique-in its application to the theme of political identity. My analysis will concern primarily a difficulty to which the phenomenon of identity, in its political and therefore plural dimension, gives rise: that of comprehending the precise contours of this phenomenon as it extends beyond oneself and the other as individual persons to encompass identity in its ‘collective’ dimension. It is to the task of analyzing this politically charged notion of ‘collective’ identity that, in what follows, I will apply the concept of practical wisdom that Paul Ricoeur has placed at the center of his most recent philosophical investigations. Before examining the specific manner in which I will delimit this task, however, I will recall, by way of introduction, Ricoeur’s interpretation of the phenomenon of ‘collective’ or plural identity in the work Oneself as Another.
