Philosophy of existence, existentialism and the problem of sense in Paul Ricoeur's philosophy of history

Abstract

The problem of sense in Paul Ricoeur's philosophy of history is the focus of this research. The interpretation is developed from the hypothesis in which would exist a dialectic between existence and language in the constitution of sense and meaning. The strategy chosen in the investigation was the reading of works that cover the first part of Ricoeur's philosophical path. Thus, we focus on Ricoeur’s reading of Karl Jasper’s philosophy of existence and its opposition to Sartre’s existentialism. Throughout the research, our purpose is to understand Ricoeur's comprehension of the dialectic between ontology and epistemology in philosophy of history.