The paths of meaning in the hermeneutic phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur

Abstract

This article examines Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology through the notion of the architecture of meaning, which symbolically articulates the narrative and practical dimensions of the subject. In the face of the contemporary crisis of meaning, three central moments are reconstructed: the convergence between phenomenology and hermeneutics, the contrast between Ricoeur's and Heidegger's approaches, and the ontological implications of understanding. The analysis underlines symbolic mediation, narrative and the ontology of acting as fundamental axes for constructing critical hermeneutics of being-in-the-world. Thus, the text offers conceptual tools to rethink subjectivity and face the current challenges related to the production of meaning, proposing a hermeneutic path that enables a philosophical praxis committed to the reconfiguration of the contemporary subject.