“Memory and Selfhood in Paul Ricoeur”
The main question concerning the issue of identity that Ricoeur addresses in his book Oneself as Another is the capability of the subject to become itself despite change, or rather, through change. In the perception of this identity in change, memory assumes a central position. Selfhood, on the one hand, arises from sameness, from loyalty to a memory, while on the other hand it is a ceaseless change. In his book Parcours de la reconnaissance (The Course of Recognition), Ricoeur investigates this perplexity through the distinction between memory (mémoire) and promise (promesse). A living identity is turned towards both the past, through memory, and the future, through the promise, and keeps renewing itself. But this demands remembering the promise made, and makes memory necessary. The objective of the talk on the whole is to address the tension of arkhe and telos, loyalty and betrayal – that appear repeatedly but in different forms in Ricoeur, and both aspects of which are necessary – in a context of personal memory.
Selami Varlık graduated from the Department of Philosophy of François Rabelais University in France. He completed his Master’s degree at Fonds Ricoeur research centre for Hermeneutics in Paris, and received his PhD degree from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales with his dissertation on the question of the objective meaning in the context of Gadamer’s philosophy. Having written articles on the transformation of selfhood through the interpretation process, Varlık focuses on the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer and Ricoeur, and the theological turn of contemporary French phenomenology (Jean-Luc Marion). Varlık has published articles in French and in Turkish, in periodicals such as Kutadgubilig, Kaygı, Methodos, Revue d’Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses, and his work aims at the convergence of phenomenological hermeneutics and Islamic philosophy. He is also the co-editor of the book, Ahlak ve Başkası (Morality and the Other) (Nobel Akademik, 2016). He is currently a member of the academic staff of the Department of Philosophy at Istanbul 29 Mayıs University.
The event is free of charge.
Invitations available from the Akbank Sanat ticket office on the event day, one hour before the event begins.