A Topology of the Self : Text and Author in Paul Ricoeur

In order to respond to the question of the authorship, it is of interest to consider the conceptual relation of the author with the subjectivity for which the self has its place. How to place the self in the universe? As a fact, there is of no doubt a place of man in this universe. But how to determine its place arouses profound considerations. For Paul Ricoeur, who is attentive to the context of the metaphysics of the subjectivity, the facticity of the self is articulated in a repetitive questioning of the self. The self, origin of the subjectivity, is constantly constituted on several occasions. Having an ontological root, the self-identity continues the hermeneutical detour in the confrontation with the conflict of interpretations, keeps a mimetic trace of narration, is conducted in the mediation between ethics and morals, and finally finds a folded and unfolded recognition. We try to sketch the complicity of the problem of the self, which serves as a clue to understand the Ricoeurian motivation of hermeneutics. With the self, we are led to catch the self-understanding in the interpretation, which opens and enlarges the circle and manifests to itself a central interest of the existence. This hermeneutical move replaces the author function in an ontological level.