Horizons of Expectation. Ricœur, Derrida, Patočka
Horizons of Expectation. Ricœur, Derrida, Patočka

Summary/Abstract: In several texts, Paul Ricoeur has elaborated diff erent concepts of horizon: the horizon of tradition that shapes our perspectives, the horizon as a careful set of determinations of the future, the horizon as a divine call that comes from the future towards us. However, the connection of these three views on the horizon, together with the explicitly Christian interpretation of the third horizon are problematic elements in Ricoeur’s thoughts on this topic. In this article his views are confronted with the criticism of Jacques Derrida, who uses a quite diff erent notion of horizon: an enclosing limit that dominates the understanding of what seems to fi t in its circle. Finally, the notions of horizon and history as formulated by Jan Patočka provide valuable alternatives to Ricoeur’s problematic versions of the horizons of expectation, while leaving the underlying thread of his understanding of horizon intact.

• Details
• Contents