20th Century Ethics (Sess 4) - Paul Ricoeur, Solicitude with the Other

This Meetup is the fourth in our series on 20th Century Ethics.

“The autonomy of the self will appear then to tightly bound up with solicitude for one’s neighbor and with justice for each individual.” – Ricoeur

For 2026 we will be launching a series of sessions focused on 20th Century Ethics. The series will build progressively over the course of the year, but individual sessions can be explored independently. The goals of the series are to a) move beyond the ‘greatest hits’ of historical philosophical works into more contemporary 20th Century debates, b) create a landscape of the diverse traditions in phenomenology, virtue ethics, critical theory, and neo-Kantianism, c) explore modern issues of identity, communication, justice, and animal rights, and d) stage opportunities to contrast different thinkers critically. While the content is advanced, the format and discussion style still affords individuals new to these works and, indeed, new to philosophy in general an excellent opportunity to learn and discuss in structured discussion-based environment.
The series will include

• (Jan/26) Immanuel Kant – a foundational ‘grounding’ for the series
• (Feb & Mar/26) Max Scheler – critique of Kant’s formalism with an emphasis on value theory.
• (Apr/26) Paul Ricoeur – identity and ethical responsibility with a focus on selfhood and justice.
• Juergen Habermas – socially embedded ethics.
• Alasdair MacIntyre – challenges Kantian universality with Aristotelian virtues ethics.
• Phillippa Foot – naturalistic virtue ethics
• Christine Korsgaard – moral norms and an argument for contemporary Kantian Ethics.
• Onora O’Neill – global justice and bioethics.
• Epilogue for the series – a comparative look at the threads of autonomy, responsibility, virtue and discourse in a comparative roundtable.

In Session 4, “Solitude with the Other”, we will be discussing sections of Paul Ricoeur work, Oneself as Another. Against both Kantian and utilitarian models. He proposes an “aim for the good life with and for others in just institutions”. The ‘good life’ names a teleological orientation toward human flourishing, ‘with and for others’ introduces solicitude, and ‘just institutions’ acknowledges that ethical life extends into our shared world. Ethics, for Ricoeur, is fundamentally about selfhood as responsibility. Practical wisdom (phronesis) becomes the virtue that mediates the teleological and the deontological, alloing agents to interpret norms in light of concrete situations and the narrative coherence of their lives. The result is an ethical approach that is neither rigidly rule-bound nor sentimentally teleological.

I will be using the University of Chicago Press edition (1992) of Oneself as Another translated by Kathleen Blamey.
The following sections will be discussed

• Introduction, A Question of Selfhood, pg. 1-26
• 6th Study, The Self and Narrative Identity,
• Read sect 3 – The Ethical Implications of the Narrative, pg. 163-168
• 7th Study, The Self and the Ethical Aim, pg. 169-202
• 8th Study, The Self and the Moral Norm, pg. 203-239

In 2026 we have begun recording the sessions to create an anonymized archive summarization of sessions, which will be shared with all attendees. I am truly excited about 2026 and hope that you will participate in the series and help make it a fulfilling experience for all of the participants.

Hope to see you at the session.