Der Wert der Freiheit: Ricœurs Wertetheorie vs. Sartres?

Abstract

On the Value of Freedom: Ricoeur's Value Theory vs. Sartre's?

The following article is an attempt to reconstruct Sartre's and Ricoeur's theories of value in its main features, to compare it and to make some conclusions in regard of Ricoeur's Sartre reception. Thus, the task is to fill a gap in contemporary research since Sartre's value theory has been rarely examined, while that of Paul Ricoeur continue to be a blind spot within the study of his work; Ricoeur's Sartre reception has been hardly raised, but not in a explicit axiological context. In contrast to Françoise Dastur the following analysis is showing that in Le volontaire et l'involontaire Ricoeur not simply sided with Marcel by arguing against Sartre, but that he tried to mediate between the positions of the two thinkers. Finally, the author shows that Ricoeur's axiological concept, which emerged from this exchange, was retained partially in his later works precisely in that part which brought him closer to Sartre and detached him from Marcel, namely – freedom as a value and as a fundamental human capability of creation and invention of new moral and social values.