Pathos and PRAXIS: The Phenomenology of Life in Michel Henry and Paul Ricouer

Pathos and Praxis presents a new and original framework for an integrated phenomenology of life. It provides the first comparative study of two influential French philosophers, Paul Ricoeur and Michel Henry, and shows that their debates over the interpretation of Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx signal two rival approaches to the phenomenology of life.

Author Scott Davidson demonstrates that while Henry reveals the phenomenological meaning of life through an inward turn to a pure subjective feeling of being alive, Ricoeur anchors its significance in the reciprocal interaction between the self and the world. But these two alternatives are not necessarily opposed.

Pathos and Praxis proposes an integrated phenomenology of life to which both Henry and Ricoeur make an important contribution. To be a self is to suffer the pathos of ＂having a life＂ but also to be capable of engaging in the praxis of ＂leading a life.＂ By thinking the pathos and praxis of life together, the integrated approach preserves human agency against deterministic conceptions of life and at the same time avoids the meritocratic hubris that depicts one’s life solely as the result of one’s own doing. This integration of having and leading a life reframes our thinking about human capabilities and vulnerabilities in a way that has important implications for biopolitics and the ethics of life.

Scott Davidson is Professor of philosophy and director of the multidisciplinary studies program at West Virginia University. His recent book projects include The Michel Henry Reader (coedited with Frédéric Seyler) and three edited volumes on Ricoeur’s philosophy of the will: A Companion to Freedom and Nature, A Companion to Fallible Man, and A Companion to The Symbolism of Evil.