Paul Ricoeur

Paul Ricoeur spent six decades developing a hermeneutical philosophy that insists the self is not a substance but an achievement—something continuously constructed through the interpretive work of self-narration. Born in Valence, orphaned young, prisoner of war for five years during World War II, he emerged as one of the twentieth century's most important philosophers of interpretation. His major works include The Symbolism of Evil (1960), Freud and Philosophy (1965), the three-volume Time and Narrative (1983–1985), and Oneself as Another (1990). He taught at the Sorbonne, Nanterre, and the University of Chicago, and his influence extends across philosophy, theology, literary theory, law, and—unexpectedly—the emerging discourse on AI and human identity. Though he never encountered artificial intelligence, his framework addresses the ontological structure of selfhood that AI now disrupts.