<em>Time and Narrative</em>

Time and Narrative (Temps et récit) is Ricoeur's most ambitious philosophical project: a three-volume, 1,100-page demonstration that narrative and time are reciprocally related—narrative makes time human by imposing meaningful structure, and time makes narrative possible by providing the medium in which plots unfold. Volume 1 synthesizes Augustine's phenomenology of time-consciousness with Aristotle's theory of emplotment, producing the framework of mimesis₁, mimesis₂, mimesis₃. Volume 2 applies the framework to historiography and fiction, demonstrating that the narrative configuration of time operates identically across factual and imaginative discourse. Volume 3 addresses the aporetics of time—the irresolvable tensions the previous volumes could not eliminate. The work established narrative identity as a fundamental philosophical category and provided the conceptual resources the AI age now requires: when AI compresses the temporal structure of creation, it alters the conditions under which narrative meaning is produced—producing output-rich but meaning-thin experience.