Paul Ricoeur’s Poetic Self and Moral Agency: Capacity-Building for Moral Creativity

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze the place of the “poetic self” within Paul Ricoeur’s intellectual system and to explain its role in making “creative moral agency” possible. By proposing the idea of “narrative selfhood,” Ricoeur shows that human identity is a fluid, historical, and interpretive matter that is formed within the context of narrative and the re-reading of lived experiences. Within this framework, the “poetic self” emerges as a creative and interpretive capacity within the human subject, enabling the opening of new horizons for understanding moral situations and creating responsible solutions. The main problem of the article is how this poetic capacity can make possible critical distancing from established norms, reconsideration of moral rules, and the preparation of innovative actions in confronting complex moral situations. The research method is based on the systematic analysis and interpretation of Ricoeur’s major works in the fields of hermeneutics, narrative identity, and ethics. The findings show that, through “moral imagination,” the poetic self raises the subject’s consciousness beyond mere obedience to norms and prepares the ground for transition to a level of moral agency in which narrative, imagination, and the reinterpretation of concrete situations play a central role. Based on the results of the study, the poetic self can be regarded as a theoretical foundation for capacity-building in moral creativity; a capacity that enables the moral agent to establish a dynamic balance among general rules, historical conditions, and responsibility toward the other. Finally, the present study shows that the connection between the poetic self and moral agency in Ricoeur’s thought provides a new perspective for understanding dynamism and creativity in contemporary ethics and defends ethics as a narrative, interpretive, and creative process.