If you have found yourself searching for a PDF of Paul Ricoeur’s Oneself as Another ( Soi-même comme un autre ), you are likely embarking on one of the most rewarding—and intellectually demanding—journeys in contemporary philosophy. Published in 1990, this book is Ricoeur’s magnum opus on the nature of human identity. It moves away from both the extreme individualism of the Cartesian tradition ("I think, therefore I am") and the dissolution of the self found in post-structuralist thought.
Ricœur argues that human identity exists in the tension between idem and ipse . If we were only idem , we would be unchangeable objects. If we were only ipse , we would be fragmented bursts of consciousness with no continuity. 2. Character and Faithfulness: The Bridges of Identity paul ricoeur oneself as another pdf