Abstract

This article explores the ways in which Paul Ricoeur uses examples from Greek tragedy to help mount his own philosophical arguments. It argues that in works such as The Symbolism of Evil and Oneself as Another, Ricoeur uses tragedy to illustrate the inevitable conflicts that occur within rationality. It also argues that Ricoeur's approach to tragedy should be seen as an alternative to Hegel's. For Hegel, tragedy shows us the necessity of moving beyond tragic conflicts. For Ricoeur, by contrast, it offers a type of instruction that is impossible to transcend, an instruction wholly immanent to the tragic itself