Abstract

Ricoeur’s critique of the analytical philosophy of the person is directed against the tendency of reification inherent in this kind of philosophy. To bring out the »ipseidentity« against the »idem-identity« also means to accentuate the type of identity which is characteristic of a person as such, in contrast to the identity of a thing. Due to this self-identity of persons, a particular kind of beings which are different from the self, namely others, gain special importance for the self – in contrast to that which is different from a thing, for which nothing can be important. This important other is but another self, another person. It is in the light of this special relationship of one person to another that the full meaning of the new concept of responsibility emerges, which has replaced the notion of imputability.