Paul Ricoeur - History and Truth -2026

This collection examines how historical knowledge can pursue truth despite being produced by situated, interpreting human beings.

rejects both naïve objectivism, which treats history as a neutral record of facts, and radical relativism, which reduces every account to personal perspective. He argues that responsible history requires evidence, critical distance, interpretation, and an honest awareness of the historian’s assumptions. The essays extend this inquiry into questions of political power, violence, work, civilization, Christianity, and modern social life. Throughout the book, history appears not merely as a completed past but as an unfinished field of meaning that shapes present action and future possibility. Ricoeur’s approach joins philosophical reflection with ethical concern, suggesting that historical truth is gradually approached through disciplined inquiry, dialogue, and the correction of competing interpretations rather than secured through a single final explanation.