Turtas, valdžia, garbė - žmogaus galybė ar trapumas? ; Riches, power, honour - human strenght or fragility?: reflexion of human emotions according Paul Ricoeur

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reflect on the role of the feelings in the human person's integral growth. The phenomenology and the hermeneutics are here applied as the basic methods; the thoughts of the famous contemporary philosopher Paul Ricoeur (1913) are also used in oder to reveal interpersonal aspect of emotions (social, cultural, political spheres). The fundamental needs, such as possession, capacity and being recognized are reconstructed in the initial state ("before the sin"). The philosophical tradition is read in a new light, because Aquinas' and cartesian tractates valuated the emotions from one side. Ricoeur's reflection is corageous one because he speaks about the most fragile capacity of human being and elevates it to the level of intellect, non theoric but concrete. The feelings have important role of unifying and putting inward our experience.