Retórica y poética; autonomía o dependencia respecto de la ética? Diálogo con Paul Ricoeur

Abstract

In this article, Paul Ricoeur’s position on the relations between rhetoric, poetry and ethics is critically analyzed, especially that of Temps et Récit. Certain ambiguity is detected in his interpretation of Aristotle. Firstly, we consider the place Ricoeur gives to mimesis, by relating this concept to the limitations and restrictions the author applies to this term. Secondly, we aim at showing that, in the case of ethics, the subject of action comes before action, while in poetry the description of action created by the poet determines the ethical quality of the characters. Hence, we have proposed two senses of ethos, where the poetic ethos is closer to the rhetoric ethos than to the ethical ethos. This allows us to extend the scope of praxis. We do not affirm that it is not possible to find many ethical aspects in Aristotle’s Poetics or Rhetoric, but we say that Ricoeur excessively moralize on these two tekhnai and puts at risk their independence. By facing some ambiguous opinions by Ricoeur, we claim that the autonomy of poetry allows us to open a fictional room and, moreover, we make that rhetoric proves the contraries in the horizon of persuasion. Thirdly, by assuming this, we analyze in detail our differences with Ricoeur as to Mimesis I, Mimesis II and Mimesis III. This article finally considers that caring the independence of these two tekhnai also reinforces a consistent reading of Ricoeur’s La Métaphore vive.