Complexity of life (“inochi”) and I (“watashi”) : Theory on life by Paul Ricoeur

This paper treats of the complex relationship between life (in Jpn., “inochi”) and I (“watashi”) by examining the thought of Paul Ricoeur, especially his early book, The Voluntary and the Involuntary. In this book, Ricoeur seems to regard life only as “resolved problem” (e.g., blood circulation). But he also thinks of it as “task to be resolved”. And, for life, the latter aspect is important. So, the life as Total (Transcendence), discussed in the last section, is not accepted directly because it sets us thinking that the problem of life is already resolved in the transcendental level