By subsuming teleological explanation by reasons under causal explanation, analytic theories have se… — Paul Ricœur

By subsuming teleological explanation by reasons under causal explanation, analytic theories have sealed the effacement of the subject in favor of relations between impersonal events; an epistemological analysis is therefore needed to re‑establish the legitimacy of teleological causality and to show its affinity with the phenomenological moment of intentionality.

By Paul Ricœur, from Oneself as Another

Key Arguments

He states that ‘the inclusion of tclcological explanation by reasons within causal explanation has sealed the effaccment of the subject to the benefit of a relation between impersonal events’, explicitly linking this inclusion to the disappearance of the subject.
He calls for ‘An epistcmological analysis’ that would ‘establish the rights of teleological causality’, suggesting that teleological explanation has its own epistemic status that has been obscured by causal reduction.
He adds that this analysis must ‘show the lattcr's affinity with the phenomenological moment of intcntionality’, connecting teleological causality directly to phenomenological intentionality once it has been properly elicited.

Source Quotes

ahead of himself. It is the task of an explicit phenomenology of the project, similar to the one I once sketched out at the beginning of The Voluntary and the Involuntary, to bring to the level of language what lies unexpressed in this initial choice.29 Next, the inclusion of tclcological explanation by reasons within causal explanation has sealed the effaccment of the subject to the benefit of a relation between impersonal events. An epistcmological analysis is re quired to establish the rights of teleological causality and to show the lattcr's affinity with the phenomenological moment of intcntionality, once it has been elicited.

It is the task of an explicit phenomenology of the project, similar to the one I once sketched out at the beginning of The Voluntary and the Involuntary, to bring to the level of language what lies unexpressed in this initial choice.29 Next, the inclusion of tclcological explanation by reasons within causal explanation has sealed the effaccment of the subject to the benefit of a relation between impersonal events. An epistcmological analysis is re quired to establish the rights of teleological causality and to show the lattcr's affinity with the phenomenological moment of intcntionality, once it has been elicited. We made a first step in this direction above.

Key Concepts

Next, the inclusion of tclcological explanation by reasons within causal explanation has sealed the effaccment of the subject to the benefit of a relation between impersonal events.
An epistcmological analysis is re quired to establish the rights of teleological causality and to show the lattcr's affinity with the phenomenological moment of intcntionality, once it has been elicited.

Context

Still within his discussion of Davidson, Ricoeur diagnoses how causalizing teleological explanation erases the subject and sketches the task of an epistemology that can vindicate teleological causality and relate it to phenomenological intentionality.