‘The Water Lilies’ of the Orangerie, Ricoeur and the ‘flâneur’

«Le flâneur – Nympheas Orangerie» is the title that Olivier Abel (president of the Scientific Council of the Fonds Ricoeur) gave to one of his Entretien with Ricoeur. We can read the two pages of this dialogue in the booklet (Paul Ricoeur. Le tragique et la promesse) that accompanies the double DVD about the life and work of the French thinker: Paul Ricoeur. Philosophe de tous les dialogues2. The film language configures and refigures – with images, clips of interviews (of Ricoeur and his friends/interpreters), photos and video fragments – Ricoeur‘s entire journey, a journey that is symbolically presented in a circular manner. We do not know if this was really the intent of the authors (C. Reussner, O. Abel, F. Dosse). But in our eyes, focused on the Water Lilies of the Orangerie, the symbolic ‗circle‘ (‗symbolic‘ more than ‗hermeneutical‘ circle) is evident.