Homo capax

Abstract

This essay aims to reflect on some structural characteristics of the homo capax as it has been explicitly conceived by Ricoeur since his 1990 work, Soi-même comme un autre. What we examine are not the capabilities that Ricoeur analyzes starting in 1990, to be able to act, speak, narrate, and be narrated, and to be regarded as attributable to the consequences of one's actions, but rather the capable human being itself. What does it mean to be capable? Is it, as Ricoeur himself says, part of the essential nature of man's humanity? Is it therefore a priori? The thesis that we would like to defend is that, first, the background of capability is man's being in relation and passibility, and second, only in encounters with the other does the capable human being stylize the powers with which it opens the world.