Der wirkliche Mensch als möglicher

The present thesis profiles an aesthetic foundation of human nature. The magnus opus of Paul Ricœur offers a great number of methodical approaches to unfold this question both globally and detailedly within a wide range; starting from the theory of subjectivity up to challenges resulting out of the positivist access to language. The figure of human nature which arises out of these considerations presents itself as an interplay between empirical, ontological and hermeneutical moments without being able to draw a synthetic sum. Finally the thesis develops a ‘qualitative understanding’ of transcendence which it brings into dialog with the theology of F. Schleiermacher and K. Barth; in terms of a new evaluation of revelation in the aesthetic approach of the ‘real possible’.