Horizons of Expectation. Ricoeur, Derrida, Patočka

In several texts, Paul Ricœur has developed different elaborations on the idea of a horizon of expectation: the horizon of tradition that shapes our perspectives, the horizon as a careful set of determinations of the future, the horizon as a divine call that comes from the future towards us. However, the connection of these three views on the horizon, together with the explic- itly Christian interpretation of the third horizon are problematic elements in Ricœur’s thoughts on this topic. In this article his views are confronted with the criticism of Jacques Derrida, who uses a quite different notion of horizon: an enclosing limit that dominates the understanding of what seems to fit in its circle. Finally, in the philosophy of Jan Patočka, a view on the horizon and on history is found that gives valuable alternatives for the problematic elements in Ricœur’s horizons of expectation, while leaving the convincing points of his understanding of horizon intact.