Gabriel Honoré Marcel[a] (7 December 1889 – 8 October 1973) was a French philosopher, playwright, music critic and leading Christian existentialist. The author of over a dozen books and at least thirty plays, Marcel's work focused on the modern individual's struggle in a technologically dehumanizing society. Though often regarded as the first French existentialist, he dissociated himself from figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre, preferring the term philosophy of existence or neo-Socrateanism to define his own thought. The Mystery of Being is a well-known two-volume work authored by Marcel.
Marcel was born on 7 December 1889 in Paris, France. His mother Laure Meyer, who was Jewish, died when he was young and he was brought up by his aunt and father, Henry Marcel. When he was eight he moved for a year where his father was minister plenipotentiary.[5]
Marcel completed his DES thesis[b] (diplôme d'études supérieures [fr], roughly equivalent to an MA thesis) and obtained the agrégation in philosophy from the Sorbonne in 1910, at the unusually young age of 20. During the First World War he worked as head of the Information Service, organized by the Red Cross to convey news of injured soldiers to their families.[5] He taught in secondary schools, was a drama critic for various literary journals, and worked as an editor for Plon, the major French Catholic publisher.[6]
Marcel was the son of an agnostic,[5] and was himself not a member of any organized religion until his conversion to Catholicism in 1929. Marcel was opposed to anti-Semitism and supported reaching out to non-Catholics.
He died 8 October 1973 in Paris.
Existential themes
He is often classified as one of the earliest existentialists, although he dreaded being placed in the same category as Jean-Paul Sartre; Marcel came to prefer the label neo-Socratic (possibly because of Søren Kierkegaard, the father of Christian existentialism, who was a neo-Socratic thinker himself). While Marcel recognized that human interaction often involved objective characterisation of "the other", he still asserted the possibility of "communion" – a state where both individuals can perceive each other's subjectivity.
In The Existential Background of Human Dignity, Marcel refers to a play he had written in 1913 entitled Le Palais de Sable, in order to provide an example of a person who was unable to treat others as subjects.
Roger Moirans, the central character of the play, is a politician, a conservative who is dedicated to defending the rights of Catholicism against free thought. He has set himself up as the champion of traditional monarchy and has just achieved a great success in the city council where he has attacked the secularism of public schools. It is natural enough that he should be opposed to the divorce of his daughter Therese, who wants to leave her unfaithful husband and start her life afresh. In this instance he proves himself virtually heartless; all his tenderness goes out to his second daughter, Clarisse, whom he takes to be spiritually very much like himself. But now Clarisse tells him that she has decided to take the veil and become a Carmelite. Moirans is horrified by the idea that this creature, so lovely, intelligent, and full of life, might go and bury herself in a convent and he decides to do his utmost to make her give up her intention... Clarisse is deeply shocked; her father now appears to her as an impostor, virtually as a deliberate fraud...[7]
In this case, Moirans is unable to treat either of his daughters as a subject, instead rejecting both because each does not conform to her objectified image in his mind. Marcel notes that such objectification "does no less than denude its object of the one thing which he has which is of value, and so it degrades him effectively."[8]
Another related major thread in Marcel was the struggle to protect one's subjectivity from annihilation by modern materialism and a technologically driven society. Marcel argued that scientific egoism replaces the "mystery" of being with a false scenario of human life composed of technical "problems" and "solutions". For Marcel, the human subject cannot exist in the technological world, instead being replaced by a human object. As he points out in Man Against Mass Society and other works, technology has a privileged authority with which it persuades the subject to accept his place as "he" in the internal dialogue of science; and as a result, man is convinced by science to rejoice in his own annihilation.[9]
Influence
Plaque at the home where Marcel resided from 1933 until his death.
For many years, Marcel hosted a weekly philosophy discussion group through which he met and influenced important younger French philosophers like Jean Wahl, Paul Ricœur, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Marcel was puzzled and disappointed that his reputation was almost entirely based on his philosophical treatises and not on his plays, which he wrote in the hope of appealing to a wider lay audience. He also influenced phenomenologist and Thomistic philosopher Karol Wojtyla (later Pope John Paul II), who drew on Marcel's distinction between "being" and "having" in his critique of technological change.[10]
Main works
His major books are the Metaphysical Journal (1927), Being and Having (1933), Homo Viator (1945), Mystery of Being (1951), and Man Against Mass Society (1955). He gave the William James Lectures at Harvard in 1961–1962, which were subsequently published as The Existential Background of Human Dignity.
Works in English translation
1948. The Philosophy of Existence.Manya Harari, trans. London: The Harvill Press. Later editions were titled The Philosophy of Existentialism.
1949. Being and Having. Katherine Farrer, trans. Westminster, London: Dacre Press.
1950. The Metaphysical Journal. Bernard Wall, trans. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company.
1951. The Mystery of Being, Vol. 1, Reflection and Mystery trans. G. S. Fraser; Vol. 2, Faith and Reality. trans. René Hague London: The Harvill Press.
1956. Royce's Metaphysics. Virginia and Gordon Ringer, trans. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company.
1962. Man Against Mass Society. G. S. Fraser, trans. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company.
1962. Homo Viator: Introduction to a Metaphysic of Hope. Emma Craufurd, trans. Harper & Brothers.
1963. The Existential Background of Human Dignity. Harvard University Press.
1964. Creative Fidelity. Translated, with an introduction, by Robert Rosthal. Farrar, Straus and Company.
1967. Presence and Immortality. Michael A. Machado, trans. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
1967. Problematic Man. Brian Thompson, trans. New York: Herder and Herder.
1973. Tragic Wisdom and Beyond. Stephen Jolin and Peter McCormick, trans. Publication of the Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, ed. John Wild. Northwestern University Press.
1998. Gabriel Marcel's Perspectives on The Broken World: The Broken World, a Four-Act Play, Followed by Concrete Approaches to Investigating the Ontological Mystery. Katharine Rose Hanley, trans. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.
2002. Awakenings. Peter Rogers, trans. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.
2004. Ghostly Mysteries: Existential Drama: A Mystery of Love & The Posthumous Joke. Katharine Rose Hanley, trans. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.
2008. A Path to Peace: Fresh Hope for the World. Dramatic Explorations: Five Plays by Gabriel Marcel: The Heart of Others/Dot the I/The Double Expertise/The Lantern/Colombyre or The Torch of Peace. Katharine Rose Hanley, trans. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press.
2009. Thou Shall Not Die. Compiled by Anne Marcel. Katharine Rose Hanley, trans. South Bank: St Augustine's Press.
2019. The Invisible Threshold: Two Plays by Gabriel Marcel. Brendan Sweetman, Maria Traub, Geoffrey Karabin, eds. Maria Traub, trans. South Bank: St Augustine's Press.
^The title of his 1910 thesis was Coleridge et Schelling (Coleridge and Schelling). It was published in 1971 (see Jeanne Parain-Vial, Gabriel Marcel: un veilleur et un éveilleur, L'Âge d'Homme, 1989, p. 12).
References
^Paul T. Brockelman, Existential Phenomenology and the World of Ordinary Experience: An Introduction, University Press of America, 1980, p. 3.
^Spiegelberg, Herbert and Schuhmann, Karl (1982). The Phenomenological Movement. Springer. pp. 438–439, 448–449.
^Jon Bartley Stewart, Kierkegaard and Existentialism, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2011, p. 204.
^A. Wadge, The Influence of Royce on the philosophy of Gabriel Marcel, Master's thesis, Durham University, 1972.
^Ballard, Edward G. (1967). "Gabriel Marcel: The Mystery of Being". In Schrader, George Alfred, Jr. (ed.). Existential Philosophers: Kierkegaard to Merleau-Ponty. Toronto: McGraw-Hill. p. 227.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
^Jeffreys, Derek S. (2007), "'A Deep Amazement at Man's Worth and Dignity': Technology and the Person in Redemptor hominis", in Perry, Tim (ed.), The Legacy of John Paul II: An Evangelical Assessment, InterVarsity Press, pp. 37–56.
gabriel, marcel, gabriel, honoré, marcel, december, 1889, october, 1973, french, philosopher, playwright, music, critic, leading, christian, existentialist, author, over, dozen, books, least, thirty, plays, marcel, work, focused, modern, individual, struggle, . Gabriel Honore Marcel a 7 December 1889 8 October 1973 was a French philosopher playwright music critic and leading Christian existentialist The author of over a dozen books and at least thirty plays Marcel s work focused on the modern individual s struggle in a technologically dehumanizing society Though often regarded as the first French existentialist he dissociated himself from figures such as Jean Paul Sartre preferring the term philosophy of existence or neo Socrateanism to define his own thought The Mystery of Being is a well known two volume work authored by Marcel Gabriel MarcelBornGabriel Honore Marcel 1889 12 07 7 December 1889Paris FranceDied8 October 1973 1973 10 08 aged 83 Paris FranceAlma materUniversity of ParisNotable workThe Mystery of Being 1951 RelativesHenry Marcel father Era20th century philosophyRegionWestern philosophySchoolChristian existentialismExistential phenomenology 1 Hermeneutic phenomenologyPersonalismMain interestsOntologysubjectivityethicsNotable ideas The Other autrui concrete philosophy philosophie concrete being vs having as opposing ways of defining the human personInfluences Nikolai BerdyaevHenri BergsonMartin BuberMartin HeideggerEdmund Husserl 2 Soren Kierkegaard 3 Francois MauriacJosiah Royce 4 Friedrich SchellingInfluenced Pierre BoutangEmmanuel LevinasWalker PercyJean WahlPaul RicœurJohn Paul IISignature Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Existential themes 3 Influence 3 1 Main works 4 Works in English translation 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksEarly life and education EditMarcel was born on 7 December 1889 in Paris France His mother Laure Meyer who was Jewish died when he was young and he was brought up by his aunt and father Henry Marcel When he was eight he moved for a year where his father was minister plenipotentiary 5 Marcel completed his DES thesis b diplome d etudes superieures fr roughly equivalent to an MA thesis and obtained the agregation in philosophy from the Sorbonne in 1910 at the unusually young age of 20 During the First World War he worked as head of the Information Service organized by the Red Cross to convey news of injured soldiers to their families 5 He taught in secondary schools was a drama critic for various literary journals and worked as an editor for Plon the major French Catholic publisher 6 Marcel was the son of an agnostic 5 and was himself not a member of any organized religion until his conversion to Catholicism in 1929 Marcel was opposed to anti Semitism and supported reaching out to non Catholics He died 8 October 1973 in Paris Existential themes EditHe is often classified as one of the earliest existentialists although he dreaded being placed in the same category as Jean Paul Sartre Marcel came to prefer the label neo Socratic possibly because of Soren Kierkegaard the father of Christian existentialism who was a neo Socratic thinker himself While Marcel recognized that human interaction often involved objective characterisation of the other he still asserted the possibility of communion a state where both individuals can perceive each other s subjectivity In The Existential Background of Human Dignity Marcel refers to a play he had written in 1913 entitled Le Palais de Sable in order to provide an example of a person who was unable to treat others as subjects Roger Moirans the central character of the play is a politician a conservative who is dedicated to defending the rights of Catholicism against free thought He has set himself up as the champion of traditional monarchy and has just achieved a great success in the city council where he has attacked the secularism of public schools It is natural enough that he should be opposed to the divorce of his daughter Therese who wants to leave her unfaithful husband and start her life afresh In this instance he proves himself virtually heartless all his tenderness goes out to his second daughter Clarisse whom he takes to be spiritually very much like himself But now Clarisse tells him that she has decided to take the veil and become a Carmelite Moirans is horrified by the idea that this creature so lovely intelligent and full of life might go and bury herself in a convent and he decides to do his utmost to make her give up her intention Clarisse is deeply shocked her father now appears to her as an impostor virtually as a deliberate fraud 7 In this case Moirans is unable to treat either of his daughters as a subject instead rejecting both because each does not conform to her objectified image in his mind Marcel notes that such objectification does no less than denude its object of the one thing which he has which is of value and so it degrades him effectively 8 Another related major thread in Marcel was the struggle to protect one s subjectivity from annihilation by modern materialism and a technologically driven society Marcel argued that scientific egoism replaces the mystery of being with a false scenario of human life composed of technical problems and solutions For Marcel the human subject cannot exist in the technological world instead being replaced by a human object As he points out in Man Against Mass Society and other works technology has a privileged authority with which it persuades the subject to accept his place as he in the internal dialogue of science and as a result man is convinced by science to rejoice in his own annihilation 9 Influence Edit Plaque at the home where Marcel resided from 1933 until his death For many years Marcel hosted a weekly philosophy discussion group through which he met and influenced important younger French philosophers like Jean Wahl Paul Ricœur Emmanuel Levinas and Jean Paul Sartre Marcel was puzzled and disappointed that his reputation was almost entirely based on his philosophical treatises and not on his plays which he wrote in the hope of appealing to a wider lay audience He also influenced phenomenologist and Thomistic philosopher Karol Wojtyla later Pope John Paul II who drew on Marcel s distinction between being and having in his critique of technological change 10 Main works Edit His major books are the Metaphysical Journal 1927 Being and Having 1933 Homo Viator 1945 Mystery of Being 1951 and Man Against Mass Society 1955 He gave the William James Lectures at Harvard in 1961 1962 which were subsequently published as The Existential Background of Human Dignity Works in English translation Edit1948 The Philosophy of Existence Manya Harari trans London The Harvill Press Later editions were titled The Philosophy of Existentialism 1949 Being and Having Katherine Farrer trans Westminster London Dacre Press 1950 The Metaphysical Journal Bernard Wall trans Chicago Henry Regnery Company 1951 The Mystery of Being Vol 1 Reflection and Mystery trans G S Fraser Vol 2 Faith and Reality trans Rene Hague London The Harvill Press 1956 Royce s Metaphysics Virginia and Gordon Ringer trans Chicago Henry Regnery Company 1962 Man Against Mass Society G S Fraser trans Chicago Henry Regnery Company 1962 Homo Viator Introduction to a Metaphysic of Hope Emma Craufurd trans Harper amp Brothers 1963 The Existential Background of Human Dignity Harvard University Press 1964 Creative Fidelity Translated with an introduction by Robert Rosthal Farrar Straus and Company 1967 Presence and Immortality Michael A Machado trans Pittsburgh Duquesne University Press 1967 Problematic Man Brian Thompson trans New York Herder and Herder 1973 Tragic Wisdom and Beyond Stephen Jolin and Peter McCormick trans Publication of the Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy ed John Wild Northwestern University Press 1998 Gabriel Marcel s Perspectives on The Broken World The Broken World a Four Act Play Followed by Concrete Approaches to Investigating the Ontological Mystery Katharine Rose Hanley trans Milwaukee Marquette University Press 2002 Awakenings Peter Rogers trans Milwaukee Marquette University Press 2004 Ghostly Mysteries Existential Drama A Mystery of Love amp The Posthumous Joke Katharine Rose Hanley trans Milwaukee Marquette University Press 2008 A Path to Peace Fresh Hope for the World Dramatic Explorations Five Plays by Gabriel Marcel The Heart of Others Dot the I The Double Expertise The Lantern Colombyre or The Torch of Peace Katharine Rose Hanley trans Milwaukee Marquette University Press 2009 Thou Shall Not Die Compiled by Anne Marcel Katharine Rose Hanley trans South Bank St Augustine s Press 2019 The Invisible Threshold Two Plays by Gabriel Marcel Brendan Sweetman Maria Traub Geoffrey Karabin eds Maria Traub trans South Bank St Augustine s Press 2021 Thirst Michial Farmer trans Providence RI Cluny Media Notes Edit Pronounced m ɑːr ˈ s ɛ l mar SEL French ɡabʁijɛl ɔnɔʁe maʁsɛl The title of his 1910 thesis was Coleridge et Schelling Coleridge and Schelling It was published in 1971 see Jeanne Parain Vial Gabriel Marcel un veilleur et un eveilleur L Age d Homme 1989 p 12 References Edit Paul T Brockelman Existential Phenomenology and the World of Ordinary Experience An Introduction University Press of America 1980 p 3 Spiegelberg Herbert and Schuhmann Karl 1982 The Phenomenological Movement Springer pp 438 439 448 449 Jon Bartley Stewart Kierkegaard and Existentialism Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2011 p 204 A Wadge The Influence of Royce on the philosophy of Gabriel Marcel Master s thesis Durham University 1972 a b c Marcel Gabriel 1947 The Philosophy of Existentialism Manya Harari Paris Citadel Press ISBN 0 8065 0901 5 Gabriel Honore Marcel Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy The Existential Background of Human Dignity pp 31 32 Homo Viator p 23 Ballard Edward G 1967 Gabriel Marcel The Mystery of Being In Schrader George Alfred Jr ed Existential Philosophers Kierkegaard to Merleau Ponty Toronto McGraw Hill p 227 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint multiple names editors list link Jeffreys Derek S 2007 A Deep Amazement at Man s Worth and Dignity Technology and the Person in Redemptor hominis in Perry Tim ed The Legacy of John Paul II An Evangelical Assessment InterVarsity Press pp 37 56 Further reading EditEmmanuel Levinas Paul Ricœur and Xavier Tilliette Jean Wahl et Gabriel Marcel Beauchesne 1976 96 p ISBN 2 7010 0240 0 Paul Marcus In Search of the Spiritual Gabriel Marcel Psychoanalysis and the Sacred London Karnac 2012 ISBN 1780490542External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to Gabriel Marcel The Gabriel Marcel Society Gabriel Marcel Collection at the Harry Ransom Center Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Gabriel Marcel by Jill Graper Hernandez Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Gabriel Honore Marcel by Brian Treanor Homage to Gabriel Marcel Article from the Revue Metapsychique no 14 June 1969 pp 41 52 Portals Biography Catholicism France Philosophy Technology Theatre Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Gabriel Marcel amp oldid 1153307167, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
