Gabriel Marcel

Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973), a dramatist and philosopher, a convert from Hegelianism to Roman Catholicism, is the most representative of the French Existentialists. He expressed his thought in the Metaphysical Journal; Being and Having; and From Refusal to Invocation. None of these works, however, are systematic treatises.

The work of putting the writings of Marcel into a logical whole was achieved by one of his friends. Marcel introduced this compilation to the public with the words: "This is the book I should have written!"

The philosophical thought of Marcel had originally been expressed in the form of scattered statements, of deep flashes of insight into the problems of human life, which he had noted in his Metaphysical Journal as early as 1925, even before the publication of the works of Heidegger.

According to Marcel, philosophy is not research on being but an attempt to find being. By this distinction he means that the object of philosophy is not a thing separate from us, one about which we ask questions for the purpose of reaching some solution. The object of philosophical research is the inquiring subject himself, not only because he is a being but because he is the first being who is brought into his own immediate experience. Hence philosophy necessarily must be existentialist, and its starting point must be this immediate fact: actual existence in the world.

This distinction between research on being and an attempt to find being is followed by another subtle distinction between "problem" and "mystery." Marcel designates as problems all the questions which are concerned with the objects conceived of as distinct from us. Concerning these, we may ask questions, and we may deduce a "solution." On the contrary, he calls "mysteries" all those questions which are concerned with our own existence. The answer to such questions can be obtained only through mystical "recollection."

Besides these two distinctions, Marcel makes another between having and being. He observes that having implies a dualism composed of a possessing subject and a possessed object; having is concerned with objective exteriority. Being on the contrary, does not admit of any dualism, for the object is identical with the subject. Thus I do not have my body; I am my body.

Having made these distinctions, Marcel begins his philosophical research with the existent, and starts from the level of knowledge. First of all, he observes that perception is not a simple representation of an object to the sentient subject. Sensation essentially consists in the act of perceiving, and this act is "mine." To perceive an object means that the subject becomes mysteriously that object. Thus by means of perception I am deepening in a new and mysterious way my participation in the universe. Perception is like a creation of the universe in me.

The first and most intimate participation is that effected with my body. In virtue of the distinction between "problem" and "mystery," the union of the soul with the body is not open to investigation; for Marcel such a union is a mystery. I am my body, which means that I am "incarnated" in my body, not in the sense that I could not be existent without this mysterious "other" which is my body.

Through my body I perceive surrounding objects. They represent a transcendent thing for me; but through the act of perception I am open to them and they are open to me. Thus the act of perception is an act of love. Through it I transcend myself; I am in mysterious participation with objects. Through the act of perception objects become immanent in me. Now, the objects are no longer a third thing; they become the "thou" with whom I talk.

From the "thou" of the finite things I ascend to God, the absolute Thou. Thus, I feel God as present to me and I invoke Him. The existence of God is an object of faith and not of reason; and faith is possible only when charity overcomes all impediments and all obstacles. Man thus becomes available to all, and all become available to man.