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The Fellowship of Being: An Essay on the Concept of Person in the Philosophy of Gabriel Marcel PDF

154 Pages·1966·3.64 MB·English
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THE FELLOWSHIP OF BEING THE FELLOWSHIP OF BEING AN ESSAY ON THE CONCEPT OF PERSON IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF GABRIEL MARCEL by JOHN B. O'MALLEY Notre Dame College of Education, Liverpool 11 THE HAGUE MAR TINUS NIJHOFF 1966 ISBN 978-94-011-8677-3 ISBN 978-94-011-9479-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-9479-2 Copyright 1966 by Martinus NijhojJ, The Hague, Netherlands All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form TO MARIE FOREWORD This book is the fruit of a critical inquiry into the nature and scope of Marcel's philosophie achievement. As such, it is concerned less with affixing the appropriate label (personalist or existentialist) to Marcel's thought - and with it making it stick - than with discovering the precise impulse and tenor ofhis philosophy. In the process ofthat more general inquiry, the writer found being forced upon hirn a central concept as integrating focus of Marcel's philosophie investigations. This eoneept was that of the person. Gradually it emerged as a concept not only of prime importance for understanding the underlying harmony that pervades Marcel's professedly unsystematic researches, but equally as one ofp rofound significanee for any philosophy that pretends adequately to aecount for human experienee. Furthermore, it seemed that the eoneept derived much ofthat significance from its acceptance precisely in the context of Marcel's thought. This feature ofMareel's philosophie writings alone is warrant enough for overeoming any initial embarrassment aroused in Anglo-Saxon breasts by his style. For, to speak candidly, that style is of a generation and a climate whose tastes little aecord with palates trained to a greater astringeney. Nor will Marcel's evident and unashamed coneern with life and its problems necessarily evoke a warm response in minds aceustomed to operate in an atmosphere of stricter and more aeademic reserve. The relevanee of Marcel, however, lies not merely in the fact ofhis having first developed in France the themes of existence, situation, and the corps sujet. A sympathetie, though not necessarily for that a partisan, eye will discern in even such an early work as the seeond part ofthe Metaphysical Journal the anticipation ofmany questions that were later to exercise minds on the western side of the Channel. There we find hirn confronting the question of adapting language to its use in contexts deeper or transcending those of its normal usage, without completely severing its rooted links with the latter. There, too, he squarely faces the problem of the mind's relationship with the body, vigorously rejeeting a simple dualism without falling into behaviourism VIII FOREWORD or any facile suppression of one aspect of the situation. In the process, we find hirn demolishing the hypothesis ofa ghostly doubling ofphysical action and can discern the virtual postulating of a defensible primacy of the concept of person. And, as a final instance, we find there the first steps traced of a path that was to lead to a satisfactory reconciliation and integration of the ontological with the moral point of view. All these questions were to be pursued by Marcel in a spirit freed from earlier idealist prejudice in a language continually readjusted to the situation it was called upon to explore. It were a hard arrogance indeed that found in all this enterprise nothing worth the further consideration. It remains to thank M. Marcel himselffor the characteristic courtesy and friendly interest he showed, both in conversation and in corre- spondence, in answering questions put to hirn concerning his philoso- phy. This book embodies work, later revised and somewhat amended, originally presented to the University ofLondon and approved for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. My thanks are due to Professor A. J. Ayer, then of University College, who supervised the preparatory research and from whose clear and vigorous argument I greatly benefited. Any shortcomings in the work, however, I must sadly claim as only mine. Finally, I should like to thank my wife without whose encouragement the book would never have been completed. The author has made his own translations from the French text, except where an official English translation already existed and was generally available. The following sources ofq uotations must, therefore, be acknowledged: Metaphysical Journal translated by Bernard Wall, (Barrie & Rockliff); Being and Having translated by Katherine Farrer, (Dacre Press); The Mystery of Being, I & IJI and Men Against Humanity translated by G. S. Fraser (Harvill Press); and The Philosophy of Ex- istence translated by Manya Harari, (Harvill Press). Where circum- stances required a more literal translation by the author, this has been marked in a footnote. 1 The Mistery of Being 11 was, of course, translated by Rene Hague. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE We have made use of the abbreviations listed below, when making reference to Marcel's works in footnotes to the text. Some of Marcel's works have been translated into English. In the event, however, we have found only few of these to be readily available. Of them The Philosophy oJ Existence has the advantage of presenting in one volume four important essays, two of which were separately published in the original French. J.M. Journal Mltaphysique. (1914-1923). Gallimard, Paris, 1927. English Trans- lation by Bernard Wall: Rockliff, London, 1952. The Appendix to the Journal, an essay on "Existence and Objectivity," was first published in 1925 in the Revue de Müaphysique et de Morale. B.H. Being and Having. Dacre Press, London, 1949. English translation by Katharine Farrer of 2tre et Avoir. Aubier, Paris, 1935. P.E. The Philosophy of Existence. Harvill Press, London, 1948. English translation by Manya Harari of: Position et approches concretes du mystere ontologique, appendix to Le Monde Gasse, Desclt~e de Brouwer, Paris, 1933. Published separate1y by Nauwe1aerts, Louvain, 1949. Existentialism and Human Freedom, 1946. Testimony and Existentialism, 1946; Essay in Autobiography - Regard en ArriCre published in Existentialisme Ghrüien, PIon, Paris, 1947. R.1. Du Refus a l' Invocation. Gallimard, Paris, 1940. H.V. Homo Viator. Aubier, Paris, 1945. English translation, under same tide, by Emma Craufurd, Gollancz, London, 1951. M.E. I. Le Mystere de l'2tre I: Rijlexion et Mystere. Aubier, Paris, 1951. First Series of Gifford Lectures: Univ. of Aberdeen, 1949. English translation by G. S. Fraser, The Mystery of Being, I. Reflection and Mystery. Harvill Press, London, 1950. M.E.lI. Le mystere de l'2tre 11: Foi et Realiee. Aubier, Paris, 1951. Second series of Gifford Lectures: Univ. of Aberdeen, 1950. English translation by Rene Hague, The Mystery of Being II. Faith and Reality, Harvill Press, London, 1951. H.C.H. Les Hommes contre l'Humain. La Colombe, Paris, 1951. English translation by G. S. Fraser, Men Against Humanity, Harvill Press, London, 1952. D.W. The Decline of Wisdom. Harvill Press, London, 1954. English translation by Manya Harari of Le declin de la Sagesse, PIon, Paris, 1954. H.P. L'Homme ProbUmatique. Aubier, Paris, 1955. P.1. Presence et Immortaliee. Flammarion, Paris, 1959. This contains: "Mon Propos Fondamental" (1937); ''Journal Metaphysique" (1938-1943); "Presence et Immortalite" (1951); "L'Insondable," an unfinished play of March 1919. x BmLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE U.A. "L'Umanesimo Autentico e i suori presuppositi esistenziali." Published in the Review, ff Fuoco.]an.-Feb. 1958, N.!. STUDIES "What can One Expect of Philosophy?" English translation of address XLVIII given at Univ. College, Dublin - National Univ. of Ireland - on 11th 190 March 1959. Thetranslation, byRev. M.B. Crowe,appearedinSTUDfES: an frish Quarterly Review. The Talbot Press, Dublin. Vol. XLVIII No. 190. Summer 1959, pp. 151-162. (For a fulliist ofall M. Marcel's writings up to]anuary 1st, 1953, c.f. De l'Existence a l'fttre, Roger Troisfontaines, S.]., Nauwelaerts, Louvain, Vrin, Paris, 1935, Tome 11, pp. 381, ff.) TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword . .... VII Bibliographical Note x Introduction . 1 I The Personal Question . 7 II Metaproblematic Inquiry 24 III The Existential Situation. 60 IV The Fellowship ofBeing 95 Conclusion. 131 Index 138 "Concepts lead us to make investigations, are the expression of our interest, and direct our interest." L. Wittgenstein, Philosophicallnvestigations. 1. 570.

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