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

154 Pages·1966·3.64 MB·English

by  John B. O’Malley (auth.)

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.