Gabriel Marcel
Personal Information
Description
Gabriel Honoré Marcel (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.
Books
Being and having
"Part of Marcel's 'metaphysical diary' and particularly valuable in showing how the major distinctions within which his thought has been moving germinated and developed. It is, I think, the most important single source of understanding Marcel's own viewpoint...Not the least of this book's advantages is the fact that it includes many references to other thinkers who have influenced Marcel. In short, it affords an unusual and first-hand disclosure of a thinker's own self-understanding...his thought, to my mind is deeply seminal and evocative, full of fresh statement and surprising insight, while never assertive or 'dogmatic'." [Roger Hazelton].
Du refus à l'invocation
"This collection of lectures and essays was regarded by Gabriel Marcel as the best introduction to his thought. Outstanding in the richness of its analyses and in its application of Marcel's "concrete approach" to philosophical problems, Creative Fidelity not only deals with the perennial Marcellian themes of faith, fidelity, belief, incarnate being, and participation, but includes chapters on religious tolerance and orthodoxy and an important critical essay on Karl Jaspers.". "Known in this country as a Christian existentialist, Marcel preferred to be called a "neo-Socratic," a label suggesting the dialogical, unfinished nature of his speculations. He may best be described as a reflective empiricist."--BOOK JACKET.