A Gabriel Marcel Reader

Abstract

To those familiar with Gabriel Marcel, the recent resurgence in interest in Marcel's existentialism is unsurprising. His primary texts span a range of relevant contemporary topics, and recent monographs have rejuvenated dialogue on Marcel's epistemology, aesthetics, metaphysics, and ethics. What has been missing from the revival of Marcelian scholarship is a compilation of his most significant writings that is also immediately accessible to undergraduates. The recent anthology from Brendan Sweetman, president of the Gabriel Marcel Society, meets that need. The collection is organised thematically, includes selections from a broad swath of Marcel's major contributions, and touches on elements that are crucial to the research and pedagogy of Marcel. Sweetman's introduction is especially useful for those who are new to Marcel, chiefly because it frames the book's selections around fundamental Marcelian ideas that appear in every chapter: situatedness, secondary reflection, being (rather than having), and the distinction between problem and mystery. Throughout the book, Sweetman emphasises Marcel's notion of the ‘concrete situation’, a subject's involvement in the world tied to her ‘particular spatial and temporal location, general and personal history, [and] cultural and economic context’ (p. 4). This situation is rooted existentially—in the body—and so cannot be reduced to the conceptual, even though primary reflection requires concepts to solve philosophical problems. Sweetman comments, ‘[H]uman existence is best described as ‘mysterious’, from the philosophical point of view, because it cannot be fully captured and presented in ordinary conceptual knowledge’ (p. 5). Truth about mysterious aspects of concrete experience (including love, faith, and pain) can be discovered through reflection, but reflection can never lead to solutions about them. Attempts to solve mysteries as problems lead to human brokenness (p. 7).