Essay Marcel's Existentialism

Sariephine Grace Aras
BSMA-2
1. Briefly explain the existentialism from the perspective of Gabriel Marcel.

 The perspective of Gabriel Marcel on existentialism focused on
commitment to the development of the individual's concrete existence, the
restoration of mutual respect, and trust in human relationships; recognize
the true worth of man in relation to his fellow man in the feeling of
bondness.
 In his introduction to The Philosophy of Existentialism, Gabriel Marcel
describes the first three essays, which make up most of the book. The
first, “On the Ontological Mystery,” gives the main outlines of Marcel’s own
thinking. The second, “Existence and Human Freedom,” offers a critical
discussion of the work of Jean-Paul Sartre. The third, “Testimony and
Existentialism,” gives Marcel’s own perspective on existentialism. These
three essays also appear in chronological order, since Marcel wrote them
in 1933, January of 1946, and February of 1946, respectively. A fourth,
short autobiographical piece, “An Essay in Autobiography,” published in
1947 in a collection of writings devoted to Marcel’s work, appears at the
end. Thus, the four essays can be taken as representing the development
of Gabriel Marcel’s thought and as his response to existentialist
philosophy in its heyday in the late 1940’s.
“On the Ontological Mystery” poses a distinction between problems and
mysteries. Problems are questions that are, at least in theory, resolvable.
However, the ontological, which Marcel defines as the sense of being, is
not a problem, but a mystery. Connected to the mystery of the sense of
being is the sense of presence, the sense of one’s own presence and the
sense of the presence of things and of something beyond oneself. Modern
life, with its absorption in problems and in the technical means to solve
problems, tends to overlook being and presence. The fascination with
technology, in particular, tends to involve human beings in a pride in their
own control of the world and to render them incapable of controlling their
own control. Marcel suggests an association between the ontological
mystery and Christianity, particularly Catholicism. The sense of presence,
for example, can be understood as the religious experience of the
Eucharist. However, Marcel maintains that openness to the irreducible
fullness of existence may entail Christianity for those who live within the
historical tradition of Christianity, but that no particular religious
perspective is logically necessary for the recognition of the ontological
mystery.
The second essay, “Existence and Human Freedom,” takes up the ideas
developed in the first and directs these ideas toward the most famous (or
notorious) spokesperson of existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre. In this essay,
Marcel concentrates on Sartre’s first book, the novel La Nausée (1938;
Nausea, 1949), but he also touches on several of Sartre’s other works.
Those who read Marcel’s description of Sartre’s novel with the first essay
of this book in mind will be struck by the difference between the two
writers’ subjective approaches to existence. For Marcel, being is a
mysterious fullness. For Sartre, as seen through the ideas of his
protagonist Roquentin, being is something that produces feelings of
formlessness, stickiness, emptiness, and disgust. Marcel raises the
question of why the existence of things apart from oneself should
necessarily give rise to such negative reactions. An analysis of Sartre’s
ideas of human freedom is central to Marcel’s criticism of the Sartrean
system of values. Sartre argues that freedom consists of making choices
and that it is through making choices that one becomes free. It is also the
case, though, that all choices are absurd. Since all choices are made in
absolute freedom, there is no reason to choose one thing rather than
another. The philosophy of the freedom of emptiness is based on Sartre’s
materialism and his atheism. There is nothing inside of things or behind
them, and this is what gives existence its quality of provoking vertigo and
nausea. Marcel points out, though, that if we simply exercise our freedom
through making choices, we have no basis for judging the choices that
people make. The French who chose to collaborate with the German
occupiers during World War II (which had ended only a decade before
Marcel published his book) acted in.
(https://www.enotes.com/topics/philosophy-existentialism#summary-
overview)
2. Explain the relevance of Marcel's Existentialism in relation to Freedom.

 The relevance of Marcel's Existentialism in relation to Freedom is that as
an existentialist, Marcel's freedom is tied to the raw experiences of the
body. However, the phenomenology of Marcelian freedom is characterized
by his insistence that freedom is something to be experienced, and the
self is fully free when it is submerged in the possibilities of the self and the
needs of others. Perhaps most known for his views on freedom, Marcel
gave to existentialism a view of freedom that marries the absolute
indeterminacy of traditional existentialism with Marcel's view that
transcendence of facticity can only come by depending upon others with
the same goals.
3. Why Sarte argues that people are ‘’condemned to be free''?

 Sarte argues that people are ‘’condemned to be free'' because believed
that human beings live in constant anguish, not solely because life is
miserable, but because we are 'condemned to be free'. It means that we
are free to make our own choices but we are condemned to always bear
the responsibility of the consequences of these choices. Sartre says that
we never asked for this life or this freedom but we are still held
accountable for our choices and these choices end up shaping what we
become in life.

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Sariephine Grace Aras

1. Briefly explain the existentialism from the perspective of Gabriel Marcel.

2. Explain the relevance of Marcel's Existentialism in relation to Freedom.

3. Why Sarte argues that people are ‘’condemned to be free''?

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