Brian Treanor
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226849
- eISBN:
- 9780823235100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226849.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter poses questions specific to the philosophy of intersubjectivity as described by Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel. It examines Marcel’s work through the eyes of ...
More
This chapter poses questions specific to the philosophy of intersubjectivity as described by Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel. It examines Marcel’s work through the eyes of Levinas—with the dual goals of attempting to answer some of Levinas’s criticisms and, simultaneously, bringing into sharper relief those issues on which significant disagreement remains. First, the question of otherness on a transcendental level is considered. The transcendental philosophy of Levinas and Marcel is then discussed. Levinas’s transcendental critique argues that sociality is prior to ontology and that sociality requires a distinct and separate other who is absolutely other prior to an encounter with the self. Levinas insists that the other is absolutely other, while Marcel would clearly reject such a black and white distinction.Less
This chapter poses questions specific to the philosophy of intersubjectivity as described by Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel. It examines Marcel’s work through the eyes of Levinas—with the dual goals of attempting to answer some of Levinas’s criticisms and, simultaneously, bringing into sharper relief those issues on which significant disagreement remains. First, the question of otherness on a transcendental level is considered. The transcendental philosophy of Levinas and Marcel is then discussed. Levinas’s transcendental critique argues that sociality is prior to ontology and that sociality requires a distinct and separate other who is absolutely other prior to an encounter with the self. Levinas insists that the other is absolutely other, while Marcel would clearly reject such a black and white distinction.
Brian Treanor
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226849
- eISBN:
- 9780823235100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226849.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Gabriel Marcel was not a “professional” philosopher and his philosophical legacy includes lectures, journal entries, and dramatic works in addition to more orthodox ...
More
Gabriel Marcel was not a “professional” philosopher and his philosophical legacy includes lectures, journal entries, and dramatic works in addition to more orthodox philosophical expression in essays. Of these various genres, Marcel was perhaps most pleased with his dramatic works, in which he felt he was able to express things for which the more rigid structures of philosophical language were inadequate. This chapter summarizes some of the significant elements in Marcel’s diverse and unsystematic work. It provides a general overview of the philosophy in question, but with special attention to those features that have a bearing on love, justice, or otherness.Less
Gabriel Marcel was not a “professional” philosopher and his philosophical legacy includes lectures, journal entries, and dramatic works in addition to more orthodox philosophical expression in essays. Of these various genres, Marcel was perhaps most pleased with his dramatic works, in which he felt he was able to express things for which the more rigid structures of philosophical language were inadequate. This chapter summarizes some of the significant elements in Marcel’s diverse and unsystematic work. It provides a general overview of the philosophy in question, but with special attention to those features that have a bearing on love, justice, or otherness.
Brian Treanor
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226849
- eISBN:
- 9780823235100
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226849.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
“Every other is truly other, but no other is wholly other”. This is the claim that this book defends. Taking up the question of otherness that so fascinates contemporary continental ...
More
“Every other is truly other, but no other is wholly other”. This is the claim that this book defends. Taking up the question of otherness that so fascinates contemporary continental philosophy, this book asks what it means for something or someone to be other than the self. Emmanuel Levinas and those influenced by him point out that the philosophical tradition of the West has generally favored the self at the expense of the other. In response, postmodern thought insists on the absolute otherness of the other, epitomized by the deconstructive claim “every other is wholly other”. But absolute otherness generates problems and aporias of its own. This has led some thinkers to reevaluate the notion of relative otherness in light of the postmodern critique, arguing for a chiastic account that does justice to both the alterity and the similitude of the other. These latter two positions—absolute otherness and a rehabilitated account of relative otherness—are the main contenders in the contemporary debate. This book traces the transmission and development of these two conceptions of otherness by examining the philosophies of Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel. Levinas's version of otherness can be seen in the work of Jacques Derrida and John D. Caputo, while Marcel's understanding of otherness influences the work of Paul Ricoeur and Richard Kearney. Ultimately, this book makes a case for a hermeneutic account of otherness. Otherness itself is not absolute, but is a chiasm of alterity and similitude.Less
“Every other is truly other, but no other is wholly other”. This is the claim that this book defends. Taking up the question of otherness that so fascinates contemporary continental philosophy, this book asks what it means for something or someone to be other than the self. Emmanuel Levinas and those influenced by him point out that the philosophical tradition of the West has generally favored the self at the expense of the other. In response, postmodern thought insists on the absolute otherness of the other, epitomized by the deconstructive claim “every other is wholly other”. But absolute otherness generates problems and aporias of its own. This has led some thinkers to reevaluate the notion of relative otherness in light of the postmodern critique, arguing for a chiastic account that does justice to both the alterity and the similitude of the other. These latter two positions—absolute otherness and a rehabilitated account of relative otherness—are the main contenders in the contemporary debate. This book traces the transmission and development of these two conceptions of otherness by examining the philosophies of Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel. Levinas's version of otherness can be seen in the work of Jacques Derrida and John D. Caputo, while Marcel's understanding of otherness influences the work of Paul Ricoeur and Richard Kearney. Ultimately, this book makes a case for a hermeneutic account of otherness. Otherness itself is not absolute, but is a chiasm of alterity and similitude.
Brian Treanor
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226849
- eISBN:
- 9780823235100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226849.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The divergence that existed between Gabriel Marcel and Emmanuel Levinas continues to fuel a lively philosophical debate, and the jury is still out with respect to the question ...
More
The divergence that existed between Gabriel Marcel and Emmanuel Levinas continues to fuel a lively philosophical debate, and the jury is still out with respect to the question of the otherness of the other. This chapter discusses several key points. First, after briefly reiterating some of what is at stake in the question of the otherness of the other, it offers two possible reconciliations of the conflict between absolute and relative characterizations of otherness: one from the perspective of Levinas, another from the perspective of Marcel. Second, the chapter traces the development of these two accounts of otherness—absolute and relative—from their reemergence in Levinas and Marcel to their contemporary manifestations, in order to illustrate the enduring challenge posed by this problem and the contributions of Levinas and Marcel to its current expression. One possible resolution of the differences between Levinas and Marcel—that is, between absolute otherness and relative otherness—would focus on the distinction between transcendental philosophy and empirical philosophy.Less
The divergence that existed between Gabriel Marcel and Emmanuel Levinas continues to fuel a lively philosophical debate, and the jury is still out with respect to the question of the otherness of the other. This chapter discusses several key points. First, after briefly reiterating some of what is at stake in the question of the otherness of the other, it offers two possible reconciliations of the conflict between absolute and relative characterizations of otherness: one from the perspective of Levinas, another from the perspective of Marcel. Second, the chapter traces the development of these two accounts of otherness—absolute and relative—from their reemergence in Levinas and Marcel to their contemporary manifestations, in order to illustrate the enduring challenge posed by this problem and the contributions of Levinas and Marcel to its current expression. One possible resolution of the differences between Levinas and Marcel—that is, between absolute otherness and relative otherness—would focus on the distinction between transcendental philosophy and empirical philosophy.
Brian Treanor
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226849
- eISBN:
- 9780823235100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226849.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The interconnectedness, even interdependence, of the alterity of other persons and the alterity of God is clearly present in both Gabriel Marcel's and Emmanuel Levinas's work. ...
More
The interconnectedness, even interdependence, of the alterity of other persons and the alterity of God is clearly present in both Gabriel Marcel's and Emmanuel Levinas's work. Steadfastly maintaining a connection between the otherness of God and the otherness of other persons, Levinas and Marcel specifically represent these two loves—love oriented toward the divine and love toward our fellow humans—as intertwined. Both thinkers perceive that one cannot love God without loving one's fellow man, and that one cannot love one's fellow man without loving God. For these philosophers, the relationships we have with other persons are the mode of access—either primarily (Marcel) or exclusively (Levinas)—that we have to God; and this is the clearest indication that the alterity of the other person and the alterity of God are related.Less
The interconnectedness, even interdependence, of the alterity of other persons and the alterity of God is clearly present in both Gabriel Marcel's and Emmanuel Levinas's work. Steadfastly maintaining a connection between the otherness of God and the otherness of other persons, Levinas and Marcel specifically represent these two loves—love oriented toward the divine and love toward our fellow humans—as intertwined. Both thinkers perceive that one cannot love God without loving one's fellow man, and that one cannot love one's fellow man without loving God. For these philosophers, the relationships we have with other persons are the mode of access—either primarily (Marcel) or exclusively (Levinas)—that we have to God; and this is the clearest indication that the alterity of the other person and the alterity of God are related.
Dwayne A. Tunstall
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823251605
- eISBN:
- 9780823252725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823251605.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter explains how Marcel’s reflective method is a teleological suspension of philosophy through a selective examination of his writings about reflection from Being and Having (1935) to his ...
More
This chapter explains how Marcel’s reflective method is a teleological suspension of philosophy through a selective examination of his writings about reflection from Being and Having (1935) to his series of conversations with Paul Ricoeur in 1968. This chapter also explains how Marcel’s reflective method works at the primary level, the conceptual secondary level, and the participatory secondary level.Less
This chapter explains how Marcel’s reflective method is a teleological suspension of philosophy through a selective examination of his writings about reflection from Being and Having (1935) to his series of conversations with Paul Ricoeur in 1968. This chapter also explains how Marcel’s reflective method works at the primary level, the conceptual secondary level, and the participatory secondary level.
Dwayne A. Tunstall
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823251605
- eISBN:
- 9780823252725
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823251605.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This book contends that Gabriel Marcel’s reflective method is animated by two extraphilosophical commitments. Marcel’s first extraphilosophical commitment is to an ethico-religious insight where the ...
More
This book contends that Gabriel Marcel’s reflective method is animated by two extraphilosophical commitments. Marcel’s first extraphilosophical commitment is to an ethico-religious insight where the highest ontological exigency for human persons is to participate in being. Marcel’s second extraphilosophical commitment is to battle the ever-present threat of dehumanization in late Western modernity. The importance of these two commitments to Marcel’s reflective method can be appreciated better if one views it as a teleological suspension of philosophy. Unfortunately, Marcel undermines his second extraphilosophical commitment by neglecting to examine what is perhaps the most prevalent threat of depersonalization in Western modernity, antiblack racism. Given Marcel’s professed commitment to battle against the forces of dehumanization in late Western modernity, any Marcellian reflective method that is faithful to Marcel’s commitment to combat dehumanization should account for how antiblack racism has affected modern human persons, especially Africana persons. Tunstall thinks Gordon’s existential phenomenology is a promising candidate for providing this sort of account.Less
This book contends that Gabriel Marcel’s reflective method is animated by two extraphilosophical commitments. Marcel’s first extraphilosophical commitment is to an ethico-religious insight where the highest ontological exigency for human persons is to participate in being. Marcel’s second extraphilosophical commitment is to battle the ever-present threat of dehumanization in late Western modernity. The importance of these two commitments to Marcel’s reflective method can be appreciated better if one views it as a teleological suspension of philosophy. Unfortunately, Marcel undermines his second extraphilosophical commitment by neglecting to examine what is perhaps the most prevalent threat of depersonalization in Western modernity, antiblack racism. Given Marcel’s professed commitment to battle against the forces of dehumanization in late Western modernity, any Marcellian reflective method that is faithful to Marcel’s commitment to combat dehumanization should account for how antiblack racism has affected modern human persons, especially Africana persons. Tunstall thinks Gordon’s existential phenomenology is a promising candidate for providing this sort of account.
Brian Treanor
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226849
- eISBN:
- 9780823235100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226849.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
While Emmanuel Levinas's critique is transcendental, Gabriel Marcel's is “concrete” or “existential”. Marcel's existential critique takes two general forms, although, to all ...
More
While Emmanuel Levinas's critique is transcendental, Gabriel Marcel's is “concrete” or “existential”. Marcel's existential critique takes two general forms, although, to all intents and purposes, they amount to the same thing. He either attacks the “spirit of abstraction” that thinks it can understand the whole by abstracting and analyzing a part, or, without explicitly accusing a philosophy of abstraction, points out that it does not account for the fullness of lived experience. This chapter focuses on issues at a confluence of two dialogues. First, between Marcel and Levinas on the question of the existential accuracy of their respective accounts of intersubjectivity and alterity. Second, between Levinas and his (explicit) interlocutors and critics regarding those criticisms in line with the first dialogue.Less
While Emmanuel Levinas's critique is transcendental, Gabriel Marcel's is “concrete” or “existential”. Marcel's existential critique takes two general forms, although, to all intents and purposes, they amount to the same thing. He either attacks the “spirit of abstraction” that thinks it can understand the whole by abstracting and analyzing a part, or, without explicitly accusing a philosophy of abstraction, points out that it does not account for the fullness of lived experience. This chapter focuses on issues at a confluence of two dialogues. First, between Marcel and Levinas on the question of the existential accuracy of their respective accounts of intersubjectivity and alterity. Second, between Levinas and his (explicit) interlocutors and critics regarding those criticisms in line with the first dialogue.
Dwayne A. Tunstall
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823251605
- eISBN:
- 9780823252725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823251605.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter examines four ways Marcel battles against the dehumanization of human persons in late Western modernity. First, Marcel criticizes the reduction of human persons to their functions in ...
More
This chapter examines four ways Marcel battles against the dehumanization of human persons in late Western modernity. First, Marcel criticizes the reduction of human persons to their functions in twentieth century western societies. Second, he criticizes the techniques of degradation used on marginalized people in Europe during the Second World War. Third, he criticizes the dehumanizing effects of technology on human persons. His criticism of technology is then compared to Albert Borgmann’s neo-Heideggerian criticism of technology. Fourth, Marcel criticizes the impersonal political ideologies that have led to the death of millions during the first half of the twentieth century.Less
This chapter examines four ways Marcel battles against the dehumanization of human persons in late Western modernity. First, Marcel criticizes the reduction of human persons to their functions in twentieth century western societies. Second, he criticizes the techniques of degradation used on marginalized people in Europe during the Second World War. Third, he criticizes the dehumanizing effects of technology on human persons. His criticism of technology is then compared to Albert Borgmann’s neo-Heideggerian criticism of technology. Fourth, Marcel criticizes the impersonal political ideologies that have led to the death of millions during the first half of the twentieth century.
Brian Treanor
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226849
- eISBN:
- 9780823235100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226849.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The death of the Grand Narrative and the host of questions that followed its demise, like giants rising from the spilled blood of Uranus, are tied directly to what may be ...
More
The death of the Grand Narrative and the host of questions that followed its demise, like giants rising from the spilled blood of Uranus, are tied directly to what may be called “the question of otherness”. This is because otherness is precisely what Grand Narratives seek to do away with. Anything unknown—that is, anything foreign, novel, surprising, disturbing, or otherwise resistant to the neat categories of the Narrative—challenges the comprehensiveness of the Narrative. Grand Narratives will not tolerate otherness; their motto is “a place for everything and everything in its place”. However, the demise of Grand Narratives leaves open the possibility that some things do not have a neat and tidy place within a comprehensive system. In the most basic sense, the question of otherness asks us to consider what it means for something or someone to be other than the self. This book examines the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel concerning otherness.Less
The death of the Grand Narrative and the host of questions that followed its demise, like giants rising from the spilled blood of Uranus, are tied directly to what may be called “the question of otherness”. This is because otherness is precisely what Grand Narratives seek to do away with. Anything unknown—that is, anything foreign, novel, surprising, disturbing, or otherwise resistant to the neat categories of the Narrative—challenges the comprehensiveness of the Narrative. Grand Narratives will not tolerate otherness; their motto is “a place for everything and everything in its place”. However, the demise of Grand Narratives leaves open the possibility that some things do not have a neat and tidy place within a comprehensive system. In the most basic sense, the question of otherness asks us to consider what it means for something or someone to be other than the self. This book examines the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and Gabriel Marcel concerning otherness.
Julia Meszaros
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199659289
- eISBN:
- 9780191764752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659289.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies, Philosophy of Religion
This article examines the connection between self-sacrifice and human selfhood. It sets out with the observation that while certain manifestations of self-sacrifice must rightly be condemned as ...
More
This article examines the connection between self-sacrifice and human selfhood. It sets out with the observation that while certain manifestations of self-sacrifice must rightly be condemned as destructive of the self, self-sacrifice cannot be rejected as a whole. Doing so, it is argued, only engenders new risks and compromises our understanding of what it means to be a relational human being in the face of finitude and sin. Against this background, and with particular recourse to the thought of Gabriel Marcel, the main argument of the article is developed. This consists in the development of a criteriology for when and why self-sacrifice does in fact have the potential to build up and fulfil, rather than undermine, the self. The proposed founding criteria for self-sacrifice include an intersubjective anthropology, the dependency of self-sacrifice on love and desire, and an affirmation of life after death.Less
This article examines the connection between self-sacrifice and human selfhood. It sets out with the observation that while certain manifestations of self-sacrifice must rightly be condemned as destructive of the self, self-sacrifice cannot be rejected as a whole. Doing so, it is argued, only engenders new risks and compromises our understanding of what it means to be a relational human being in the face of finitude and sin. Against this background, and with particular recourse to the thought of Gabriel Marcel, the main argument of the article is developed. This consists in the development of a criteriology for when and why self-sacrifice does in fact have the potential to build up and fulfil, rather than undermine, the self. The proposed founding criteria for self-sacrifice include an intersubjective anthropology, the dependency of self-sacrifice on love and desire, and an affirmation of life after death.
Katherine Davies and Toby Garfitt (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823262373
- eISBN:
- 9780823266425
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823262373.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
God’s Mirror explores how French Catholic intellectual culture in the mid-twentieth century was caught up in the process of transition from a closed, defensive and conceptual theological structure of ...
More
God’s Mirror explores how French Catholic intellectual culture in the mid-twentieth century was caught up in the process of transition from a closed, defensive and conceptual theological structure of the late-nineteenth century to an open, “authentic” and “experientially” committed faith. The volume offers different stories of renewal and engagement in Catholicism, which address the nature of this transition and the tensions therein. What unites these stories is their illumination of a Catholicism that is increasingly concerned with the human being and the concrete, lived reality of faith. These renewals and engagements are examined against the backdrop of the cultural and political crises of the interwar years through to the post-war reconstruction period in France and Francophone Canada. This periodization brings into focus the continuity between the 1930s and the nouvelle théologie movement that preceded Vatican II. God’s Mirror sheds new light on the historiographical narrative of reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the modern world by exploring the shifting cultural, theological and philosophical contours of faith and its political and social commitments. Richly interdisciplinary in scope, contributions range across literature, philosophy, theology, politics and music, including amongst them discussions of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, Gabriel Marcel, Paul Valéry, Jean Grenier, Charles Du Bos, Olivier Messiaen, Simone Weil, Georges Bernanos, Marie-Madeleine Davy, Robert Charbonneau, Paul Beaulieu, and Louis Massignon. These figures were all engaged in the task of revitalizing or reconfiguring Catholicism, from within or on the margins, and contributed to sketching the possibilities and parameters of modern Catholicism and Catholic identity.Less
God’s Mirror explores how French Catholic intellectual culture in the mid-twentieth century was caught up in the process of transition from a closed, defensive and conceptual theological structure of the late-nineteenth century to an open, “authentic” and “experientially” committed faith. The volume offers different stories of renewal and engagement in Catholicism, which address the nature of this transition and the tensions therein. What unites these stories is their illumination of a Catholicism that is increasingly concerned with the human being and the concrete, lived reality of faith. These renewals and engagements are examined against the backdrop of the cultural and political crises of the interwar years through to the post-war reconstruction period in France and Francophone Canada. This periodization brings into focus the continuity between the 1930s and the nouvelle théologie movement that preceded Vatican II. God’s Mirror sheds new light on the historiographical narrative of reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the modern world by exploring the shifting cultural, theological and philosophical contours of faith and its political and social commitments. Richly interdisciplinary in scope, contributions range across literature, philosophy, theology, politics and music, including amongst them discussions of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, Gabriel Marcel, Paul Valéry, Jean Grenier, Charles Du Bos, Olivier Messiaen, Simone Weil, Georges Bernanos, Marie-Madeleine Davy, Robert Charbonneau, Paul Beaulieu, and Louis Massignon. These figures were all engaged in the task of revitalizing or reconfiguring Catholicism, from within or on the margins, and contributed to sketching the possibilities and parameters of modern Catholicism and Catholic identity.
Dwayne A. Tunstall
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823251605
- eISBN:
- 9780823252725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823251605.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter sets the stage for understanding Marcel’s reflective method as a teleological suspension of philosophy. It explores how Marcel’s distinction between viewing ourselves as objects and ...
More
This chapter sets the stage for understanding Marcel’s reflective method as a teleological suspension of philosophy. It explores how Marcel’s distinction between viewing ourselves as objects and viewing ourselves as persons originated in his philosophizing about human existence from the early 1910s to 1925, as recorded in his Metaphysical Journal and outlined in his 1925 article, “Existence and Objectivity.”Less
This chapter sets the stage for understanding Marcel’s reflective method as a teleological suspension of philosophy. It explores how Marcel’s distinction between viewing ourselves as objects and viewing ourselves as persons originated in his philosophizing about human existence from the early 1910s to 1925, as recorded in his Metaphysical Journal and outlined in his 1925 article, “Existence and Objectivity.”
Jean Wahl
Alan D. Schrift and Ian Alexander Moore (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823273010
- eISBN:
- 9780823273065
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823273010.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
Featuring replies and letters by Raymond Aron, Nikolai Berdyaev, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Emmanuel Levinas, Gabriel Marcel, and many others, Wahl’s 1937 “Subjectivity and Transcendence” should ...
More
Featuring replies and letters by Raymond Aron, Nikolai Berdyaev, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Emmanuel Levinas, Gabriel Marcel, and many others, Wahl’s 1937 “Subjectivity and Transcendence” should be included among the most important debates in twentieth-century European philosophy. It is essential for understanding the secularization of Kierkegaard, and it provided a crucial forum in which to discuss and shape the future of existentialism. While revealing Jaspers’s and Heidegger’s debt to Kierkegaard, Wahl at the same time worries that any attempt to provide a philosophy of the insights that stem from Kierkegaard’s life would threaten either to fall into abstraction or to harbor implicit theological presuppositions. He also sets the stage for dialogue about the nature of transcendence by developing the concepts of “transascendence” and “transdescendence.” This chapter concludes with a previously unpublished letter Wahl wrote to Heidegger in which he provides a more detailed response to Heidegger’s contribution to the debate than the one given in “Subjectivity and Transcendence.”Less
Featuring replies and letters by Raymond Aron, Nikolai Berdyaev, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Emmanuel Levinas, Gabriel Marcel, and many others, Wahl’s 1937 “Subjectivity and Transcendence” should be included among the most important debates in twentieth-century European philosophy. It is essential for understanding the secularization of Kierkegaard, and it provided a crucial forum in which to discuss and shape the future of existentialism. While revealing Jaspers’s and Heidegger’s debt to Kierkegaard, Wahl at the same time worries that any attempt to provide a philosophy of the insights that stem from Kierkegaard’s life would threaten either to fall into abstraction or to harbor implicit theological presuppositions. He also sets the stage for dialogue about the nature of transcendence by developing the concepts of “transascendence” and “transdescendence.” This chapter concludes with a previously unpublished letter Wahl wrote to Heidegger in which he provides a more detailed response to Heidegger’s contribution to the debate than the one given in “Subjectivity and Transcendence.”
Jean Wahl
Alan D. Schrift and Ian Alexander Moore (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823273010
- eISBN:
- 9780823273065
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823273010.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
First published in 1932, Vers le concret(“Toward the Concrete”) served as something of a manifesto for a new approach to philosophy in France, one that turned away from idealism and toward the ...
More
First published in 1932, Vers le concret(“Toward the Concrete”) served as something of a manifesto for a new approach to philosophy in France, one that turned away from idealism and toward the questions that would engage phenomenology and existentialism. The Preface draws out the themes that Wahl sees uniting the three figures discussed in the book’s three chapters: William James, Alfred North Whitehead, and Gabriel Marcel, all the while showing the proximity of these three thinkers to the work of Heidegger. About this work, Jean-Paul Sartre would later write: “What interested us, however, was real men with their labors and their troubles. We cried out for a philosophy which would account for everything, and we did not perceive that it existed already and that it was precisely this philosophy which provoked in us this demand. At that time one book enjoyed a great success among us—Jean Wahl’s Toward the Concrete. … the work pleased us, for it embarrassed idealism by discovering in the universe paradoxes, ambiguities, conflicts, still unresolved.”Less
First published in 1932, Vers le concret(“Toward the Concrete”) served as something of a manifesto for a new approach to philosophy in France, one that turned away from idealism and toward the questions that would engage phenomenology and existentialism. The Preface draws out the themes that Wahl sees uniting the three figures discussed in the book’s three chapters: William James, Alfred North Whitehead, and Gabriel Marcel, all the while showing the proximity of these three thinkers to the work of Heidegger. About this work, Jean-Paul Sartre would later write: “What interested us, however, was real men with their labors and their troubles. We cried out for a philosophy which would account for everything, and we did not perceive that it existed already and that it was precisely this philosophy which provoked in us this demand. At that time one book enjoyed a great success among us—Jean Wahl’s Toward the Concrete. … the work pleased us, for it embarrassed idealism by discovering in the universe paradoxes, ambiguities, conflicts, still unresolved.”
Michael Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823262373
- eISBN:
- 9780823266425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823262373.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Kelly’s chapter provides an account of the development of a new humanist concept of engagement forged by French Catholic intellectuals in the crucible of debates and experiments of the 1930s. For an ...
More
Kelly’s chapter provides an account of the development of a new humanist concept of engagement forged by French Catholic intellectuals in the crucible of debates and experiments of the 1930s. For an innovatory group of French Catholic intellectuals, the decade before the Second World War appeared as a crisis of civilization, the events of which shaped their search for a new relationship with ‘la Cité’ and attempts to found their socio-political involvement in new forms of citizenship. Often perceived as inconstant and ambiguous in their affiliations by contemporary politicians, these Catholic intellectuals were seeking to articulate underlying norms and values in secular terms. Kelly explores the development of a humanist concept of engagement through the work of Jacques Maritain, Gabriel Marcel, and Emmanuel Mounier, and shows how their efforts in the 1930s brought into being a broader, inclusive and flexible means of engagement that is arguably still as fresh and effective today.Less
Kelly’s chapter provides an account of the development of a new humanist concept of engagement forged by French Catholic intellectuals in the crucible of debates and experiments of the 1930s. For an innovatory group of French Catholic intellectuals, the decade before the Second World War appeared as a crisis of civilization, the events of which shaped their search for a new relationship with ‘la Cité’ and attempts to found their socio-political involvement in new forms of citizenship. Often perceived as inconstant and ambiguous in their affiliations by contemporary politicians, these Catholic intellectuals were seeking to articulate underlying norms and values in secular terms. Kelly explores the development of a humanist concept of engagement through the work of Jacques Maritain, Gabriel Marcel, and Emmanuel Mounier, and shows how their efforts in the 1930s brought into being a broader, inclusive and flexible means of engagement that is arguably still as fresh and effective today.
Dwayne A. Tunstall
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823251605
- eISBN:
- 9780823252725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823251605.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
The introduction describes how the Kantian distinction between phenomena and noumena is at the heart of Gabriel Marcel’s reflective method. It then briefly contrasts Marcel’s reflective method with a ...
More
The introduction describes how the Kantian distinction between phenomena and noumena is at the heart of Gabriel Marcel’s reflective method. It then briefly contrasts Marcel’s reflective method with a few representatives of analytic metaphysics and continental metaphysics. Afterwards, it describes how Marcel’s reflective method is a phenomenological metaphysics. It ends by outlining the remaining chapters of Doing Philosophy Personally.Less
The introduction describes how the Kantian distinction between phenomena and noumena is at the heart of Gabriel Marcel’s reflective method. It then briefly contrasts Marcel’s reflective method with a few representatives of analytic metaphysics and continental metaphysics. Afterwards, it describes how Marcel’s reflective method is a phenomenological metaphysics. It ends by outlining the remaining chapters of Doing Philosophy Personally.
Dwayne A. Tunstall
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823251605
- eISBN:
- 9780823252725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823251605.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter examines Marcel’s failure to appreciate the full magnitude of antiblack racism as a system of dehumanization. It contends that Marcel’s sociopolitical thought is an unwitting accomplice ...
More
This chapter examines Marcel’s failure to appreciate the full magnitude of antiblack racism as a system of dehumanization. It contends that Marcel’s sociopolitical thought is an unwitting accomplice to colonialism once it is viewed from the standpoint of Frantz Fanon’s criticism of colonialist logic in The Wretched of the Earth and Enrique Dussel’s criticism of western modernity in The Underside of Modernity. In addition, it examines how Gordon’s existential phenomenological account of antiblack racism is compatible with a Marcellian reflective method.Less
This chapter examines Marcel’s failure to appreciate the full magnitude of antiblack racism as a system of dehumanization. It contends that Marcel’s sociopolitical thought is an unwitting accomplice to colonialism once it is viewed from the standpoint of Frantz Fanon’s criticism of colonialist logic in The Wretched of the Earth and Enrique Dussel’s criticism of western modernity in The Underside of Modernity. In addition, it examines how Gordon’s existential phenomenological account of antiblack racism is compatible with a Marcellian reflective method.
Brian Treanor
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226849
- eISBN:
- 9780823235100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226849.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Emmanuel Levinas's philosophy is extensive enough that a complete treatment of it is beyond the scope of this book. It will have occasion to address many of the themes and ...
More
Emmanuel Levinas's philosophy is extensive enough that a complete treatment of it is beyond the scope of this book. It will have occasion to address many of the themes and topics central to his thought—ipseity, alterity, illeity, responsibility, substitution, and sociality among them. This chapter examines Emmanuel Levinas's Totality and Infinity, providing a general summary of his philosophical project, especially his relation to ontology. It sets the stage for an encounter with Gabriel Marcel by articulating Levinas's version of the intersubjective relationship or, as he usually terms it, the relation of the same to the other. Finally, it describes alterity as seen by Levinas and addresses the role of justice and love within his work. Needless to say, the question of otherness will be ever present in these considerations.Less
Emmanuel Levinas's philosophy is extensive enough that a complete treatment of it is beyond the scope of this book. It will have occasion to address many of the themes and topics central to his thought—ipseity, alterity, illeity, responsibility, substitution, and sociality among them. This chapter examines Emmanuel Levinas's Totality and Infinity, providing a general summary of his philosophical project, especially his relation to ontology. It sets the stage for an encounter with Gabriel Marcel by articulating Levinas's version of the intersubjective relationship or, as he usually terms it, the relation of the same to the other. Finally, it describes alterity as seen by Levinas and addresses the role of justice and love within his work. Needless to say, the question of otherness will be ever present in these considerations.
Douglas R. Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225507
- eISBN:
- 9780823235506
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225507.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter discusses Henry Bugbee's thoughts on wilderness that was influenced by Gabriel Marcel, who was much indebted to the work of Josiah Royce. Wilderness is where people always find ...
More
This chapter discusses Henry Bugbee's thoughts on wilderness that was influenced by Gabriel Marcel, who was much indebted to the work of Josiah Royce. Wilderness is where people always find themselves and where they are inevitably in the process of finding themselves. Bugbee sees human philosophical activity as an ongoing experiment to make ourselves at home in this wilderness. In his essay entitled The Inward Morning, which he subtitles A Philosophical Exploration, Bugbee notes a recurrent experience that faces all philosophical inquirers.Less
This chapter discusses Henry Bugbee's thoughts on wilderness that was influenced by Gabriel Marcel, who was much indebted to the work of Josiah Royce. Wilderness is where people always find themselves and where they are inevitably in the process of finding themselves. Bugbee sees human philosophical activity as an ongoing experiment to make ourselves at home in this wilderness. In his essay entitled The Inward Morning, which he subtitles A Philosophical Exploration, Bugbee notes a recurrent experience that faces all philosophical inquirers.
