Gabriel marcel existentialism

Many existentialist thinkers are led to conclude that life is only something to be tolerated, and that close or intimate relationships with others should be avoided. Heard distinctly among this despair and dread was the original philosophical voice of Gabriel Marcel. Marcel, a World War I non-combatant veteran, pursued the life of an intellectual, and enjoyed success as a playwright, literary critic, and concert pianist.

He was trained in philosophy by Henri Bergson, among others. A prolific life-long writer, his early works reflected his interest in idealism. As Marcel developed philosophically, however, his work was marked by an emphasis on the concrete, on lived experience. After converting to Catholicism in , he became a noted opponent of atheistic existentialism, and primarily that of Jean-Paul Sartre.

Gabriel Marcel was born in Paris in , the city where he also died in Marcel was the only child of Henri and Laure Marcel. His father was a French diplomat to Sweden and was committed to educating his son through frequent travel across Europe.

Gabriel marcel intersubjectivity

The death of his mother, in when Gabriel was not quite four years old left an indelible impression on him. After the war, Marcel married Jaqueline Boegner, and he taught at a secondary school in Paris. It was in these early wedded years that Marcel became engaged as a playwright, philosopher, and literary critic. The couple continued to travel, they adopted a son, Jean Marie, and Marcel developed friendships with important thinkers of the day.

Marcel gave talks throughout Europe as a result of these contacts, and was regarded as a keen mind and a type of renaissance figure, excelling in music, drama, philosophy, theology, and politics. As for his literary works, Marcel in total published more than 30 plays, a number of which have been translated in English and produced in the United States.