Gabriel Marcel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gabriel Marcel
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Gabriel Honoré Marcel
7 December 1889 |
| Died | 8 October 1973 (aged 83) Paris, France
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| Alma mater | University of Paris |
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Notable work
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The Mystery of Being (1951) |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
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Main interests
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Notable ideas
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"The Other" (autrui), concrete philosophy (philosophie concrète), being vs. having as opposing ways of defining the human person |
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Influenced
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Gabriel Honoré Marcel (1889–1973) was a French philosopher, a writer of plays, and a music critic. He was a very important thinker in a group called Christian existentialists.
Marcel wrote more than ten books and at least thirty plays. His work often looked at how people struggle in modern society. He believed that too much technology can make people feel less human. Even though some people say he was the first French existentialist, he didn't like being compared to people like Jean-Paul Sartre. He preferred to call his ideas "philosophy of existence" or "neo-Socratism." One of his most famous books is The Mystery of Being, which has two parts.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Gabriel Marcel was born in Paris, France, on December 7, 1889. His mother, Laure Meyer, died when he was young. He was then raised by his aunt and his father, Henry Marcel. When he was eight, he lived for a year in a different country where his father worked as a diplomat.
In 1910, when he was only 20 years old, Marcel finished his philosophy studies at the Sorbonne. This was a very young age to complete such advanced work. During World War I, he led an information service for the Red Cross. His job was to send news about injured soldiers to their families. He also taught in high schools, wrote reviews about plays for different magazines, and worked as an editor for a big French Catholic publisher called Plon.
Marcel's father did not believe in God, and Marcel himself was an atheist for a time. However, he became a Catholic in 1929. Marcel was against anti-Semitism (hatred towards Jewish people). He also believed in reaching out to people who were not Catholic.
He passed away in Paris on October 8, 1973.
Understanding Existential Ideas
Gabriel Marcel is often seen as one of the first existentialist thinkers. However, he didn't like being put in the same group as Jean-Paul Sartre. Marcel preferred to be called "neo-Socratic." This might be because Søren Kierkegaard, who is known as the father of Christian existentialism, was also a neo-Socratic thinker.
Marcel understood that when people interact, they often see others as objects, judging them by their roles or appearances. But he also believed in the possibility of "communion." This is a special state where two people can truly understand and appreciate each other's unique feelings and thoughts.
In his book The Existential Background of Human Dignity, Marcel talks about a play he wrote in 1913 called Le Palais de Sable. This play shows a character who struggles to treat others as real people with their own feelings.
The main character, Roger Moirans, is a politician. He is very traditional and wants to protect Catholic rights. He has just won a big debate where he spoke against public schools that don't teach religion. It makes sense that he would be against his daughter Therese getting a divorce. She wants to leave her husband and start fresh. In this situation, he acts very cold. All his kindness goes to his second daughter, Clarisse, whom he thinks is just like him. But then Clarisse tells him she wants to become a nun. Moirans is shocked. He can't believe that his beautiful, smart daughter would want to live in a convent. He tries very hard to make her change her mind. Clarisse is deeply upset. She starts to see her father as someone who is not genuine.
In this story, Moirans cannot see either of his daughters as unique individuals. He rejects them because they don't fit the idea he has in his mind. Marcel explained that when we treat someone as an object, we take away what makes them valuable. This makes them feel less important.
Another key idea from Marcel was about protecting our own unique selves from being lost in modern society. He worried about how much we focus on materialism (things we own) and how much we rely on technology. Marcel argued that science often turns the "mystery" of being human into simple "problems" and "solutions." He felt that in a world driven by technology, the human person can become just another object. He wrote in Man Against Mass Society that technology has a strong power. It can convince people to accept their place as just a number or a part of a system. As a result, people might even feel happy about losing their unique identity.
Marcel's Impact
For many years, Gabriel Marcel held a weekly philosophy discussion group. Through these meetings, he met and influenced many important younger French philosophers. These included thinkers like Jean Wahl, Paul Ricœur, Emmanuel Levinas, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Marcel was surprised and a bit disappointed that he was mostly known for his philosophical writings. He had hoped his plays would reach more people. He also influenced Karol Wojtyla, who later became Pope John Paul II. Wojtyla used Marcel's ideas about "being" versus "having" when he talked about the effects of technological change.
Key Works
Some of his most important books are Metaphysical Journal (1927), Being and Having (1933), Homo Viator (1945), Mystery of Being (1951), and Man Against Mass Society (1955). He also gave special lectures at Harvard in 1961–1962. These talks were later published as The Existential Background of Human Dignity.
Images for kids
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Plaque at the home where Marcel lived from 1933 until he died.
See also
In Spanish: Gabriel Marcel para niños
