The Philosophy of Gabriel Marcel

Born in Germany, Schilpp, in 1926, became a naturalized citizen of the United States, where he was educated. He received his M.A. from Northwestern University, his B.D. from Garrett Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University. After a few years as a Methodist minister, Schilpp served a brief term as a professor of psychology and show more religious education at the College of Puget Sound. From that time, however, he taught in the position of professor of philosophy at various universities throughout the United States. From 1965 to 1980, he was Distinguished Research Professor in Philosophy at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Over the course of his career, Schilpp has published books on a diversity of topics, including issues in higher education, theology, and the relation of religion to science. Although he would like to be remembered as a teacher, his most influential academic contribution has been his Library of Living Philosophers series, which now contains more than 20 volumes. Although the two most recent volumes in this series, one on Charles Hartshorne and the other on Sir Alfred Ayer, were edited by Lewis E. Hahn, Schilpp put together nearly all of the earlier volumes without collaborative help. The Library of Living Philosophers series was inspired by Schilpp's realization that many past philosophers have been deeply misunderstood. In the hope of fostering a better grasp of the thought of those prominent philosophers still living, he planned each volume to include both expository and critical essays written by scholarly academics about the work of some specific, active philosopher. Then he asked the philosopher under discussion to formulate a written reply to these interpretations and critiques. Whenever possible, Schilpp also included an intellectual autobiography of the philosopher in question. Finally, Schilpp prepared a relevant bibliography for each volume. It may be debated, of course, whether Schilpp's strategy could ever provide an effective antidote to the perennial penchant for misunderstanding among practicing philosophers. Nevertheless, there can be little doubt that the structured format of his Library of Living Philosophers series has been a fruitful one. Schilpp's persuasive insistence that important philosophers interact within an environment of carefully developed written exchanges has produced permanent collections of valuable, and frequently innovative, philosophical reflection. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Gabriel Marcel has been described as a theistic or Christian existentialist. Born in Paris of Protestant parents, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1924. Prior to his conversion, he had immersed himself in idealism, as his first book, a study of Royce's metaphysics, reveals. Before Jaspers and Heidegger were known to French intellectuals, show more Marcel had written about themes central to existentialism, but with a religious twist. He had acknowledged concern for the vitality and pervasiveness of religious experience, and, like Martin Buber, he had pointed to the sociality of human experience, which bears witness to the presence of the Divine. For Marcel, Being involves participation. No one can be separated from the whole of Being to which he or she is related. Nor can a person be reduced to merely a facet of Being; for he or she is a concrete individual, with experience that is immediate, spontaneous, unpredictable. Though entranced by the mystery of existence, a person may illuminate it by means of philosophical reflection. (Bowker Author Biography) show less