Gabriel Marcel

Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973) believed that there are three steps to knowledge. His process to knowledge started with participation. It is the wiliness to focus and listen to others and not focus on ourselves, to not be egocentric all the time. Participation can go hand in hand with creativity which as Marcel defines, is the transfer of ideas especially between one another. For example, a conversation and the chemical formula of water. Hydrogen and oxygen come together to form what we call water. Next in his process is primary reflection, which is when someone analyzes what they did before. For example, if someone were to edit an essay they have written the editing process would be an example of the primary reflection. Finally comes secondary reflection, which is when someone learns from the first two processes and in reality can now participate better.

Marcel says that we need to always be available in life. Marcel defines availability as always being ready to participate in life, especially with other people and their conversations. He claims that availability leads to happiness. Marcel says that with the availability we need to trust people because there is something more in life and we need faith in more than just facts.

Availability does have something to do with religion. A spiritual presence is one of the reasons why we need to trust people. When we trust people we can become happier and when we are happy we are available. Marcel also says that we need to be open in our life towards God. He claims that we sometime get tricked by turning God into a noun. And the more we participate the more morals we will have and the more ethical we will be.

Marcel said that our faith comes from the person that started it. We must believe and trust in the person who gave the fact on the faith. It is described in the Marcel handout on page 144, “We see the primacy of person again when we consider the nature of faith or belief. Marcel tells us “in order to believe that…we must first believe in.” In short, before we can believe any fact, we must first believe in the person who has related the fact. For the Christian, belief must first be in Christ, the in Christianity, first in the person, only then in dogmas.”

Even during his time, Marcel saw the fact the technology tends to depersonalize us. He recognized that technology does however increase the quality of life. On the down end, he stressed the idea that technology tend to play down the worth of a man or woman. It promotes the idea that humans are just creatures that live among one another.