De L’Existence a L’Etre: La Philosophie de Gabriel Marcel by Roger Troisfontaines, S. J. (review)

128 BOOK REVIEWS De L'Existence a L'Etre: La Philosophie de Gabriel Marcel. By RoGER TROISFONTAINEs, S. J. Louvain: Nauwelaerts, 1953. Vol. I, pp. 416. Vol. II, pp. 4~3. $5.~0. The purpose of this searching work, as the author implies, is not to present the thought of Gabriel Marcel, the famous French'-Catholic existentialist , in logical guise. Such an exposition, if it were to be attempted, would be foreign to the spirit of Marcel's thought, for it would necessitate meticulous tracing out of the rational connections between meditations which, for the most part, have grown out of contingent circumstances and concrete experiences. The resultant rational tissue would be unrecognizable as the thought of MarceL Consistent with his refusal to render the thought of the famous philosopher logically consistent the author rejects any tendency to systematize, for the same factors which dissuade him from dialectical clarifications likewise persuade hiJ:n not to attempt a systematization. The thought of Marcel does not easily fit into the organic form of classic philosophies. Rather the author intends simply to synthesize the doctrine, which does not of necessity imply rationalization or systematization but only a "putting together." (vol. I, p. 4~) In doing this, he affords the reader the advantage of, a comprehensive view of the thought of Marcel which springs from many years of experience and intimate living with the profound personal problems yf our times. No one can question the need for some form of synthesis of the work of this thinker in order that the body of professional philosophers, whose personal ~ork lies in other fields, may thereby form an intelligent opinion of his thought. One has but to peruse briefly the list of his various writings, given in the appendix to the second volume, to be convinced 'of this. They are nearly innumerable, scattered throughout diverse publications, and taking every form from the philosophical essay to literary and dramatic criticism. As such, therefore, they are inaccessible to the average reader, and certainly the interested philosophical public owes the author of these two volumes a debt of gratitude for the obvious labor which went into gathering ,this dispersed thought into one manageable work. Of cour~e, the immediate reaction which some readers might feel toward such a woj-k would be not so much gratitude as scepticism based upon their knowledge of the character of Marcel's thought. It would seem impossible to condense his meditations because of their non-systematic nature, arising as they do in varied circumstances and being closely connected with fleeting concrete events. And communication of the thought would seem, to such readers, to be precluded by its highly personal content. For both of these reasons some readers might feel that the efforts of the author were doomed to failure from the beginning, since the synthesis would .simply result in cutting away and would destroy the possibility of communicating BOOK REVIEWS 129 the spirit of this philosophy. Perhaps the scepticism will be somewhat allayed by the expressed approval which Marcel gives the work in his preface to the first volume, where he states his satisfaction with the results of Fathe~ Troisfontaines' labors, affirming that he would have wished to write the work himself if various personal circumstances had not dissuaded him. The content of the doctrine itself bolsters this generous support. The doctrine of Gabriel Marcel, though it takes its point of departure in concrete experience, as does the doctrine of all the existentialists, does not exclude, by reason of the singularity and personal content of the experience, synthetic compilation. Quite the contrary, for it unfolds a spiritual process evolving from the singular point of departure which follows a universal pattern, and it can be synthesized in terms of this pattern. (vol. I, p. 44) This the author does by exposing the process and exemplifying it in the most striking meditations of the philosopher. He excludes thereby a vast amount of specific detail but he does not fail to communicate the brain and heart of the body of Marcel's teaching. A basis of synthesis and communication is found not only in the universality of the spiritual process, manifested consistently in the writings of...