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13THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY OF GABRIEL MARCEL
RUZMATOVA Gulnoz Mirahrarovna
Professor of the Department of "Philosophy and Logic" of the National University of Uzbekistan, Doctor of Philosophical Sciences
d https://doi.org/10.24412/2181-2993-2022-3-4-12
The philosophy of Gabriel Marcel champions the highest ideals of human values, such as morality, knowledge acquisition, praising of intellect, humanity, freedom, justice, social progress, universal happiness, brotherhood, and the creation of ideal man. They comprise the basic content of the works of Gabriel Marcel. Which is why, analysis of the work of such a great thinker is always a matter of support even to this day.
Keywords: Existentia, intersubjectivity, existentialism, phenomenology, psychic experiment, reflection, freedom
Философия Габриэля Марселя отстаивает высшие идеалы человеческих ценностей, таких как нравственность, приобретение знаний, восхваление интеллекта, человечности, свободы, справедливости, социального прогресса, всеобщего счастья, братства и создания идеального человека. Они составляют основное содержание произведений Габриэля Марселя. Вот почему анализ творчества такого великого мыслителя всегда является предметом поддержки и по сей день.
ABSTRACT
АННОТАЦИЯ
Ключевые слова: Existentia, интерсубъективность, экзистенциализм, феноменология, психический эксперимент, рефлексия, свобода.
INTRODUCTION
Existentialism begins to take shape in France in the twenties of the twentieth century. Gabriel Marcel's religious existential philosophy can be included among them. In the 40s of the 20th century, various directions of atheistic existentialism began to form in France. Their major representatives were Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Maurice Merleau Ponty. Atheistic existentialism is an alternative teaching to official university philosophy, and develops as a rebellion against it. Existentialists accuse university philosophy of focusing on solving abstract ontological and epistemological problems divorced from life. In their teachings, human life is lost, surrounded by its daily anxieties and sufferings. Furthermore, university philosophy is accused of being given over to idealism, mixing reality with heavenly ideas,
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subordinating the contradictions of human existence to logical laws. Existentialists develop this critical attitude and abandon idealism with abstraction. They base their judgments on a concrete, real human being with desires and passions, who appears as a product of his time. A person not only thinks, but also overcomes the problems that have arisen on the way of his life, he is deeply saddened by his failures. Existentialists are attracted to the tragic, controversial aspects of human life, which are associated with negative emotions such as fear, regret, remorse, and deep sadness.
France was one of the victorious colonial powers in the first quarter of the 20th century, after the First World War. These historical events paved the way for the development of existential ideas. The secular economic crises of 1029-1933 confused the country, the oppression of fascism was overcome due to the stubborn resistance of the people. The war of Hitler's Nazi Germany in 1940, the four years of occupation, the post-war reconstructions, the end of colonialism, the wars in Vietnam and Algeria, France being under the humiliating American dictatorship for a long time, the fascist putsch in May 1958, the collapse of the Fourth Republic, the establishment of the rule of personal power are many put the heavy burden of the tragic situation on the shoulders of people. This mood created a solid foundation for existentialism. It should be noted that the existentialists, who saw the tragic world feeling of their contemporaries, sought to reconsider human life, wanted to awaken the power to live in it, and looked for ways out.
Husserl's phenomenology began to spread in France at the beginning of the 20s of the 20th century. The Faculty of Theology of Strasbourg University played a major role in this. In 1925, J. Ehren defended his dissertation on "Phenomenology and Religious Philosophy", in 1928, M. Scheler's "Nature and Forms of Sympathy" was translated, Husserl (1929) lectured twice on phenomenology. All this increased interest in phenomenology. Phenomenology has been interpreted in various ways, which has become the main method of existential philosophy. Thus, it is difficult to find existentialists today who do not use phenomenology as a method. Also, phenomenology began to develop in the fields of history, sociology and literary studies in the 1930s with the formation of French existentialism. Gabriel Marcel is one of the great representatives of French existentialism.
LITERATURE REVIEW
A number of Russian thinkers, such as V.N. Kuznetsov, G. M. Tavrizyan, A.F. Zotov, Y.K. Melville among others analyzed and studied the philosophy of Gabriel Marcel in a number of their works. In addition, these studies reflect the worldview, and views on humanity and social-moral heritage of the great thinker.
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THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Methods such as systems approach, theoretical-deductive conclusions, analysis and synthesis, historicity and logic, comparative analysis were used during the research.
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Gabriel Marcel was born in 1889. He has been teaching in lyceums for some time. He is mainly engaged in literary activities. Marcel converted to Catholicism at the age of 40. But in the 1950s, after the Pope denounced existentialism, he abandoned his philosophy as "Christian existentialism" and called it "Neo-Socraticism" or "Christian Socraticism". But in this he does not change the ideas of his doctrine at all. After accepting the Catholic denomination, the scientist sacrifices the term "existentialism", he does not want to go into conflict with the Church.
Marcel's worldview is based on various theoretical sources. He was influenced by the teachings of Hegel and Schelling, S. Coleridge, an English-American representative of absolute idealism, and especially by the views of John Royce, A. Bergson and W. James. Based on these teachings, Marcel, at the same time arguing with them, forms his philosophical doctrine. This doctrine goes back to the analysis of personal experience.
The main philosophical works of Gabriel Marcel: "Existence and Objectivity" (1925), "Metaphysical Diary" (1927), "Being and Possessing" (1935), "From Denial to Invocation" (1940), "Traveling Man" (1945), "The Art of Being" (1951), "People Against Humanity" (1951). Many of his dramas are fundamentally "philosophical", including "Pleasure", "The Castle in the Sand", "A New Look", "The Burning Chapel", "Holiness", "Prayer", "The Divine Man", "The Horizon", "Shattered World" and others. "In them," writes Marcel, "my thoughts are expressed as they come" [4, 29].
Despite the large number of philosophical works of G. Marcel, his teaching does not obey strict logical rules. Even if the work "The art of being" is a philosophical summarizing work, the ideas in it do not come from one to the other. Marcel connects the pictorial nature of his works with the arrival of direct thoughts and personal experiences. From his point of view, the systematization of philosophical teaching leads to distance from experience, it is cut off from its source. Developing this path based on the deductive principle leads to error. But the philosopher's advocacy of this pluralism, when he observes the real reality, is manifested in its deep connection and integrity.
Speaking about the experience, Marcel enters into a debate with the scientific-materialist interpreters of it. In the spirit of "radical (strict) empiricism" of William
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James and against the fideistic ideas of modern French philosophy, Marcel proposes to "expand" the experience. Philosophy must be based on this experience. The philosopher condemns the opposition of belief and scientific verification (classification).
Marcel calls for a "radical opposition" to religious experience. Instead, "ultimately, it is necessary to turn to poor and direct experience. Philosophy used to be unfair on this point. Sometimes he condemned them, sometimes he applied the laws of logic to them and made them think illegally" [5, 16]. In fact, what Marcel proposes is an "expansion" of experience, a narrowing of its irrational-fideistic space. Because direct experience includes the individual's feelings and personal experiences, it is often religious in spirit. Existential philosophy must be built on such experience, says the philosopher.
Marcel "Who am I?" makes finding an answer to the question the main task of philosophy. This issue is crossed by his work in the Bureau of Finding Missing Persons during the First World War. Marcel is interested in spiritualism. The mass tragedies of war observe how painful it is for a person to lose those closest to him, and how this loss affects his entire being. This condition is stronger than the living people surrounding the person.
In such circumstances, the question naturally arises: what does it mean to exist for a person or what is the existence of others, how important is his existence for others? Man always communicates with others. According to Marcel, this communication occurs as a result of personal experience, for which no proof is required. That is why other people's perception of him does not leave a person indifferent. Conflicts underlie all of Marcel's dramas. These conflicts are caused by the opinion of a person about himself and the opinion of others about this person. The author does not want to be orbiter between these conflicts. As a result of this conflict, a person has to change his personal image, it seems that he is betraying his true being.
These principles lead Marcel to the following conclusion that the human person is not identical with his individual existence. Everyone comes out of his personal shell, he is forced to live depending on the opinions of others about him. This existence is called intersubjectivity, which is the true existence of man. In fact, it is such a definition that it has no clear boundaries. Marcel "phenomenologically interprets" the human personality, wraps it in the shell of existential experience, making it irrelevant whether people's opinions are true or false. His theater was filled with dead people. The living lives by the memory of the dead.
Moral issues occupy the main place in Marcel's teaching. His focus is on personal-spiritual relationships. Because in today's society, these relationships are
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broken, but it is necessary to restore them, so that the full existence of a person is revealed. Marcel criticizes moral nihilism. He also talks about the fact that following moral standards that have not passed through human suffering and experiences will not lead to good results.
The concept of intersubjectivity plays a defining role in Marcel's moral reasoning. He emphasizes that if a person looks at other people from the outside as insignificant external objects, if he is indifferent to them, then it is impossible to talk about morality. According to Marcel, the other person should not be accepted as an outsider, but "he" should also be "your" inner self. Each of Marcel's works is aimed at overcoming tragic loneliness, so that the incomprehensibility of the human soul disappears.
Spiritual alienation, Marcel argues, can be resolved through religious belief. The highest form of intersubjectivity is manifested in belief in God. The existence of this person is manifested in the belief of other people in God. Thus, Gabriel Marcel is considered the founder of French existentialism. His existential philosophy was formed on the eve of the First World War. The religious aspects of French existentialism go back to the philosophical views of Marcel.
Of all the existentialists, Marcel is closest to the teachings of Kierkegaard. According to Marcel, philosophy is opposed to science, which studies the world of objects, but does not touch on existential experience, that is, on the inner spiritual life of a person. Existential experience is irrational in its essence, there is a "mystery" in it, and a person is "involved" in this "mystery", and therefore it serves as a subject of faith. According to Marcel, it is only through existential experience that God can be perceived, so rational proofs of God's existence must be abandoned. Marcel's ethics are based on the Catholic doctrine of predestination and free will.
The main question of philosophy is "Who am I?" saw in search of an answer to the question. This issue arose out of his interest in spiritualism. It also grew stronger after Marcel became involved in the search for missing persons during the First World War. Mass tragedies during the war have clearly shown that longing thoughts about loved ones have a great impact on the human mind, even if they have died. After all, living people will be insignificant for him. In the same conditions, a natural question arises: what does the existence or non-existence of others mean for a person, what is the importance of a person's existence for others? After all, a person always communicates with others. In this, the perception of others about him plays a necessary role in his self-awareness. For Marcel, such existence comes from the direct experience of each person, it does not require proof. According to Marcel, the reason for conflicts in relationships between people is that there is a sharp difference
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between a person's opinion about himself and the opinion of others about him. The author refuses to arbitrate between them. As a result, a person changes his perception of himself. He suffers deeply, unable to understand the reality of his existence.
Based on the above considerations, Marcel comes to a conclusion that the human personality does not exactly correspond to his individual existence. Everyone goes beyond his limits. In a unique way, it seeks to exist in the image of the imagination of those around it. Marcel calls this existence intersubjectivity (interiority) and it determines the authenticity of the individual. In fact, these signs do not show the clear boundaries of a person, they take on an abstract character. Therefore, there is no doubt that Marcel's concept of personality is based on absolute relativism. Closely linking his "phenomenological interpretation" to existential experience, Marcel does not distinguish between real or false perceptions of individuals. This blurs the line between people being objective or not. His theater is full of the dead, who exist only in the world of fantasy. Such fantasies are of great importance for the spiritual world of a person, Marcel supports with undeniable evidence. He equates the ontological status of objective reality with subjective reality and comes to the wrong conclusion. These two concepts are defined by the term "commitment". This is the basis for the conclusion that the "invisible world" is real. This manifests as disembodied spirits for Marcel, which includes the divine spirit.
By envisioning man as an existing unity of body and soul, or a "souled" being, Marcel seeks to explain what the human body itself is. The philosopher is not interested in the natural-scientific definition of the body, which is studied when the body is taken as an object. Marcel stands in the position of phenomenology. His phrase "my body" is expressed as a direct experience. According to Marcel, the expression "my thing" or "mine" cannot be applied to the body, that is, as something that belongs externally. It is not appropriate to look at the body as a weapon to be used by a person, but it fulfills such a function. According to Marcel, the term possession is not appropriate to describe the body. Such a term defining the concept of existence should be abandoned. "My body" means "myself". ... My body is mine, there is no interval between me and my body, it cannot be an object for me, because I exist through my body, I exist in my body" [4, 238]. This spiritual-physical existence means existence for Marcel.
One can agree with Marcel's opinion about this relation of body and soul. But if men were confined to the same impression, they would have no idea of their own body or mind. Scientific knowledge developed more deeply, explained the material structure of the human body in a general way, and showed that consciousness is a product of social activity and labor process. These truths are not the product of
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existential experience. These "problematize" science and show limitations. But this necessity is denied by Marcel. As a result of his "phenomenological interpretation", the body becomes immaterial, incorporeal. The human body perceived by the subject turns from an objective existence into a product of consciousness. And man is artificially cut off from the chain of material (natural and social) determinants.
Indeed, even though Marcel always emphasizes the "responsibility" of a person to the world he lives in and to other people, his relationship with the world is interpreted one-sidedly. This happens because the world is not seen by Marcel as an objective reality, but as an existence that depends on the human mind. Criticizing the ^existence-thus-impression" formula in Berkeley's subjective idealism, Marcel argues, "The only relevant and only possible conclusive answer for empirical idealism is, can things exist if I do not perceive them? - the truth is that they can be such things only under such conditions" [6, 36]. This thesis of acceptance as a condition of existence goes back to Bergsonism. But Marcel further theologizes the problematic relationship between things and reception. It's about the subject's perspective. Because he can see the world inwardly connected with himself, or he can interpret it as an independent existence, separated from himself. In this sense, according to Marcel, a contradiction-paradox occurs, which is the basis of the existence of the object: "I really think about the object according to my affirmation, it does not rely on me, I do not rely on it" [6, 35-36].
So, Marcel concludes, emotion cannot be perceived as a "sound" coming from something external. If the organism is perceived from within by means of "secondary" reflection, then, according to Marcel, feeling cannot be a form of "communication (relation)" between two independent "centers" of existence. Rather, it is a product of individual activity. "It is immediacy, it lies at the basis of any interpretation and any communication, so it itself is neither interpretation nor communication" [6, 43]. Therefore, the activity of the subject in cognition by Marcel is interpreted one-sidedly, the world appears as a product of human creativity. On this basis, the subject is called a free being or simply called "freedom".
As a devout Christian, Marcel accepts all the doctrines of the Church, but opposes their rationalization and considers such work ineffective. This also applies to the traditional proof of God's existence. Concepts of "religious experience" and "testimony" play a central role in Marcel's phenomenon of religious belief. According to him, one cannot believe in God without having a direct religious experience. Only believers are capable of this ability. They are true witnesses to the existence of God. Close to Protestantism and Catholic modernism, Marcel argued that historical narratives, traditions, and external authority cannot be seen as witnesses of
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religiosity. God exists only in the inner sense as the "living god." He is the opposite of the rational God of theologians and philosophers.
As a phenomenologist, Marcel focuses on the content of human belief. The philosopher points out that in the process of religious belief, God is manifested as the Supreme. At the same time, God is the closest being to man. A person's identity is known only to him. The relationship of the believer to God is characterized as the height of intersubjectivity and love. And God is manifested in the highest "He", only together with him man can reach perfection. In this, Marcel rejects the idea that man's conception of God corresponds to an existence outside of the individual's consciousness, independent of him. Already, the philosopher's definitions of God confirm his objectivity. For example, he talks about the existence of the "invisible world" of spirits. God occupies the highest place in the world of spirits. The "evolution" of this world enters the human heart. But this is possible only when the heart "opens" its doors. In general, according to Marcel, God is subjectivized. Its existence is put on a level with the existence of dead people, that is, it lives in the minds of living people.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
So we conclude. Although Gabriel Marcel wrote many works in his creative career, none of his works are in the form of a coherent concept that logically follows from each other. Even his last work "The Art of Being" does not obey this rule. This is how Marcel describes the fragmentary form of his works, that is, the essence of his philosophy is expressed in the form of "concreteness" and directly related to his own experience. From the philosopher's point of view, the systematic exposition of philosophical doctrines shows that the philosopher has distanced himself from his own experience. The deductive development of a philosopher's doctrine, removed from his own experience, leads to errors.
Marcel takes a position of pluralism in formulating his doctrine. Although he expresses his views in the form of a picture, he is closely connected with the real existence from the inside.
All in all, in the interpretation of the concept of experience, Marcel argues with its scientific-materialist interpreters. Marcel endorses the "radical empiricism" of William James, an experiment that was widespread in French philosophy.
Marcel insists on the infinite "extension" of experience, since every philosopher must build his doctrine on the basis of his own experience. There should be no conflict between faith and science. Marcel insists on abandoning "radical opposition" to religious experience [5, 16] and turning to "certain direct experience". Until now, it (personal experience) has not received the attention it deserves, because it has been
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accused of being too naive or subjected to too much thinking and tied to its own rules [5, 16]. But the experience promoted by Marcel takes on an irrational-fideistic tone. By direct experience, he refers to the emotional experience of a person, which gives them a religious spirit. It is on the basis of this experience that Marcel's existential -that is, "concrete" philosophy is built.
REFERENCES
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