A experiência da alteridade no pensamento de Gabriel Marcel

Abstract

This dissertation presents the results of our investigation on the experience of otherness proposed by Gabriel Marcel, a French thinker named Christian existentialist by Jean-Paul Sartre. Marcel understands the existent I as a singular reality. Human being is an existent marked by mystery, which can t be completely revealed or systematized. The existent is a concrete subject, a human being placed into the world. In the world he must to meet other people, traveling companions, also real and concrete. The meeting occupies a prominent role in Marcel s thinking. The existent I needs the look of the other in order to know himself and to discover the life s meaning. Intersubjective experience is a condition for meeting the other. Marcel presents three virtues (ontological requirement) for accessing individual being and consequent meeting the Absolute Being: these virtues are Love, Hope and Fidelity and, per si, demonstrate the capital importance of the other. The experience requires the coexistence and the recognition of the other. The study also presents the results of our investigation of Marcel s thinking on otherness theme in three chapters. In the first one, named The mystery of being ontological questions , we address the issue of Being as a mystery which must be revealed in life; we consider the incarnate being and the transcendence requirement. In the second chapter, The experience of otherness we reflect on the importance of meeting and the ontological requirements of Love, Hope and Fidelity in order the existent I to know himself, the other and the Absolute Other. Finally, in the third chapter, The otherness question , we draw a parallel between the otherness conceptions in Marcel, Sartre and Buber. We analyze the method proposed by Marcel as well how he can contribute to building a more just and fraternal society.