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Homo Viator; Introduction to a Metaphysic of Hope
This edition of Marcel's inspiring Homo Viator has been updated to includle fifty-seven pages of new material available for the first time in English, making this the first English-language edition to conform to the standard French edition. Here, Christianity's foremost existentialist of the twentieth century gives us a prodigious personal insight on 'man on the way' that will reinforce and commend our own pilgrimages in hope.
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First published January 1, 1951
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About the author
Gabriel Marcel
181 books122 followersGabriel Marcel (1889–1973) was a philosopher, drama critic, playwright and musician. He converted to Catholicism in 1929 and his philosophy was later described as “Christian Existentialism” (most famously in Jean-Paul Sartre's “Existentialism is a Humanism”) a term he initially endorsed but later repudiated. In addition to his numerous philosophical publications, he was the author of some thirty dramatic works. Marcel gave the Gifford Lectures in Aberdeen in 1949–1950, which appeared in print as the two-volume The Mystery of Being, and the William James Lectures at Harvard in 1961–1962, which were collected and published as The Existential Background of Human Dignity.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 13, 2023
Деякі думки про надію справді цікаві, але стиль письма, зрештою, як це у всіх екзистенціалістів, трохи розмитий.
January 24, 2023
Highly, highly recommended.
February 11, 2008
Gabriel Marcel is the French guy who coined the term "existentialism" -- a word he subsequently pretty much abandoned in the face of Jean Paul Sarte's atheistic version of existentialism. The real meat of Marcel has to do with his concept of "concrete philosophy" vs. philosophy as "abstract." Like Sarte and other existentialists, going all the way back to Soren Kierkegaard (whom many view as the father of existentialism though he never heard the word), Marcel also has written fiction in an attempt to further his philosophical views. Unlike Sarte, who's "Nausea" and "No Exit" did make his name a household word, Marcel's plays didn't further his cause in a big way.
Well, all that is more a bio of Marcel than about his book. The book is not an easy read. For instance, Marcel (as do other existentialists) is focused on the nature of existence as we know (or do not know) it. And Marcel says that central to existence is that it is, for each of us, a form of captivity.
Hope, Marcel argues, is actually a product of this captivity. And now that I have you a bit intrigued, I must end (for reasons within my own 3d captivity which demand my attention NOW!)
Well, all that is more a bio of Marcel than about his book. The book is not an easy read. For instance, Marcel (as do other existentialists) is focused on the nature of existence as we know (or do not know) it. And Marcel says that central to existence is that it is, for each of us, a form of captivity.
Hope, Marcel argues, is actually a product of this captivity. And now that I have you a bit intrigued, I must end (for reasons within my own 3d captivity which demand my attention NOW!)
October 7, 2018
Mi problema con este libro es que el autor es incapaz, por regla general, de separar la fe de las conclusiones filosóficas a las que llega en cada uno de los ensayos de este libro. Por ejemplo, en la recensión crítica que hace sobre El hombre rebelde de Camus, después de separar las dimensiones lógica y existencialista de la categoría "rebelión", el autor realiza un profundo análisis de ésta, señalando que es imposible hablar de una pureza intrínseca al concepto y subrayando la trascendencia necesaria, en términos de la historia y de un límite, que vuelven a una rebelión tal, solo para concluir que es necesario remotar una trascendencia más (la de la Gracia que une al Hombre con Dios) y que permite la reconciliación efectiva de la categoría con el papel del mártir y del santo.
El análisis de El ser y la Nada de Sartre, así como el de la poética de Rilke (titulado Testigo de la espiritualidad) adolecen del mismo defecto: poseen momentos de agudeza y penetración, eso no está en duda; sin embargo Marcel no puede resistir su compromiso (algunos dirán su militancia) para entregar un texto ---que se promete filosófico---, que no sea al mismo tiempo una predicación.
Así como a Tolstói puede acusársele de que en varios de sus pasajes es imposible separar la prédica de la ficción, lo mismo ocurre en muchos de los escritos de este libro. Inclusive hay un par de conferencias (a propósito de las responsabilidades de la paternidad) en donde es muy delgada la capa que separa la propaganda y el fanatismo teosófico de la verdadera filosofía. Esto es una pena, porque vuelve irregular el contenido mismo de la obra. No estamos aquí frente a un existencialismo creyente, o una fenomenología católica, mucho ante una filosofía de la experiencia religiosa. Más bien parece que asistimos a la legitimización del dogma (o a la reafirmación del autor) ante los dilemas profundos que aquejaron a la Humanidad durante el s. XX. ¿Se logra dar una respuesta a semejantes preguntas o se les dimensiona justamente en su proporción humana? La respuesta es debatible, pero a mí me parece que no.
El análisis de El ser y la Nada de Sartre, así como el de la poética de Rilke (titulado Testigo de la espiritualidad) adolecen del mismo defecto: poseen momentos de agudeza y penetración, eso no está en duda; sin embargo Marcel no puede resistir su compromiso (algunos dirán su militancia) para entregar un texto ---que se promete filosófico---, que no sea al mismo tiempo una predicación.
Así como a Tolstói puede acusársele de que en varios de sus pasajes es imposible separar la prédica de la ficción, lo mismo ocurre en muchos de los escritos de este libro. Inclusive hay un par de conferencias (a propósito de las responsabilidades de la paternidad) en donde es muy delgada la capa que separa la propaganda y el fanatismo teosófico de la verdadera filosofía. Esto es una pena, porque vuelve irregular el contenido mismo de la obra. No estamos aquí frente a un existencialismo creyente, o una fenomenología católica, mucho ante una filosofía de la experiencia religiosa. Más bien parece que asistimos a la legitimización del dogma (o a la reafirmación del autor) ante los dilemas profundos que aquejaron a la Humanidad durante el s. XX. ¿Se logra dar una respuesta a semejantes preguntas o se les dimensiona justamente en su proporción humana? La respuesta es debatible, pero a mí me parece que no.
July 25, 2021
He use many big word to talk about simple thing
November 4, 2025
THE FRENCH EXISTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHER OFFERS HIS THOUGHTS ON “HOPE”
Gabriel Honoré Marcel (1889-1973) was a French philosopher, playwright, music critic and Christian existentialist.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1951 book, “it is certainly less easy to find our way in a series of meditations… than in a treatise through the whole of which a sequence of thoughts, following from one the other, is logically developed. I should have liked to produce such a treatise… I have reached the melancholy conclusion that I shall never write it. Moreover, I feel rather irritated and annoyed with myself, because I am aware that I shall most certainly not be conforming to all the rules which have been almost universally observed in the philosophical game up to the present day…”
He explains, “in the first place hope is only possible on the level of the US… it does not exist on the level of the solitary EGO, self-hypnotized and concentrating exclusively on individual aims… In the second place, there is only room for hope when the soul manages to get free from the categories in which consciousness confines itself as soon as it makes a clear line of demarcation between what it knows for a fact on the one hand and what it wishes or desires on the other. Perhaps hope means first of all the act by which the line of demarcation is obliterated or denied.” (Pg. 10)
He observes, “The truth is that there can be strictly speaking no hope except when the temptation to despair exists. Hope is the act by which this temptation is actively or victoriously overcome. The victory may not invariably involve any sense of effort: I should even be quite ready to go so far as to say that such a feeling is not compatible with hope in its purest form.” (Pg. 36)
He suggests, “to despair of myself, or to despair of us, is essentially to despair of the Thou. Avowedly, it is conceivable that there is some difficulty in admitting that I form with myself a real community, an US: it is, however, only on this condition that I have my active share as a centre of intelligence, of love and creation. This absolute Thou in whom I must hope but whom I also have always the possibility of denying, not only in theory but in practice, is at the heart of the city which I form with myself and which, as experience has given tragic proof, retains the power of reducing itself to ashes.” (Pg. 61)
He states, “Life, as it is transmitted in the act of procreation, is really neither a blessing nor a curse in itself. It is a possibility, an opportunity, a chance for good or evil. But this possibility is only achieved in so far as the being to whom it is granted appears from the moment of his birth as a subject … as able to enjoy an above all to suffer, and capable of one day attaining to the consciousness of what he has at first only felt.” (Pg. 91)
He asserts, “I claim to see the light which is actually hidden from you and which alone could illuminate the darkness in which you are groping---you who do not even know that you are surrounded with gloom, so complete in your blindness. It is only too clear that an assertion of such a kind, a judgment so summary, must be regarded as contrary to the Christian, and particularly to the Catholic tradition, which has always granted so large a place to the natural virtues.” (Pg. 161)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying Marcel's philosophy.
Gabriel Honoré Marcel (1889-1973) was a French philosopher, playwright, music critic and Christian existentialist.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1951 book, “it is certainly less easy to find our way in a series of meditations… than in a treatise through the whole of which a sequence of thoughts, following from one the other, is logically developed. I should have liked to produce such a treatise… I have reached the melancholy conclusion that I shall never write it. Moreover, I feel rather irritated and annoyed with myself, because I am aware that I shall most certainly not be conforming to all the rules which have been almost universally observed in the philosophical game up to the present day…”
He explains, “in the first place hope is only possible on the level of the US… it does not exist on the level of the solitary EGO, self-hypnotized and concentrating exclusively on individual aims… In the second place, there is only room for hope when the soul manages to get free from the categories in which consciousness confines itself as soon as it makes a clear line of demarcation between what it knows for a fact on the one hand and what it wishes or desires on the other. Perhaps hope means first of all the act by which the line of demarcation is obliterated or denied.” (Pg. 10)
He observes, “The truth is that there can be strictly speaking no hope except when the temptation to despair exists. Hope is the act by which this temptation is actively or victoriously overcome. The victory may not invariably involve any sense of effort: I should even be quite ready to go so far as to say that such a feeling is not compatible with hope in its purest form.” (Pg. 36)
He suggests, “to despair of myself, or to despair of us, is essentially to despair of the Thou. Avowedly, it is conceivable that there is some difficulty in admitting that I form with myself a real community, an US: it is, however, only on this condition that I have my active share as a centre of intelligence, of love and creation. This absolute Thou in whom I must hope but whom I also have always the possibility of denying, not only in theory but in practice, is at the heart of the city which I form with myself and which, as experience has given tragic proof, retains the power of reducing itself to ashes.” (Pg. 61)
He states, “Life, as it is transmitted in the act of procreation, is really neither a blessing nor a curse in itself. It is a possibility, an opportunity, a chance for good or evil. But this possibility is only achieved in so far as the being to whom it is granted appears from the moment of his birth as a subject … as able to enjoy an above all to suffer, and capable of one day attaining to the consciousness of what he has at first only felt.” (Pg. 91)
He asserts, “I claim to see the light which is actually hidden from you and which alone could illuminate the darkness in which you are groping---you who do not even know that you are surrounded with gloom, so complete in your blindness. It is only too clear that an assertion of such a kind, a judgment so summary, must be regarded as contrary to the Christian, and particularly to the Catholic tradition, which has always granted so large a place to the natural virtues.” (Pg. 161)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying Marcel's philosophy.
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December 7, 2009Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Chapter 16, as one of Eleven Books on Prayer, Belief, and Reflection.
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