Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

The Philosophy of Existence by Gabriel Marcel

Review by: Gustav Mueller
Books Abroad, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Winter, 1950), p. 35
Published by: Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40088895 .
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 HEAD-LINERS 35
cialist and "expert"whose prevalence manypens.Of JoseHernandez(bornin
has caused the deep crisis of our age. 1834), the authorof the poem, we are
This man, a literary class in and for told thatall is knownthatcan be known
himself, will help us find our way to a and that is very little. Certainexternal
new humanism.- Henry WalterBrann. facts arid dates about this soldier,poli-
New York City. tician,journalist,rebeland poetarewell
authenticated;overthe manhimselfand
^ GabrielMarcel.The Philosophyof his characterhangs an incomprensible
Existence.New York.Philosophical seereto. It is significantthat he detested
Library.1949. viii+96 pages. $2.75.- culture, and this was a source of his
The introductorynotecontainsa dedica- greatness."He died without knowing
tion to Karl Jaspers:"I owe a real debt what he had accomplished."
to this noble and profound thinker." This book, of course,is not confined
The first essay"on the ontologicalmys- to his biography.It containsthe text of
tery"establishesbeing in correlationto the whole poem, it discussesits style,
faith and hope. This is, from the point verification, and subject-matter,and
of view of experience,absurd,or a mys- dealswith the historyof thosetimes,the
tery.This is the basisfor the devastating gaucho,the countryand the people.Its
scrutiny of Sartre's "existentialism," sub-titleinformsus that it is a studyof
which is seen as outcomeof a desperate Argentinianlife and this purposehas
atheism,making of a finite Nothing a been carriedthroughlavishlyand well.
god, and at the same time stating this -Aubrey F. G. Bell Victoria, B. C,
materialfinitudein its most nauseating Canada.
irrationality.The third essay bases the
philosophyof existenceon testimony;if * Cecilia Meirelles. Retrato natural.
I testify I am involved, I pledge my Rio de Janeiro.Livros de Portugal.
honor, myself, I participate.This con- 1949. 184 pages.- Cecilia Meirelles is
crete existentialparticipationin life is one of the four or five outstanding
seen in oppositionto objective,scientific women poets of Latin America, not
statementsof fact, which are neutral, merelyof the presentage,but of all time,
non-committal,general, abstract.The from Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz to
final "essayin autobiography"gives an GabrielaMistral.This, it seems to the
illuminatingaccountof the growthof a presentreviewer,will haveto be the ver-
philosopherthroughthe crisisof a world dict of the literaryhistorianof the fu-
warwhich shatteredthe confidentEuro- ture. None- not even the conventsing-
pean pre-war civilization.- Gustav er of old Mexico- is more subtly fem-
Mueller.Universityof Oklahoma. inine than she, in the nuancesof feeling
and of artistry.She herself by implica-
^ Ezequiel MartinezEstrada.Muerte tion has set forth her aims as jrescura,
y transfiguracionde MartinFierro. claridade,alegria espiritual de juven-
Vol. I: Las figuras,Vol. II: Las perspec- tude. In the past her work has shown
tivas.Mexico.Fondo de CulturaEcono- two major themes: childhood- ressu-
mica. 1948.lxxxix+393, 520 pages.- A rreicaoda infdncia- and the lure of the
work of a thousand pages concerning sea. (Compareher 1945collection,Mar
the well-knowngauchopoemof Martin absoluto.)Her poetry,like thatof Mario
Fierromight seem excessive.The pleas- Quintana,as firico Verissimohas point-
antnessof the styleandthe varietyof the ed out, is possessedof a marinelikelim-
matterin this book by the distinguished pidity and is largely concerned with
Argentinianwriter Don Ezequiel Mar- "the flora and fauna of the skies"and
tinez Estradawill immediatelyreconcile "silverynocturnallandscapes."
the readerto its length. It is likely to be The present volume, on the other
the final and definitivecontributionto hand, strikesa deepernote, has moreof
a subject which has already occupied a definitive air about it. There is one

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions