Intersubjective Dimension of Existence in the Philosophy of Gabriel Marcel

Abstract

The present work intends to introduce the reader to the essential dimension of intersubjectivity in personal existence in Gabriel Marcel’s philosophy. We will first attend to the characterization of persona; secondly, how we should understand the terms I and the other in concrete interpersonal relationships; in the third place, we will analize the way in which the other is given as an other, through the notion of presence. The main objective of this article is to show that personal existence is uncomprehensible without its reference to the other, that is to say, that identity has no sense without alterity. Moreover, the essential intencionality of identity to alterity does not imply only a practical or accidental character, but a metaphysical one, as communion constitutes the very being of personal existence.