The mystery of death in the philosophical works of Gabriel Marcel

Abstract

Something deep inside us revolts against the Epicurean sophism: when we are, death is not; and when death is, we are not; therefore death does not in anyway concern us. The very act of proposing the sophism and consigning death to oblivion, gives death a place in life and betrays an unavowed unease about personal existence or non-existence. In this way, the advice of Epicurus negates itself and cannot be put into practice except in pretence! (1) Because the being that we are cannot be equated purely and simply with the life of fleeting moments that we live (2), we can rightly ask: how can we be sure that when death is, we are not? what is it to die? is death the absolute end of the human person? During the course of our lives we cannot escape these or similar questions: death does concern us and affect us deeply. It is, therefore, a sign of wisdom to try and come to grips with death. One might object that we have the Christian faith to enlighten us on the afterlife, indeed on immortality, and that faith in order to be itself must avoid the temptation to seek means of support. But it is the right and duty, we would say a definite need· of human intelligence.to exercise its capacity for thought on a "purely philosophical level, independently of revelation but, ultimately, in as much as the truth is approached, in support of the faith - a point which we will try to illustrate in a final chapter on the theology of death. And moreover, a living faith node to try and understand itself precisely as faith for, while faith transcends reason, it is by no means unreasonable.