Gabriel Marcel’s Theory of Availability and
Unavailability
Gabriel Marcel
Gabriel Marcel is a well-known and celebrated 20th century existentialist philosopher. Marcel
was born on December 7th, 1889 in Paris to Henri and Laure (Meyer) Marcel. His father was a
civil servant. Due to the nature of European politics of the time, it is important to note that
Marcel’s mother was Jewish. The fact that his mother was Jewish would later influence his
ideals and understanding of human cruelty and would give him a firsthand experience with it. In
1894, when Marcel was 4, his mother died. During World War I Marcel worked for the Red
Cross. The time he spent in the service would influence his many different theories and ideals
as an existentialist philosopher. Marcel then joined the ranks of the Christian existentialists
while working as the drama critic for L’Europe and joined the Catholic Church in 1929, at the
age of 30. In his life he was a playwright, professor, literary critic, drama critic, husband, and the
recipient of many awards. He died in Paris on October 8th, 1973.
Theory of Availability and Unavailability
Ontological Being
Ontology is the study of things and how they exist. His technique involves reflecting upon and
describing the features of human life as we live it. In this way, he is able to grasp their essential
characteristics. Marcel considers the proper audience for philosophy to be those who
experience a deep metaphysical uneasiness about the fundamental conditions of their
existence, or in other words, to ask questions like ‘Is there a meaning to life?’ ‘Is there a god?’,
and, ‘Dreams- how do they exist?’ We can’t physically touch it or see the dimensions of the
dream but we know it exists. Ontology studies how that dream exists in our world even though
it may not exist in the same way that a physical object exists. Being is something that cannot be
fully conceptualized. We can describe it in the physical sense but we cannot fully understand
how it exists, because it is different for each person. Marcel says that there are two levels of
understanding the ontological being: Primary and Secondary reflection.
Primary Reflection
Primary reflection is the most basic form of reflection. Many different scientists use this form of
reflection to answer medical questions. It is a very objective or looking at this problem to find a
scientific answer. An objective person looks at a problem and knows there is a solution that
includes results, knowledge, and technique. Another quality of primary reflection is being very
analytical, or looking at something simply by the way it works not why it works. This level of
reflection leaves no room for transcendence nor does it recognize presence. This leaves us
feeling despair and self-enclosed. The main problem with staying at this level of reflection is it
leaves us unavailable to other people.
Secondary Reflection
In secondary reflection we can delve deeper into the issue and can bring it back to ourselves. It
goes beyond primary reflection and returns us to our most basic experiences. This level of
reflection is very personal and involves the person asking the question “What is self”? At this
level of reflection, self is used so deeply and so closely that it often times changes the meaning
of self. Secondary reflection leads us to recognizing presence and seeking transcendence. This
leaves us feeling humble, hopeful, and open to mystery; most importantly, the secondary
reflection makes us available to others.
What does it mean to be Available to others?
The two terms that Marcel uses are disponibilité and indisponibilité, or loosely translated,
availability and unavailability. But for his English readers, Marcel also uses the term handiness
and unhandiness to describe these terms. Handiness and unhandiness refers to a person’s
availability to their resources which include material, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual
resources. Therefore the term disponibilité means how available I am to someone and if my
resources are at hand to offer. While it may appear that there is the possibility of being selfish
with a person’s resources, the truth is that when resources are not available, their
inaccessibility affects both the other and the self. However, we are going to focus on the
availability and unavailability of people to one another.
Unavailability can present itself in many different forms. The main way it presents itself would
be functionalizing in the world around you, or simply seeing the people as the functions they
can perform for you. You see other people not as individuals, but as simply another person, a
“She” or “He”. When you treat people as what they do or what they can do for you, you are
closing yourself off from that person. Marcel gives an example of this with the ticket-taker. You
are indifferent to the presence they can offer you, and it becomes an impersonal experience
between two people who are playing roles. When you treat another person in this
functionalized way you are in turn dehumanizing yourself. By closing yourself off to the other
person you are functionalizing yourself.
On the other hand, availability means being open to others in the world around you. The
person who is available to others experiences the world in a very different manner. They
understand and accept their interdependence on others. The relationships of available people
are on a very different level compared to the relationships of unavailable people. Available
people are open with each other, not only in words but also in presence. They are able to form
a bond that unites them, and creates togetherness, but at the same time allows for each to be a
separate entity.
There are specific characteristic of those who are available and those who are unavailable.
Characteristics of Available People
“There are certain beings who reveal themselves to us as present, that is to say, who are
available when we are suffering, when we need someone in whom to confide, and there are
others who don’t give us that feeling, despite whatever might be their good will (pg. 192,
Marcel)” The difference between the available and unavailable person is one is truly focused
and one is preoccupied. A person who can be the most alert and enthusiastic listener can
actually be someone who is not really listening. They hear but they do not listen. No matter
what monetary or material goods they may give me, if they are unavailable, then they cannot
make room for me in their life. “That the being who is available is the one who is capable of
being totally with me when I need him or her (pg. 192, Marcel).” The listener who is available is
open to and welcoming of the other person’s presence is an available person. They are willing
to put all their resources towards the need of the other, and have a relationship that consists of
give and take.
Available people allow themselves to accept change. If I am available to the people with whom I
am most intimately bound, then I am welcoming to the changes that they will bring into my life,
both internally and externally. Available people are clear- you can see through them and know
their thoughts and emotions because they allow you to, they invite you in.
Characteristics of Unavailable People
Pride is another way that unavailability can present itself. Marcel says that pride is not a grand
opinion of oneself, rather it manifests as self-reliance. You do not allow yourself to draw
support or strength from others; you see yourself as completely self-sufficient. Therefore, you
close yourself off from others by assuming you do not need their presence, “Ego-centrism is the
root source of the inability just as other directedness is the root source of the ability to live
intersubjectivity as being with and for others.” (pg. 169, Marcel) In cutting yourself off from the
life experiences of others, you not only blind yourself to their lives, but to your own as well. The
self-centered person is unable to grasp the idea that he is connected to the people and
situations that surround him. In addition, a self-centered person will never be able to fully
understand themselves, because what they do not realize is that we start our personal
understanding when we are able to understand others.
Unavailable people are opaque, like a jewel. You can see and feel the edges, and the hardness.
You will never be fully able to get through to an unavailable person, because they are not able
to recognize your presence. The absolute form of unavailability is those who commit suicide.
Critics of Marcel’s Theory of Availability and Unavailability
Jean-Paul Sartre was one of Marcel’s staunchest critics. The central theme in Sartre’s
philosophy is that existence precedes essence. The purpose of man is to pursue his identity
through the meanings in his actions. This conflicts with Marcel’s theory because he says that
no matter how adamant the action is it does not mean it is real. Whereas, Sartre says that if the
action is genuine then the person is genuine. Sartre valued intent, actions, and results whereas
Marcel valued an open presence.
Herbert Marcuse was a philosopher that criticized Existentialism on a whole. He said that by
Existentialism giving the human existence ontological and metaphysical characteristics they are
attacking the very subject of Existentialism itself. He goes on to say that Existentialism becomes
a part of the absurd that it is fighting.
Works of Gabriel Marcel
1933- The Broken World
1933- Gabriel Marcel’s Perspectives on the Broken World
1935- Being and Having
1949- The Philosophy of Existence
1951- The Mystery of Being
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I. Reflection and Mystery
II. Faith and Reality
1952- Man Against Mass Society
1954- The Decline of Wisdom
1956- The Philosophy of Existentialism
1967- Presence and Immortality
Works Cited
Hanley, Katherine Rose. Gabriel Marcel’s Perspectives on The Broken World. (Milwaukee, WI,
Marquette University Press, 1998).
Anderson, Thomas C. A Commentary on Gabriel Marcel’s The Mystery of Being. (Milwaukee, WI,
Marquette University Press, 2006).
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcel/
http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/marcel.shtml