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Xerox University Microfiims 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 ■f 73-26,323 RANDALL, Jr., Albert E., 1942- IDPE: AN EXPLORATION OF CAMUS, MARCEL AND INTIMACY. University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1973 Philosophy University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan © 1973 ALBERT B. RANDALL, J R . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED IH IS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFimED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. The U niversity of Oklahoma Graduate College HOPE: AN EXPLORATION OF CAMUS, MARCEL, AND INTIMACY A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Field of Philosophy by Albert B. Randall, Jr. Norman, Oklahoma 1972 Hope: An Exploration of Camus, Marcel, and Intimacy A Dissertation Approved for the Department of Philosophy by F ir st Reader Second Header /c-^. 7^.://. Third Reader Fourth Reader F ifth Reader i i To Jeanlo: Whose gift of intimacy has been and is the source which undergirds all my hope, and in whom I find the very meaning of human hope and promise of the future. For Albert: Whose life-long struggle with the absurd taught me the meaning of human integrity and honesty. As the struggle came to an end during the writing of this disserta tion, the absurd fell victim to his quiet and humble courage. And for June: In whose love one man found the strength to confront absurdity and the nurture to continue the struggle. i i i Acknowledgments I should like to express my appreciation to the members of my dissertation committee for their assis tance and willingness to enter such a venture into the meaning of hope: to Dr. Jitendra Mohanty and to Dr. Carelton Borenda. I especially wish to thank Dr. William Horosz and Dr. Kenneth M errill for th e ir e ffo r t and time in the writing of not only this dissertation, but also for their aid in the writing of my master's thesis, which began the exploration of hope. I wish to express much more than just warn gratitude to Dr. Robert Shahan for his willingness to chair the dissertation committee, for past time and effort in my journey of understanding, and, most iu^jortantly, for the empathy o f h is humanity. Lastly, I wish to express my thanks to many whose encour agement contributed most emphatically to my understanding of hope and intimacy: Jeanie, Jaimie, and Alicia; Albert and June; Tom Boyd, Duane Porderhase, and James Carroll. i v C o n ten ts Page Introduction: Hope—An Exploration I. Hope and the Mystery of Being 1, General Concerns: Place of Hope, Being, and Mystery 12 2, Sensation as a Itystery 19 3, Communion as a Mystery 25 l\.. Transcendence as a Mystery 3k- 5. Additional Considerations concerning Hope i|2 6. Hope as an Entrai and a Réponse ^ 7* Recapitulation 51 II. Between the Plague and Exile—Absurdity and Hope 1, General Concerns: Art and Ambiguity 55 2, The Gospel of No Hope: Meursault and Sisyphus 66 3* Prom the Absurd to Hope: Prom Sisyphus to D'Arrast 89 I j . , "A title: the Hope of the world" 97 5. Dimensions of Hope 106 6. Pinal Remarks 112 III. Hope: A Rebellion Against Absurdity 1. General Comments llZ*. 2. Contrasts 115 3. Open-Ended Contrasts (S im ila r ities) 121}. 1}^. Gonqparisons 13l|- IV. The Intimacy o f Hope 1 . General Comments ll}-5 2. A Physical Theory of Hope 147 3. Hope on the Level of Communion l6 5 4. Hope on the Level of Transcendence 175 5. The Intimacy of Hope 177 Conclusion: Hope—A New Exploration 183 Bibliography 190 Abstract 212 V ita 215 Appendices: 1• Appendix A: Index to Gabriel Marcel ' s Major Passages on Hope 216 2. Appendix B: Index to Albert Camas' Passages on Hope 219 3, Appendix 0: Alcohol and the Absurd 226 Vi INTRODUCTION: HOPE—AN EXPLORATION The subject of this dissertation is hope. Present literature in religion, philosophy, and psychology evidences a growing interest in the nature and the dynamics of hope. If one of the developments of this dissertation bears out, then this interest should not be surprising, for hope in an atomic age is truly an existential concern. Perhaps as nothing in the history of mankind, the Bomb reveals the dreadful contingency of human life . In a time when "future shock" becomes a problem, hope becomes a concern. In an age of plastic anonymity, the intimacy of hope o ffe rs a promise o f (at le a s t, a momentary) salva tion, Thus, in this writer's thinking, the relevance of a dissertation concerned with hope needs no justification beyond idiat has been briefly said, for life in the twentieth century is the justification. For practical purposes the content of this study will be limited to five major concerns: Gabriel Marcel's understanding of hope; Albert Camus' understanding of hope; a comparison and contrast of Camus and Marcel on hope; outline of a physical theory of hope; and, a discussion of the relation between hope and intimacy. The study has been limited to these five areas because no dissertation could adequately begin to consider all the facets of hope. For this reason some justification should be offered for selecting these five concerns out of so many, and to that task I now turn. First, Gabriel Marcel and his thoughts on hope were selected because he is literally the philosopher of hope. No other philosopher has written as systematically or as passionately on the nature of hope. As w ill be indicated in Chapter One, hope is not just a concept in his philoso phy, but is the focus around which his philosophy revolves. His metaphysic of hope in Homo Viator is the outstanding phenomenological analysis of hope in all of philosophic literature. Thus, Marcel was selected as a foundation for this study. While the dissertation will branch out in several directions from Marcel, with one exception, a theory of hope on the level of sensation, it will never substantially leave the foundation he has laid. Second, Albert Camus was originally selected for this study as a contrast to Marcel, as the philosopher of no hope, i,.£., as the author of The Myth of Sisyphus. As the second chapter w ill show, this standard understanding of Camus is incomplete, at best, or incorrect. Camus and Sisyphus should not be identified; and with this recogni tion came a change in this study, for Camus could not be developed as the polar opposite to Marcel, However, rather than raising the problem of including Camus in this dissertation, the value of his contributions became even more significant, for Camus offers a contrasting option, many sim ilarities, and several new insights into the nature of hope. It is Camus' willingness to struggle with Sisyphus and the promise that this shared struggle holds that contribute to the study of hope more than any other factor in this dissertation. Third, in considering the best methodological strategy for developing the research connected with this disserta tion, I considered two options that offered promise: to develop by comparison and contrast correlative concepts in Marcel and Camus; or, to develop each man's under standing of hope as an independent whole. The second option is employed because, in my judgment, it offers the best strategy for systematic understanding. When one considers (a) that each philosopher may use the same words in different ways and (b) the additional problem of relating Sisyphus to the Rebel in Camus, as w ill be done in Chapter Two, the second option is more promising for philosophical clarity. Such a procedure requires a later independent consideration of the contrasts and comparisons between Camus and Marcel and is undertaken in Chapter Three, Four, since Chapter One develops Marcel's under standing of hope.