Abstract

In the tradition of western philosophy often focused on in the perennial search for wisdom is the foundations of philosophy that have based ontology and epistemology on abstract systems of thought. In these systems, thought is considered in and of itself, not in terms of its interrelationship to feelings and actions. These traditions of philosophy, founded on abstraction rather than on the concreteness of human experiencing, rarely touch the meaning of the questions, dilemmas, joys of being human. A void ensues in our understanding which both shapes and continuously reinforces existence thought of as thinking separated from feeling, mind separated from body and soul, and knowledge separated from being. ;Throughout western philosophy, there have been thinkers who have resisted this thought that systematically divides and abstracts that about human experiencing which is interrelated and concrete. These phenomenological existential thinkers have sought and seek language that describes consciousness as the embodiment of mind, body, and soul and thus as the interplay between each of these dimensions. In this concept of embodied consciousness, thoughts are inextricably related to feelings, and thoughts and feelings to actions. In this sense, intellectual and ethical concerns are grounded in questions of meanings that are aesthetic and spiritual. ;This dissertation is an exploration of Gabriel Marcel's work, particularly his work about living in creative fidelity in terms of what it contributes to the phenomenological existential perspective of human meaning. The first chapter discusses the philosophical background of Marcel's work and how he extends the meanings of his philosophical education to seek to bridge the existential and spiritual dimensions of human experience. The second chapter explores the concrete texture of what it means to live in just relationships of creative fidelity. The third chapter examines different anthropological and cultural perspectives on why the human propensity to avoid meeting one another in relationships of meaning and existential truth. The fourth chapter explores the hope of finding compassion in a world of abstract technology, describing a language and concept of love that indicates creative fidelity