Gabriel Marcel on Hope

According to Gabriel Marcel, being cannot be approached directly through a conceptual way, because it belongs to the real territory of mystery rather than that of problem. One of the most important concepts in Marcel’s philosophy is that of hope. Marcel’s conception of hope relies upon a distinction between “having” and “being.” We do not have a belief; we are in a belief. Similarly, when we hope, we do not have hope. For Marcel, hope consists in asserting that beyond all data and calculations, at the heart of being, there is a mysterious principle related to me.