There can be no Stoicism without a belief in an inalienable inner sovereignty, an absolute possession of the self by the self – Gabriel Marcel

We see that Marcel’s thought helps elucidate central Heideggerian principles.

Marcel apparently introduced the word “Existentialism” into French philosophical circles but wasn’t keen to be known as an Existentialist. He eventually converted to Catholicism, but before and after this event his ideas were undoubtedly Existentialist in complexion.

Even more importantly, as we’ve seen, Marcel explicitly advocates for Personalism. Also, for Marcel, Being isn’t as remote and indefinable as it sometimes seems in Heidegger’s work. Emotion and feeling matter to Marcel, making a difference when Dasein attempts to answer the call of Being.

Many commenters on Heidegger give the impression that Being is not agreeable to human feeling or intention, and that it is almost wholly indifferent, impersonal and even ahuman. This is particularly the case when they comment on Heidegger’s later work that emphasizes the spatial rather than temporal connotations of the relationship between Dasein and Being. Regrettably, the academics tend to misconstrue Heidegger’s later work. They declare that it’s obscure but not mystical. They’re wrong on both counts, and they know it.

It is true that Marcel’s message tends to be hopeful. His take on the future of humankind isn’t particularly fatalistic. Indeed, Marcel was a great champion of hope, fraternity (availability) and intelligent social participation. He was also a committed advocate of Man-as-Artist, and spoke of the absolute importance of art, music, poetry and drama as the foremost means for engaging Being.

In Being and Time Dasein is not a detached God-like intellect surveying external phenomena. He is not an imperious rational brain sitting above and beyond worldly phenomena. That notion is, as I call it, mystera. Nor is Dasein a transcendental subject with categories of mind that give us a tangible world while at the same time concealing its true nature.