Jean-Luc Marion (born 3 July 1946) is a French
philosopher and Roman Catholic theologian.
Marion is a former student of Jacques Derrida
whose work is informed by patristic and mystical
theology, phenomenology, and modern philosophy.
Much of his academic work has dealt with Descartes
and phenomenologists like Martin Heidegger
and Edmund Husserl, but also religion. God
Without Being, for example, is concerned predominantly
with an analysis of idolatry, a theme strongly
linked in Marion's work with love and the
gift, which is a concept also explored at
length by Derrida.
== Biography ==
=== 
Early years ===
Marion was born in Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine,
on 3 July 1946. He studied at the University
of Nanterre (now the University Paris Ouest
Nanterre La Défense) and the Sorbonne and
then did graduate work in philosophy from
the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where
he was taught by Jacques Derrida, Louis Althusser
and Gilles Deleuze. At the same time, Marion's
deep interest in theology was privately cultivated
under the personal influence of theologians
such as Louis Bouyer, Jean Daniélou, Henri
de Lubac, and Hans Urs von Balthasar. From
1972 to 1980 he studied for his doctorate
and worked as an assistant lecturer at the
Sorbonne. After receiving his doctorate in
1980, he began teaching at the University
of Poitiers.
=== Career ===
From there he moved to become the Director
of Philosophy at the University Paris X – Nanterre,
and in 1991 also took up the role of professeur
invité at the Institut Catholique de Paris.
In 1996 he became Director of Philosophy at
the University of Paris IV (Sorbonne), where
he still teaches.
Marion became a visiting professor at the
University of Chicago Divinity School in 1994.
He was then appointed the John Nuveen Professor
of the Philosophy of Religion and Theology
there in 2004, a position he held until 2010.
That year, he was appointed the Andrew Thomas
Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Professor
of Catholic Studies at the Divinity School,
a position that had been vacated by the retirement
of theologian David Tracy.On 6 November 2008,
Marion was elected as an immortel by the Académie
française. Marion now occupies seat 4 an
office previously held by Cardinal Lustiger.His
awards include:
the Karl Jaspers Prize of the city and University
of Heidelberg (2008).
the Grand Prix de philosophie de l'Académie
française (1992), for his entire oeuvre
the Prix Charles Lambert de l'Académie des
sciences morales et politiques (1977)
== Philosophy ==
Marion's phenomenological work is set out
in three volumes which together form a triptych
or trilogy. Réduction et donation: Etudes
sur Husserl, Heidegger et la phénoménologie
(1989) is an historical study of the phenomenological
method followed by Husserl and Heidegger,
with a view towards suggesting future directions
for phenomenological research. The unexpected
reaction that Réduction et donation provoked
called for clarification and full development.
This was addressed in Étant donné: Essai
d'une phénoménologie de la donation (1997),
a more conceptual work investigating phenomenological
givenness, the saturated phenomenon and the
gifted—a rethinking of the subject. Du surcroît
(2001) provides an in-depth description of
saturated phenomena.
=== Givenness ===
Marion claims that he has attempted to "radically
reduce the whole phenomenological project
beginning with the primacy in it of givenness".
What he describes as his one and only theme
is the givenness that is required before phenomena
can show themselves in consciousness—"what
shows itself first gives itself. This is based
on the argument that any and all attempts
to lead phenomena back to immanence in consciousness,
that is, to exercise the phenomenological
reduction, necessarily results in showing
that givenness is the "sole horizon of phenomena"Marion
radicalizes this argument in the formulation,
"As much reduction, as much givenness", and
offers this as a new first principle of phenomenology,
building on and challenging prior formulae
of Husserl and Heidegger. The formulation
common to both, Marion argues, "So much appearance,
so much Being", adopted from Johann Friedrich
Herbart, erroneously elevates appearing to
the status of the "sole face of Being". In
doing so, it leaves appearing itself undetermined,
not subject to the reduction, and thus in
a "typically metaphysical situation".The Husserlian
formulation, "To the things themselves!",
is criticized on the basis that the things
in question would remain what they are even
without appearing to a subject—again circumventing
the reduction or even without becoming phenomena.
Appearing becomes merely a mode of access
to objects, rendering the formulation inadequate
as a first principle of phenomenology. A third
formulation, Husserl's "Principle of all Principles",
states "that every primordial dator Intuition
is a source of authority (Rechtsquelle) for
knowledge, that whatever presents itself in
'intuition'...is simply to be accepted as
it gives itself out to be, though only within
the limits in which it then presents itself."
Marion argues that while the Principle of
all Principles places givenness as phenomenality's
criterion and achievement, givenness still
remains uninterrogated. Whereas it admits
limits to intuition ("as it gives itself...,
though only within the limits in which it
presents itself"), "givenness alone is absolute,
free and without condition"Givenness then
is not reducible except to itself, and so
is freed from the limits of any other authority,
including intuition; a reduced given is either
given or not given. "As much reduction, as
much givenness" states that givenness is what
the reduction accomplishes, and any reduced
given is reduced to givenness. The more a
phenomenon is reduced, the more it is given.
Marion calls the formulation the last principle,
equal to the first, that of the appearing
itself.
By describing the structures of phenomena
from the basis of givenness, Marion claims
to have succeeded in describing certain phenomena
that previous metaphysical and phenomenological
approaches either ignore or exclude—givens
that show themselves but which a thinking
that does not go back to the given is powerless
to receive. In all, three types of phenomena
can be shown, according to the proportionality
between what is given in intuition and what
is intended:
Phenomena where little or nothing is given
in intuition. Examples include the Nothing
and death, mathematics and logic. Marion claims
that metaphysics, in particular Kant (but
also Husserl), privileges this type of phenomenon.
Phenomena where there is adequation between
what is given in intuition and what is intended.
This includes any objective phenomena.
Phenomena where what is given in intuition
fills or surpasses intentionality. These are
named saturated phenomena.
=== The saturated phenomenon ===
According to John D. Caputo, Marion "is famous
for the idea of what he calls the "saturated
phenomenon," which is inspired by his study
of Christian Neoplatonic mystical theologians....[The
idea that] there are phenomena of such overwhelming
givenness or overflowing fulfillment that
the intentional acts aimed at these phenomena
are overrun, flooded—or saturated."
=== "The Intentionality of Love" ===
The fourth section of Marion's work Prolegomena
to Charity is entitled "The Intentionality
of Love" and primarily concerns intentionality
and phenomenology. Influenced by (and dedicated
to) the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas,
Marion explores the human idea of love and
its lack of definition: "We live with love
as if we knew what it was about. But as soon
as we try to define it, or at least approach
it with concepts, it draws away from us."
He begins by explaining the essence of consciousness
and its "lived experiences." Paradoxically,
the consciousness concerns itself with objects
transcendent and exterior to itself, objects
irreducible to consciousness, but can only
comprehend its 'interpretation' of the object;
the reality of the object arises from consciousness
alone. Thus the problem with love is that
to love another is to love one's own idea
of another, or the "lived experiences" that
arise in the consciousness from the "chance
cause" of another: "I must, then, name this
love my love, since it would not fascinate
me as my idol if, first, it did not render
to me, like an unseen mirror, the image of
myself. Love, loved for itself, inevitably
ends as self-love, in the phenomenological
figure of self-idolatry." Marion believes
intentionality is the solution to this problem,
and explores the difference between the I
who intentionally sees objects and the me
who is intentionally seen by a counter-consciousness,
another, whether the me likes it or not. Marion
defines another by its invisibility; one can
see objects through intentionality, but in
the invisibility of the other, one is seen.
Marion explains this invisibility using the
pupil: "Even for a gaze aiming objectively,
the pupil remains a living refutation of objectivity,
an irremediable denial of the object; here
for the first time, in the very midst of the
visible, there is nothing to see, except an
invisible and untargetable void...my gaze,
for the first time, sees an invisible gaze
that sees it." Love, then, when freed from
intentionality, is the weight of this other's
invisible gaze upon one's own, the cross of
one's own gaze and the other's and the "unsubstitutability"
of the other. Love is to "render oneself there
in an unconditional surrender...no other gaze
must respond to the ecstasy of this particular
other exposed in his gaze." Perhaps in allusion
to a theological argument, Marion concludes
that this type of surrender "requires faith."
== Publications ==
God Without Being, University of Chicago Press,
1991. [Dieu sans l'être; Hors-texte, Paris:
Librarie Arthème Fayard, (1982)]
Reduction and Givenness: Investigations of
Husserl, Heidegger and Phenomenology, Northwestern
University Press, 1998. [Réduction et donation:
recherches sue Husserl, Heidegger et la phénoménologie,
(Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
1989)]
Cartesian Questions: Method and Metaphysics,
University of Chicago Press, 1999. [Questions
cartésiennes I: Méthode et métaphysique,
(Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
1991)]
'In the Name: How to Avoid Speaking of 'Negative
Theology', in JD Caputo and MJ Scanlon, eds,
God, the Gift and Postmodernism, (Bloomington,
IN: Indiana University Press, 1999)
On Descartes' Metaphysical Prism: The Constitution
and the Limits of Onto-theo-logy in Cartesian
Thought, University of Chicago Press, 1999.
[Sur le prisme métaphysique de Descartes.
(Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
1986)]
The Idol and Distance: Five Studies, Fordham
University Press, 2001. [L'idole et la distance:
cinq études, (Paris: B Grasset, 1977)]
Being Given: Toward a Phenomenology of Givenness,
Stanford University Press, 2002. [Étant donné.
Essai d'une phénoménologie de la donation,
(Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
1997)]
In Excess: Studies of Saturated Phenomena,
Fordham University Press, 2002. [De surcroit:
études sur les phénomenes saturés, (Paris:
Presses Universitaires de France, 2001)]
Prolegomena to Charity, Fordham University
Press, 2002. [Prolégomènes á la charité,
(Paris: E.L.A. La Différence, 1986]
The Crossing of the Visible, Stanford University
Press, 2004. [La Croisée du visible, (Paris:
Presses Universitaires de France, 1996)]
The Erotic Phenomenon: Six Meditations, University
of Chicago Press, 2007. [Le phénomene érotique:
Six méditations, (Paris: Grasset, 2003)]
On the Ego and on God, Fordham University
Press, 2007. [Questions cartésiennes II:
Sur l'ego et sur Dieu, (Paris: Presses Universitaires
de France, 1996)]
The Visible and the Revealed, Fordham University
Press, 2008. [Le visible et le révélé.
(Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2005)]
The Reason of the Gift (Richard Lectures),
University of Virginia Press, 2011.
In the Self's Place: The Approach of St. Augustine,
Stanford University Press, 2012. [Au lieu
de soi, (Paris: Presses Universitaires de
France, 2008)]
Givenness & Hermeneutics (Pere Marquette Lectures
in Theology), Marquette University Press,
2013.
Negative Certainties, University of Chicago
Press, 2015. [Certitudes négatives. (Paris:
Editions Grasset & Fasquelle, 2009)]
Givenness and Revelation (Gifford Lectures),
Oxford University Press, 2016.
Believing in Order to See: On the Rationality
of Revelation and the Irrationality of Some
Believers, Fordham University Press, 2017.
Descartes' Grey Ontology: Cartesian Science
and Aristotelian Thought in the Regulae, St.
Augustine's Press, Forthcoming - August 2017.
Descartes' White Theology, Saint Augustine's
Press, Translation in process.
== See also ==
Christian existentialism
Continental philosophy
Postmodern Christianity
Rational mysticism
== References ==
== Sources ==
Académie française (2008). "Jean-Luc Marion's
profile" (in French). Archived from the original
on 2012-02-11.
L’Agence France-Presse (2008-11-06). "Le
philosophe Jean-Luc Marion élu à l'Académie
française" (in French). Archived from the
original on 2012-09-29. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
Caputo, John D. (2007). "The Erotic Phenomenon
by Jean‐Luc Marion". Ethics (Book review).
118 (1): 164–168. doi:10.1086/521585.
Horner, Robyn (2005). Jean-Luc Marion: a Theo-Logical
Introduction. Burlington: Ashgate.
Husserl, Edmund (1969). Ideas: General introduction
to pure phenomenology. Translated by W. R.
Boyce Gibson (5th ed.). London and New York:
George Allen & Unwin and Humanities Press.
British SBN: 04 11005 0.
Marion, Jean-Luc (1998). Reduction and Givenness:
Investigations of Husserl, Heidegger, and
Phenomenology. Translated by Thomas A. Carlson.
Chicago: Northwestern University Press. ISBN
0-8101-1235-3.
Marion, Jean-Luc (2002a). Being Given: Toward
a Phenomenology of Givenness. Translated by
Jeffrey L. Kosky. Stanford: Stanford University
Press. ISBN 0-8047-3410-0.
Marion, Jean-Luc (2002b). In Excess: Studies
of Saturated Phenomena. Translated by Robyn
Horner and Vincent Berraud. New York: Fordham
University Press. ISBN 0-8232-2217-9.
Marion, Jean-Luc (2002c). Prolegomena to Charity.
Translated by Stephen E. Lewis. New York:
Fordham University Press.
University of Chicago (2010-02-16). "Nine
faculty members receive named chairs, distinguished
service appointments". UChicago News. Retrieved
2012-05-25.
University of Chicago Divinity School (2015).
"Faculty biography". Retrieved 2015-06-25.
== Further reading ==
Rethinking God as Gift: Marion, Derrida, and
the Limits of Phenomenology, Robyn Horner,
Fordham University Press, 2001
Givenness and God: Questions of Jean-Luc Marion,
Ian Leask and Eoin G. Cassidy, eds., Fordham
University Press, 2005
Counter-Experiences: Reading Jean-Luc Marion,
edited by Kevin Hart, University of Notre
Dame Press, 2007.
Reading Jean-Luc Marion:Exceeding Metaphysics,
Christina M. Gschwandtner, Indiana University
Press, 2007.
Interpreting Excess: Jean-Luc Marion, Saturated
Phenomena, and Hermeneutics, Fordham University
Press, 2010.
A Genealogy of Marion's Philosophy of Religion:
Apparent Darkness, Tamsin Jones, Indiana University
Press, 2011.
Degrees of Givenness: On Saturation in Jean-Luc
Marion, Christina M. Gschwandtner, Indiana
University Press, 2014.
Marion and Derrida on the Gift and Desire:
Debating the Generosity of Things, Jason W.
Alvis, Contributions to Phenomenology Series,
Springer Press, 2016.
== External links ==
Quotations related to Jean-Luc Marion at Wikiquote
