Jean-Luc Marion
Lecture: Givenness and Revelation
Date: May 2014
Jean-Luc Marion is the John Nuveen Professor in the Divinity School, Philosophy, and Social Thought. He studies both the history of modern philosophy and contemporary phenomenology.
In the former field, he has published several books on Descartes' ontology, rational theology, and metaphysics, focusing especially on medieval sources and using modern patterns of interpretation (e.g., On Descartes' Metaphysical Prism, or Cartesian Questions and Further Cartesian Questions). In the latter field, he is pursuing a long-term inquiry into the question of God, as in The Idol and Distance and God without Being. Finally, he initiated a phenomenology of givenness in Reduction and Givenness, which was further developed in Being Given: An Essay on the Phenomenology of Givenness and In Excess: Studies on Saturated Phenomena. This led recently to The Erotic Phenomenon: Six Meditations.
He has recently published Au lieu de soi. L'approche de saint Augustin (first edition, 2008; second edition, 2009; English translation forthcoming). He is currently working on two books; one titled Negative Certitudes and another on the myth of Cartesian dualism. Awarded the 1992 Grand Prix du Philosophie de l'Académie Française, and the 2008 Karl-Jaspers Preis, Professor Marion has also worked in the areas of Greek and Latin patristics; the history of medieval and modern philosophy; aesthetics; and constructive theology.