Abstract

Existential phenomenology is an effective method for explicating man's transcendence and makes a significant contribution to traditional philosophy inasmuch as it points up the belonging together of man and Being. ;Phenomenology accounts for the priority, originality, and initiative of Being which demands a response, not just an intellectual affirmation. The movement of transcendence is a total involvement of man toward Being. ;It is openness to Being that defines man and reflects his capacity for transcendence. According to Heidegger, in this technological age, Dasein founders with the distancing of the god or prepares for the nearing of the god by sharing in the thinking and poetizing. ;Freedom is an essential element for each of the three philosophers. It is the groundless ground of transcendence. The self comes to be through its choice to be or not to be itself. In order to preserve personal freedom, Jaspers claims that religion must necessarily be reduced to myth whereas, for Marcel, there can be no freedom without god. Heidegger, however, takes a position between myth and religion insofar as Dasein, in freely surrendering himself to others, simultaneously gains his authentic self and transcends to Being. ;The intention of Heidegger, Jaspers, and Marcel is to existentially ground the notion of transcendence. Marcel, however, with his notion of participation, remains within the parameters of traditional philosophy and onto-theology. Jaspers, by his emphasis upon the ontic rather than the ontological, fails to sufficiently ground transcendence. Although positing philosophic faith, Jaspers fails to bring his notion to fulfillment since man, though experiencing intermittent peace, ultimately founders. It is only Heidegger who, by stepping completely outside of traditional philosophy, is able to develop the movement from existence to transcendence without relying on faith. There is a constant interplay between Dasein and Being, between world and the farther side of the horizon. Rather than creating a hiatus between finite and infinite Being as in a purely intellectual approach to God, that-which-regions appropriates Dasein in the intimacy of nearness. Although Heidegger does not posit a personal God, he allows for Being as presence and, consequently, opens onto rather than excludes religion