Beyond Function

The French existentialist Gabriel Marcel once diagnosed the defining problem of modernity as the "misplacement of the idea of function." In his famous essay, “On the ontological Mystery,” he describes modern society as essentially empty because it increasingly understands both the world and the person in terms of utility, efficiency, productivity, quantifiable performance, etc. In such a climate, the human person is easily reduced to a collection of functions rather than recognized as a unique and irreducible self. Marcel’s critical analysis of the modern condition as well as those of many of the early existentialist—Martin Buber, Karl Jaspesrs, Martin Heidegger, and even Soren Kierkegaard—raised serious concerns and broader philosophical questions that continue to confront us today, nearly a century later. How does contemporary social, technological, political, and economic structures shape our self-understanding? Do they promote authentic selfhood, or do they encourage forms of alienation that obscure what it means to be human? Do they encourage objectified relationships that engender I-it relations with? Do they promote a self-objectification that leads to mental illness?

Marcel offered his own unique repose to the perils—or sickness—of the “functionalized” world as the proper recognition and response to what he called the mystery of being, i.e. learning to access that which is beyond function. This conference invites students and scholars to provide their own analyses and explore such questions baring on the relationship between the self and the modern condition. We seek philosophical reflection upon the nature of selfhood and the ways in which contemporary realities influence our understanding of personal identity, agency, freedom, community, and what it means to live “the good life.” We are particularly interested in papers that examine how modern technological, scientific, philosophical, social, political, or religious developments contribute to—or challenge—our understanding of the self and the conditions of a good, meaningful, and fulfilling human life. Deeper philosophical reflection on the self enables us to reconsider or re-envision not only who we are, but also what kinds of conditions are necessary for genuine human flourishing. We welcome papers that creatively engage these questions from historical or contemporary perspectives, or that draw upon interdisciplinary approaches illuminating the nature of the self in the modern world.