The way out of Nihilism as an overcoming of Metaphysics according to Jean-Luc Marion

Abstract

The present article aims to contribute to the debate on the role played in Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenology by the “gifted” in the experience of the saturated phenomenon, specifically considered as the phenomenon of love. To think whether the “gifted” plays already an active role in the “givenness” as such, or has to wait to her performing of the transition from “givenness” to “manifestation”, has significant implications for a better understanding of Marion’s claim to overcome metaphysics and its most damaging effect: nihilism, that compels us to follow our will alone and prevents us from taking a decision in favor of the other. According to us, Marion’s concept of the “revolution of the gift” already requires, from a pure phenomenological perspective, a clear and active role of the “gifted” in the “givenness” as such.