Mediation, Negativity, and Second Potency in Gabriel’s Neoexistentialism

Abstract

In the framework of the new speculative turn, Gabriel recovers for contemporary thinking some of the main categories of absolute idealism such as mediation, negativity, pure possibility, progressive infinity, or Geist. He does it by means of an original synthesis that radicalizes the ontological immanence and emphasizes an irreducible transfinite plurality. The following pages will be devoted to highlight certain ontological continuity between Gabriel’s neo-existentialism and both Hegelian and Schellingian idealism on the one hand, and Kierkegaardian existentialism on the other hand. At the same time, they will try to point out the newness of Gabriel’s philosophy determined by a sort of deflationary view of absolute.