Why did Gabriel Marcel criticize modern epistemology’s separation of self and world?

Gabriel Marcel criticized modern epistemology for beginning with an artificial separation between the self and the world, a starting point he traced back to Cartesianism and the work of René Descartes.12

Marcel argued that this "spectator" view of the self is an inaccurate depiction of human existence. In actual experience, there is no division between consciousness and the world; rather, the individual is a "participant" immersed in reality. By treating the self as an object to be analyzed through primary reflection—a process of abstract, functional, and logical detachment—modern philosophy dissolves the unity of lived experience.132

Marcel contended that this approach leads to a "broken world" where issues that cannot be solved through scientific or conceptual mastery are dismissed as lacking knowledge. He proposed that a deeper, "secondary reflection" is necessary to recover this lost unity, allowing individuals to access the realm of mystery—such as faith, hope, and love—where the questioner is fundamentally involved in the experience itself.342