Why did Gabriel Marcel use everyday experiences as a starting point for philosophy?

Gabriel Marcel utilized everyday experiences as the starting point for his philosophy because he believed that philosophical questions inherently involve the questioner in a profound way. He argued that modern philosophy had lost its path by prioritizing abstract, scientific analysis—which he termed primary reflection—over the lived reality of human existence.12

For Marcel, experience is ontologically prior to reflection. He contended that key human experiences, such as fidelity, hope, love, and faith, cannot be fully captured by conceptual analysis because they belong to the realm of mystery rather than the realm of problems. While primary reflection is useful for solving objective, universal problems, it often distorts the unity of experience.32

By beginning with concrete, ordinary examples, Marcel employed a method of "secondary reflection" to recover the meaning of these experiences. This approach allowed him to explore the "ontological exigency"—the fundamental human need for being and meaning—which he felt was often stifled in a "broken world" obsessed with technology, abstraction, and material possession.3145