22

Lesson 4 – EXISTENTIALISM AND EDUCATION

UNIT OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to:

1. Discuss the philosophy of existentialism

2. Discuss the major themes of existentialism
3. Identify the proponents of the existentialism and their respective
contributions.
4. Discuss the implications of existentialism to the present practice of
education in terms of:

a. aims of education
b. methods in educations
c. curriculum

5. Discuss the limitations of existentialism

Introduction

Existentialism is one of the newer modern philosophies hence its

recent application to education. It root can be traced back to the Sophists
and since has developed through figures like martin Buber, Jean Paul
Sartre.

Existentialism has similarities with phenomenology. In education the

two are called existential phenomenology. The concern of existentialism in
on the significance of a certain thing on the live experience of individuals.
Phenomenology on the other hand is focused on the phenomena of
consciousness, the significance of education in perception and the
development of meaning in concrete individual experiences.

Major Themes

Because of the diversity of positions associated with

existentialism, the term is impossible to define precisely. Certain themes
common to virtually all existentialists writers can, however, be identified.
The term itself suggests one major theme: the stress on concrete
individual existence and, consequently, on subjectivity, individual
freedom, and choice.
 23

A. Moral Individualism

Most philosophers since Plato have held that the highest ethical
good is the same for everyone; insofar as one approaches moral
perfection, one resembles other morally perfect individuals. The 19th-
century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, who was the first
writer to call himself existential, reacted against this tradition by
insisting that the highest good for the individual is to find his or her
own unique vocation. As he wrote in his journal, “I must find a truth
that is true for me . . . the idea for which I can live or die.” Other
existentialist writers have echoed Kierkegaard's belief that one must
choose one's own way without the aid of universal, objective
standards. Against the traditional view that moral choice involves an
objective judgment of right and wrong, existentialists have argued that
no objective, rational basis can be found for moral decisions. The
19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche further
contended that the individual must decide which situations are to
count as moral situations.

B. Subjectivity

All existentialists have followed Kierkegaard in stressing the

importance of passionate individual action in deciding questions of
both morality and truth. They have insisted, accordingly, that personal
experience and acting on one's own convictions are essential in
arriving at the truth. Thus, the understanding of a situation by
someone involved in that situation is superior to that of a detached,
objective observer. This emphasis on the perspective of the individual
agent has also made existentialists suspicious of systematic
reasoning. Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and other existentialist writers
have been deliberately unsystematic in the exposition of their
philosophies, preferring to express themselves in aphorisms,
dialogues, parables, and other literary forms. Despite their
antirationalist position, however, most existentialists cannot be said to
be irrationalists in the sense of denying all validity to rational thought.
They have held that rational clarity is desirable wherever possible, but
that the most important questions in life are not accessible to reason
or science. Furthermore, they have argued that even science is not as
rational as is commonly supposed. Nietzsche, for instance, asserted
that the scientific assumption of an orderly universe is for the most
part a useful fiction.
 24

C. Choice and Commitment

Perhaps the most prominent theme in existentialist writing is that
of choice. Humanity's primary distinction, in the view of most
existentialists, is the freedom to choose. Existentialists have held that
human beings do not have a fixed nature, or essence, as other animals
and plants do; each human being makes choices that create his or her
own nature. In the formulation of the 20th-century French philosopher
Jean-Paul Sartre, existence precedes essence. Choice is therefore
central to human existence, and it is inescapable; even the refusal to
choose is a choice. Freedom of choice entails commitment and
responsibility. Because individuals are free to choose their own path,
existentialists have argued, they must accept the risk and
responsibility of following their commitment wherever it leads.

D. Dread and Anxiety

Kierkegaard held that it is spiritually crucial to recognize that

one experiences not only a fear of specific objects but also a feeling of
general apprehension, which he called dread. He interpreted it as
God's way of calling each individual to make a commitment to a
personally valid way of life. The word anxiety (German Angst) has a
similarly crucial role in the work of the 20th-century German
philosopher Martin Heidegger; anxiety leads to the individual's
confrontation with nothingness and with the impossibility of finding
ultimate justification for the choices he or she must make. In the
philosophy of Sartre, the word nausea is used for the individual's
recognition of the pure contingency of the universe, and the word
anguish is used for the recognition of the total freedom of choice that
confronts the individual at every moment.

Existentialist Philosophers and Their Thought

Existentialism, philosophical movement or tendency, emphasizing

individual existence, freedom, and choice, that influenced many diverse
writers in the 19th and 20th centuries.

It is difficult to sort a consistent interpretation of the philosophy

because of the diverse background of its proponents.

The nature of individualism studied by the existentialist was

influenced by the work of a German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm
Nietzche. He established new morality that is outside of the Judeo-
 25

Christian morality for he felt that this morality makes us so weak. He

favored the leadership of exceptional people.

Existentialist however displayed a deep sense of moral reservation,

even moral uncertainty about individual responsibility. Individualism
according to the existentialist is characterized by anxiety and lack of
definition and certainty.

Existentialism as a distinct philosophical and literary movement

belongs to the 19th and 20th centuries, but elements of existentialism can
be found in the thought (and life) of Socrates, in the Bible, and in the work
of many premodern philosophers and writers.

A. Blaise Pascal
The first to anticipate the major concerns of modern
existentialism was the 17th-century French philosopher Blaise
Pascal. Pascal rejected the rigorous rationalism of his
contemporary René Descartes, asserting, in his Pensées (1670),
that a systematic philosophy that presumes to explain God and
humanity is a form of pride. Like later existentialist writers, he saw
human life in terms of paradoxes: The human self, which combines
mind and body, is itself a paradox and contradiction.

B. Soren Kierkegard (1813- 1855)

Kierkegaard, generally regarded as the founder of modern

existentialism, reacted against the systematic absolute idealism of
the 19th-century German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, who claimed
to have worked out a total rational understanding of humanity and
history. Kierkegaard, on the contrary, stressed the ambiguity and
absurdity of the human situation. The individual's response to this
situation must be to live a totally committed life, and this
commitment can only be understood by the individual who has
made it. The individual therefore must always be prepared to defy
the norms of society for the sake of the higher authority of a
personally valid way of life. Kierkegaard ultimately advocated a
“leap of faith” into a Christian way of life, which, although
incomprehensible and full of risk, was the only commitment he
believed could save the individual from despair.
 26

C Nietzsche

Nietzsche, who was not acquainted with the work of

Kierkegaard, influenced subsequent existentialist thought through
his criticism of traditional metaphysical and moral assumptions
and through his espousal of tragic pessimism and the life-affirming
individual will that opposes itself to the moral conformity of the
majority. In contrast to Kierkegaard, whose attack on conventional
morality led him to advocate a radically individualistic Christianity,
Nietzsche proclaimed the “death of God” and went on to reject the
entire Judeo-Christian moral tradition in favor of a heroic pagan
ideal.

D. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)

Heidegger, like Pascal and Kierkegaard, reacted against an
attempt to put philosophy on a conclusive rationalistic basis—in
this case the phenomenology of the 20th-century German
philosopher Edmund Husserl. Heidegger argued that humanity
finds itself in an incomprehensible, indifferent world. Human
beings can never hope to understand why they are here; instead,
each individual must choose a goal and follow it with passionate
conviction, aware of the certainty of death and the ultimate
meaninglessness of one's life. Heidegger contributed to
existentialist thought an original emphasis on being and ontology
(see Metaphysics) as well as on language.

E. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 –1980)

Sartre first gave the term existentialism general currency by
using it for his own philosophy and by becoming the leading figure
of a distinct movement in France that became internationally
influential after World War II. Sartre's philosophy is explicitly
atheistic and pessimistic; he declared that human beings require a
rational basis for their lives but are unable to achieve one, and thus
human life is a “futile passion.” Sartre nevertheless insisted that
his existentialism is a form of humanism, and he strongly
emphasized human freedom, choice, and responsibility. He
eventually tried to reconcile these existentialist concepts with a
Marxist analysis of society and history.1
 27

F. Martin Buber (1878-1965)

Buber, Martin (1878-1965), Jewish religious philosopher, who

developed a philosophy of encounter, or dialogue.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Buber was educated at the
Universities of Vienna and Berlin, Germany. His first publications,
the works that established his literary fame, were the free re-
creations of Hasidic legends and tales collected in The Tales of
Rabbi Nachman (1907; translated in 1956) and The Legend of the
Baal-Shem (1908; translated in 1955). In 1916 Buber founded Der
Jude (German for “The Jew”), a periodical that he edited until 1924
and that became under his guidance the leading organ of German-
speaking Jewry. His most widely known work, I and Thou (1922;
translated in 1937), a concise poetic expression of his religious
philosophy, and On Judaism (1923; translated in 1967), which
established his intellectual leadership of the German-Jewish
community, appeared in a collected edition in 1923.
Buber was professor of Jewish religion and ethics from 1923
to 1930 and then honorary professor of the history of religions from
1930 to 1933 at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. He resigned
from the university after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, rather
than await the dismissal notice later issued to Jewish faculty
members. Soon after his resignation, Jewish educational leaders
appointed Buber director of the Central Office for Jewish Adult
Education in Germany. In 1938 he immigrated to Palestine (now
Israel), and from 1938 through 1951 he was professor of social
philosophy at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. In 1949 he founded
and until 1953 directed the Israeli Institute for Adult Education, which
trained teachers for work in the immigration camps. He was editor in
chief of the Israeli Encyclopedia of Education in 1958. He was also a
leader of the Ichud (Hebrew for “Union”) Association, a group
seeking reconciliation of the Jews and Arabs.
Buber is best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a religious
existentialism centered on the distinction between direct, mutual
relations (called by him the “I-Thou” relationship, or dialogue), in
which each person confirms the other as of unique value, and
indirect, utilitarian relations (designated the “I-It” relationship, or
monologue), in which each person knows and uses others but does
not really see or value them for themselves. Applying this distinction
between “dialogue” and “monologue” to religion, Buber insisted that
religion means talking to God, not about God. It is not monotheism,
in Buber's view, but the dialogue between man and God that is the
essence of biblical Judaism. Man becomes aware of being addressed
by God in every encounter if he remains open to that address and
ready to respond with his whole being. Buber's philosophy of
 28

dialogue has had a wide influence on thinkers of many faiths,

including such important Protestant theologians as Swiss Karl Barth
and Emil Brunner, German-born American Paul Tillich, and American
Reinhold Niebuhr.
Apart from Buber's philosophy of dialogue, and his lifelong
work translating and interpreting the Old Testament, he is best
known for his re-creation and interpretation of Hasidism, the popular
mystical movement that swept East European Jewry in the 18th and
19th centuries. Almost single-handedly, he transformed Hasidism
into one of the most recognized mystical movements of the world.
Scarcely less important was his role in Zionism. In his 20s Buber was
the leader of those Zionists who advocated a Jewish cultural
renaissance as opposed to a purely political Zionism. One of the
most influential Zionist leaders after Hungarian-born Theodor Herzl,
Buber renewed the prophetic demand that Israel build a community
of righteousness and peace through just means, particularly as
regarded the relations of the Jews to the Arabs.
Buber was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book
Trade in 1953 and the Erasmus Prize by the Erasmus Foundation in
Holland in 1963. He spent his last years as a consultant to kibbutz
members, to whom he offered guidance with personal and
communal problems. He died in Jerusalem.

Existentialism in Modern Life

It has affected many thoughts with the development of a strong

movement of existential psychiatry. It is a non directive approach
espoused by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.
Rogers believed that teachers should risk themselves in classroom
experimentation. The teacher should look for potentiality and wisdom of
the person and work for self-directed change on the part of the learner. It
involves the willingness to trust the learner. Teacher is a facilitator of
learning to help release student potentials rather than showing guiding or
directing the students. The teachers should prize the students and make
him feel worthy. This can be made by prizing the feelings and opinions of
the students.
Maslow characterized the needs of people into basic needs and
metaneeds. Basic needs pertain to survival while metaneeds include
belongingness, esteem and aesthetic needs. These are needed to make
people be self-actualized. The central idea is that people should be
encouraged to make their own decision, respect themselves, and trust
others with compassion. No single life style is necessarily the true one.
 29

The existentialist frame of mind is to recognize individual differences and

variations.

Existentialism in the Philosophy of Education

A. Aims of Education

1. Philosophy should draw the individual in as a participant. They

should explore feelings and relate ideas to ones life. The focus in
education is not on debate but on the creation of ideas relevant to
one’s own needs and interest.

2. Individual comes first before the ideas he creates. Heaven, hell

and God are human inventions. Also ideas like peace, truth and
justice, war and greed. Human being creates ideas. Education
should focus on human reality not only in his ability to create
ideas but as a living being with feelings.

3. Education should encourage question like who am I, where am I

going and why I am here. These questions indicate that human
being are emotional and irrational being.

4. Emphasize individuality seeing each other with the feeling of

fears , frustrations and hopes. The first step is to understand
ourselves

5. Emphasis should be on the good side and dark side of life. On

truthful kind of education where there is no cover up, where
children see the many faces of life, whether good or bad, rational
or irrational.

6. Education should foster an understanding of anxiety (awareness

of the tension of existence) one that prepares for the world of
conflict. There is no tension after death just like people who
appears dead by avoiding conflict at all cost. Life for
existentialist requires some degrees of tension. Christian
existentialists say that true Christian are always in conflict. They
constantly wonder if what they believe is really true and if they
are acting enough in support of those beliefs.

7. Emphasize possibility as a goal of education. Construct the best

life-world possible emphasizing the present and the future.
Education always leads to action, education always follows
action. Education is an activity.
 30

8. Education should liberate. One that cannot be achieved in

idealistic terms or simply by talking about it. It is something to be
achieved through purposeful action. In Freire’s Pedagogy of the
Oppressed he believed that often people are oppressed because
they serve as host for the oppressors. From the
phenomenological point of view, liberating education initially
results in the perception that the world of oppression is not a
closed world which there is no escape but a limiting situation that
can be transformed. Such perception must result to action that
seeks to change the existing condition.

9. Education should enable learners to become attentive, perceptive

or to awake to possibilities. Possibilities like poverty and
ignorance. People should be constantly alert about these
possibilities, to think about their condition, to inquire into the
forces that seem to dominate them and to interpret their daily
experiences. People should be aware of moral issues of
education or the curriculum imposed upon them.

10. Phenomenology is for rational description. Education should

help learners understand and comprehend lived experiences.
Reasonableness should be one of the goals of education

11. Help develop the young people conceptualization and

development of the rational perspective of the world.

B. Methods of Education

1. Look at the individual as individual, and allow them to take

positive role in shaping of their own education and like instead of
looking at them as an individual to be filled, measured or fitted
into. Encouraged students to do things because they like to do
them.

2. Consider individual differences when it comes to the kind of

education to be given to pupils. Education should be diverse not
only in curriculum but also in ways things are taught.

3. Encourage students to choose their own path. Do not control

them by the use of behavioral techniques and punishment.

4. Every teacher should be a student and every student a teacher.

5. Provide teachers and students openness to the world. It should

develop an educational environment that promotes awareness of
 31

the past and the present and of future possibilities. The teacher
and the students rediscovering the excitement of learning and
opening up of new possibilities. This requires greater command
of language and capability of greater comprehension and self-
expression. Another is the development on the awareness of
human culture.

6. The teacher role is that of the enabler who helps the students
appropriate, internalize and make over. The teacher takes cue
from the responses of the learner whether these responses are
active or passive.

7. Treat each other as a learner each with different experiences that

are difficult to embrace and understand.

C. Curriculum

1. Focus on humanities because it deals with the essential aspects

of human existence such as relationship between people, tragic
side of life as well as happiness, absurdities and meaning.

2. Students should decide on what curriculum to undertake.

3. Should include the learners prereflective consciousness

(landscape) and the way how to go about it (geography).

4. Lessons should be presented as an opportunities for individual

sense making

5. Curriculum should transfer the cherished values and ideals as

well as the communication of the skills and concepts needed to
survive and thrive

6. Involvement of the community in curriculum formulation.

D. Critique of Existentialism in Education

1. Serves as an antidote to the organization mentality and

bureaucratization of education.

2. It calls us to reexamine our culture in view of the rampant

materialism, robotization of workers, its anti intellectualism and
devastating effect on individuality. IT enables self examination in
a world that is too impersonal.
 32

3. Existentialism points out that we can refuse enticement and

seduction and we are free to choose ourselves if we will but
exhibit courage.

4. They have condemned the school as the most dehumanizing

force that indoctrinates the individual and steal personal
initiatives. The school is looked upon as factory with everyone
comes alike.

5. Individualism as advocated by the philosophy promotes

selfishness, egoism and disregards for others.

6. Freedom also means responsibility. While an individual may do

anything, personal actions are message to others that they may
do otherwise.

7. The focus is on the understanding on how people conciousness

is developed or educated from their own perspective. This is
called the chronological development of inwardness and
outwardness. This method investigates phenomena related to the
expansion, development, and integration of conscious existence
through learning. Learning means coming to know things and
ebing aware of something of which one was not previously aware

8. Difficulty in understanding many phenomenological

terminologies that are mostly German. It reliance on hyphenated
expression leads to difficulty in comprehending the philosophy.

9. Creation of new avenues is not only through learning from other’s

experience and formal study in school. Learning may also take
place in alternative education

10. It seeks to open our eyes to human possibility and not

necessarily to make narrow doctrinaire ideologues out of us.
 33

Exercise No. 3 - Existentialism and Education

1. Discuss the major themes of existentialism.

2. Give the contributions of the following philosophers:

a. Blaise Pascal
b. Soren Kierkegard
c. Nietzche
d. Nartin Heidegger
e. Jean Paul Sartre
f. Martin Bubber
g. Edmund Husserl

3. Discuss the limitations of existentialism.

Reference:

Ozmon, Howard A. and Samuel M. Craver (1990). Philosophical

Foundations of Education; Merrill Publishing Company, Columbus Ohio,
USA