Existentialism

EXISTENTIALISM

INTRODUCTION :

Existentialism is a 19^th and 20th century philosophy concerned with human existence, finding self, and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. The belief that people are searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on their experiences, beliefs, and outlook without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or traditions. Existentialism believes in the personal interpretation of the world. It is based on the view that the individual defines reality, truth and goodness.

The fundamental to existential thoughts are contradictions and inconsistencies.  Some illustrations of such paradoxes are - Heidegger’s statement -: ‘analyse death to understand life’, Jaspers : ‘Renounce your world and you will return to it’, Sartre : You are a free man if you deny God’, Kierkegaard : ‘You are a free man if you accept God’, etc. Another very significant source of confusion arises out of the different personal lives and convictions of existential philosophers. Kierkegaard, Marcel and Jaspers are theists whereas Sartre and Heidegger are agnostics. Jaspers is a protestant whereas Marcel is a staunch Roman Catholic.

EXISTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHERS -:

Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher whose ideas about the nature of human freedom in an uncertain world make him one of the founders of the modern philosophy of existentialism. Significant among these philosophers were   Karl Jaspers and Martin Heidegaar from Germany. France contributed two other existentialists -: Gabriel Marcel and Jean Paul Sartre. ‘There are quite a few gentlemen who are associated remotely with the philosophy of existentialism like Schelling, Nietzsche, Pascal,  Husserl who have influenced existential thought but cannot be rigidly classified as existentialists.”  Existentialism thus has a short history of nearly two centuries.

ETYMOLOGICAL MEANING -:

Etymological meaning of ‘existence’ from two German words -: ‘ex-sistent’ meaning that which stands out, that which ‘emerges’ suggests that existentialism is a philosophy that emerges out of problems of life.

EXISTENTIALISM DEFINED -:

Various definitions of Existentialism have been proposed by different authors.

·         Blackham (1952) has described Existentialism as a philosophy of being “a philosophy of attestation and acceptance, and a refusal of the attempt to rationalize and to think Being.”

·         Harries and Leveys (1975) defined existentialism as “any of several philosophic systems, all centered on the individual and his relationship to the universe or to God.” 

·         Tiryakian (1962) defines it as “an attempt to reaffirm the importance of the individual by rigorous and in many respects radically new analysis of the nature of man.”

FUNDAMENTALS OF EXISTENTIALISM -:

1)          For the Existentialist Reality  is ‘Being’ or ‘existence   of an individual’.

2)         Existentialism wants man to be without metaphysics.

3)         They wish to restore the status of man which he has lost in this advanced technological and mechanised society.

4)         Man is not man but humanity. It implies that each man’s actions, while subjectively inspired influence by other people.

5)         The Existentialists state that the person’s mind is the source and substance of all knowledge.

6)         The realisation of existence proceeds from the ‘inwardness of man’.

7)         That knowledge is valid which is of value to the individual.

8)         They do not believe in absolute values. They argue that as long as the empirical spirit remains alive, it must remain open to revision and correction and hence it cannot adhere to fixed values.

9)         Values should be generated by our free decisions.

10)     Freedom is the source of ultimate values.

11)     The emphasis on ‘personal existence’ and subjectivity in existentialism has led to an emphasis on man’s freedom, Choice and Action.

12)     Freedom is the raw material of ‘his being’. Man owes ‘his being’ to freedom, which is the basis of all human activity. “To be free is to be free to change to do, to act, to inflict oneself on the world, to change the world.”

13)     The idea of death should be accepted gracefully.

14)     Existence precedes essence. It means a person lives before he dies. Until a person dies he can always change his essence by doing good things and then he will die a noble death.

15)     Even if God exists, that would make no difference for a man who needs to know that nothing can save him from himself, not even the valid proof of the existence of God.

16)     Human development is seen as independent of external forces, guided by the creative forces of the integral self. It is the development that is a self-directed synthesis of self-destined energy, potential, aspirations and needs.

17)     The individual has freedom of choice, which implies a capacity to change. It is a freedom that helps with the self-emerging process.

18)     Identify and security attained at the cost of freedom constitute bad faith. Likewise, to question the dynamic of the personality is an act of bad faith.

19)     Development consists of a uniquely subjective style by which the individual relates to others and to the processes of being and becoming.

20)     “The individuality of man is supreme. This ‘individuality’ is greater and more important than the existence of man, nation and the world. It is very much near to the individual life of man.”

21)     The existence of ‘self’ is related with the existence of the ‘other’.

V.R. Taneja Writes -: “Existentialists do not believe in absolute values. Indirectly, however, they concede absolute values like ‘awareness of death’, ‘fidelity’, ‘sincerity’, ‘integrity’ etc. “Existentialism is an ethic of integrity in which running away from oneself is evil, facing oneself is good.” It is the integrity of character and action rather than of vision alone that is to be prized. “Treat every man as an end and never as means”. Everyone must choose without reference to pre-established values. Everyone has to invent a law for oneself. Man makes himself. He is not found readymade. He makes himself by the choice of his morality. He cannot choose anything else except his morality. Such is the pressure of circumstances upon him. The heart and centre of existentialism is the absolute character of free commitment through which he realise himself.”

EDUCAIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF EXISTENTIALISM -:

It has been observed that the educational implications are derived and deduced from their philosophy rather than that are developed by existentialists.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF EDUCTION AND EXISTENTIALISM -:

1)   “Education is that which helps an individual to realise the best that he is capable of. In doing so education must help the individual to realise the ‘facticity’ (contingency) of his existence to face the categories of this facticity - dread, anguish, anxiety and fear - resolutely and courageously and finally prepare him to meet death with pleasure.”

2)   “Education for happiness is a dangerous doctrine because there can be no happiness without pain and no ecstasy without suffering.” Therefore, existentialists would welcome an education, which throws open to children human suffering, misery, anguish and the dreadful responsibilities of adult life.

3)   Students must develop a consistent scale of values, authenticate their existence by being committed to these values and so act as to be prepared to die for these values than to live without them. Dyning for one’s own country constituted the supreme sacrifice.

4)   Every individual is unique. Education must develop in him this uniqueness. It must cater to individual differences.

5)   Education must make pupil aware of the infinite possibilities of his freedom and the responsibilities he must bear in life.

6)   The most important aim in education is the becoming of a human person as one who lives and makes decisions about what he will do and be. “Knowing” in the sense of knowing oneself, social relationship, and biological development, are all the parts of becoming. Human existence and the value related to it is the primary factory in education.

7)   Education for complete development of personality.

8)   More importance to subjective knowledge than objective knowledge.

9)   Education for perfection of man in his environment.

10)  Education should create consciousness for ‘self’.

11)   Education should train men to make better choices and also give the man the idea that since his choices are never perfect, the consequences cannot be predicted.

12) “The ultimate aim of education is to make man conscious of his destination, to give understanding of his ‘being’ and ultimately lead him to his heavenly abode. So, it is clear that the existentialism accepts the principle of liberal education.”

In short, the objective of education is to enable every individual to develop his unique qualities, to harness his potentialities and cultivate his individualities. It means the implication of Existentialist formulations for child rearing education and counselling practises are many. Since Existentialists behold human life as unique and emerging a child is to be recognised as a full person and not simple as an in complete adult. The practices by which the child is socialized varied from culture to culture.

CURRICULUM OF EXISTENTIALISM -:

1)   Since the Existentialists believe in the individuals freedom, they do not advocate any rigid curriculum.

2)   They recognise the ‘individual differences’ and wish to have diverse curricula suiting the needs, abilities and aptitudes of the individual.

3)   Curriculum, they say should not primarily satisfy the immediate needs but also ultimate needs.

4)   The central place is given to ‘humanities’, poetry, drama, music, art, novels etc. as they exert the human impact in revealing man’s inherent guilt, sin, suffering, tragedy, death, lust and love. Humanities have spiritual power. Art and Literature, they say should be taught, as they represent a priori (cause effect) power of human nature. Through these the students profit from the ideas and judgment of others.

5)   Second place is given to social sciences as they lead the man to feel that he is nothing more than an object. They however, wish to teach social sciences for inculcating moral obligation and for knowing the relationship of the individual to a group.

6)   History should be taught in order to help the students to change the course of history and to mould future.

7)   The specialization in any field must be complemented by liberalising studies for it is the man who counts and not the profession.

8)   The study of the world’s religion should be taught so as to develop religious attitude freely within the students. The ideal school permits religious unfolding in according with whatever doctrine the student wishes to accept or to reject. Religion keeps him aware of death.

9)   Realisation of self-formed part of the curriculum. Self-examination and social obedience is the first lesson. The child must be saved from his own unexamined self and from those who interfere with the free exercise of his moral decision.

10)  Scientific subjects and mathematics should be included in the curriculum but they should not be given more stress, as they deal with objective knowledge. ‘Self-knowledge precedes universal knowledge.’

In short, they don’t believe in formal curriculum consisting of set of body of studies to be pursued but a curriculum, which features the revirberatory effect upon heart, and mind of passionate good reading and then personal contact. The curriculum should be chosen, sorted out and owned by the learner.

THE TEACHER AND EXISTENTIALISM -:

1)                 Existentialists do not wish the teacher to be social minded umpire or provider of free social activity (as the pragmatists want) or a model personality (as the Idealists say) to be limited, by the students. He must himself be a free personality, engaged in such relations and projects with individual students that they get the idea that they are too are free personalities.

2)                     He may indirectly influence them about his values but he should impose his cherished values on them, test his values become the code of conduct for the students, who may begin to accept them without thought. Instead of expecting them to imitate he should help them to be ‘original’ and ‘authentic’.

3)                     His effort should be that students’ mind should have autonomous functioning so that they become free, charitable and self-moving.

4)                     The role of teacher is very important because he is the creator of such as educational situation in which the student can establish contact with his self by becoming conscious of his self and can achieve self-realization.

5)                     It is the teacher who impresses up on the students to work hard and make the best of life and accept death as something inevitable but tell them that death can be gloomy as well as glorious. It is he who inculcates in the students the idea that a life lived lazily, selfishly or improperly is a life not worthy living. Dying for one’s country is glorious. So, the role of the teacher is very important.

6)                     The teacher must build positive relationships between himself and his students.

7)                     Teachers should avoid applying labels to children (such as ‘lazy’, ‘slow learner’ etc.) for individuals may indeed come to think of themselves this way.

8)                     The teacher is also changing and growing as he guides the pupil in his discovery of self.

THE CHILD AND THE EXISTENTIALISM -:

1)               The Existentialists want to give full freedom to the child. But the child should know the nature of his ‘self’ and recognise his being and convert imperfection into perfection.

2)               They do not want the child to become selfish, autocratic and irresponsible. Freedom is needed only for natural development.

3)               Education should be provided according to the child’s powers and the needs. The relation of the child with his ‘self’ should be strengthened rather than severed.

4)               The child has to make ‘choices’ and decisions.

5)               Child thrives better when relieved from intense competition, harsh discipline, and fear of failure. Thus each child can grow to understand his own needs and values and take charge of the experiences for changing him. In this way self-evaluation is the beginning and end of the learning process, as learning proceeds, child is freely growing, fearless, understanding individual.

6)               Primary emphasis must always be on the child, as learner and not on the learning programme.

7)               Child needs positive evaluation, not labels.

SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND THE EXISTENTIALISM -:

1)               The school should provide an atmosphere where the individuals develop in a healthy way.

2)               Any subject in school (even extra activities like athletics, music etc.) can present existential situations for teaching and the development of human beings.

3)               The aim of school tasks should be to nurture self-discipline and cultivate self-evaluation.

4)               Mass teaching and mass testing are not advocated in schools.

5)               The schedule must be flexible and open.

6)               Democratic ideals should infuse the school. Democracy must be the soil in which the individual grows. It should be the democracy of unique individuals who value differences and respect one another. Self-government, pupil participation in planning and the encouragement of a free atmosphere characterize the school.

7)               Mechanization and impersonality should be counteracted in school. Students timetables and work programmes are computerized. And thus the relationships between the individual students and the school programme becomes an impersonal one. Besides this, the use of programmed instruction, teaching machines and other equipments tend to decrease the personal contact between teachers and pupils. This impersonality is a hazard to the individual development and growth of the child’s personality. Concern and respect for the individual student should be a feature of the school.

LIMITATIONS-:

1)               After studying the philosophy of Existentialism, the question will arise in anybody’s mind : how can the aims, curricula and methods in a school depend upon the individual’s choice and freedom? Organization of such a programme would be impossible and bring about chaos.

2)               The teacher’s individual relationship and close understanding of every pupil’s personality would require a great deal of time and effort.

3)               The concepts of ‘Being’, ‘meaning’, ‘Person’ are not very clear and appear vague. It is not easy to build up an educational programme when the terminology for the objectives of the educational process are not clear.

4)               Where there is child-rearing education and counseling practices are many the practices by which the child is socialized varies from one culture to another. If the emphasis in the culture is on mundane security and the value of world essence, then the individual may experience neurotic growth through the conflict between these unsuitable values and the person’s inner forces of creativity that continue to aspire for unique emergence and subjective expression.

5)               Educational standards and practices that manipulate the child’s behaviours in an arbitrary manner violate the principle of free choice.

6)               Many teaching practices, testing procedures, and bureaucratic system of classifying children may be questioned.

7)               Over structured public and narrow-minded school systems enslave rather than liberate young souls. Such institutions serve a political rather than a truly educational purpose, promoting the manufacture of efficient robot rather than inspired, enlightened, and creative individuals. As a result various contemporary educational theories are radicalising the institutionalised structures of learning.

8)               Teachers who have learned to provide existential encounters for their students enable the learners, “to create meanings in a cosmos devoid of objective meaning to find reasons for being in a society with fewer and fewer open doors.”

9)               If the purpose of education is to build character, to optimise potential and creativity and to enhance the quality of life through knowledge, then from an Existentialist perspective bureaucratisation needs to be replaced by humanization.