Existentialism

Existentialism is a philosophy whose popularity was greatest in the twentieth century, particularly during and after World War II. Existentialist thought was introduced through literary works written by such masters as Sartre, Camus and Dostoevsky. Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard insisted that one controls one's own life, that one has complete freedom "to choose and become what he wills himself to become" (p. 397). Jean-Paul Sartre stated that "the human project…is to create by free choice a life that is noble and beautiful self-construction" (Gutek, 2009, p. 109). The founders of existentialism made little reference to education and the role of the teacher, the learner, the environment or the curriculum. However, much can be gleaned from the original words of existentialist thinkers that can apply to the state of an existentialist education.

Overview

Existence Precedes Essence

Existence precedes essence. We make ourselves, we create our essence; this expression encompasses the major theory behind the existentialist philosophy. Its popularity was greatest in the twentieth century, particularly during and after World War II. Existentialist thought was introduced through literary works written by such masters as Sartre, Camus and Dostoevsky. Several existentialist philosophers have impacted the thinking that supports the tenets of this philosophy. Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard insisted that one controls one's own life, that one has complete freedom "to choose and become what he wills himself to become" (p. 397). Jean-Paul Sartre stated that "the human project…is to create by free choice a life that is noble and beautiful self-construction" (Gutek, 2009, p. 109).

There is some question as to whether existentialism can really be called a philosophy because it lacks the systematic school of thought that other philosophies such as Idealism, Realism, or Pragmatism possess. However, there are common traits that encompass what many great thinkers perceive to be a philosophy that emphasizes the freedom of human beings. Its major principle is that existence precedes essence. Thus, one's existence comes first, and then one defines themselves through the choices they make and the actions that evolve out of these choices. One is born and THEN they develop into who they will become as a person. To existentialists, the world is

… an indifferent phenomenon, which,

while it may not be antagonistic to human

purposes, is nonetheless devoid of personal

meaning… in this world, each person

is born, lives, chooses his or her course and

creates the meaning of his or her own existence

(Gutek, 2009, p. 101).

Connecting Elements of Existential Thought

Existentialism is best illustrated by the common elements of thought attributed to existentialist thinkers. One is the thought that we are free from all external elements. Although we have a past, this past does not factor into the present moment of our life. External elements are, or one's past life is, only important if one chooses to make them important. Another connection is the concept of responsibility. While one is free to make one's own choices, each person is responsible for what choices they make. As Noddings suggests, one cannot "give away [their] freedom" to outside agents such as "the state, to parents, to teachers, to weaknesses, to the past, and to environmental conditions" (p. 18).

Of importance to the existentialist is the common message that "every truth and every action implies a human setting and a human subjectivity" (Noddings, 1995, p. 18). While we know that there is a world full of reality, to the existentialist, this reality only becomes such when one is a basic part of it. Noddings states that "reality lies in [everyone's] experience and perception of the event rather than the isolated event" (p. 18). Noddings relates the example of the perception of two people listening to a speech:

… two men may hear the same speech, the

same words, the same voice. One man's reality

may be that the speaker is a political demagogue,

for the other man the reality is that the speaker

is an awaited political savior (p. 18).

According to existentialists, one must rely upon oneself and a relationship to those around them. One must possess a self-realization that one must relate to others, as the person "lives out [their] life span in an adamant universe" (Nodding, 1995, p. 19). One is "thrown into the universe in which there is no fixed course of action, nor final structure of meaning" (McLemee, 2003, p. 1). Even though one is part of an adamant universe, one becomes the subject of their own life, a unique and idiosyncratic being. Nodding explains a basic concept of existentialism, that "people are not thrown into the world with a nature…only by planning, reflecting, choosing and acting, people can make themselves" (p. 59). To Greene, a person only passes through life once and therefore must begin creating their own identity. In other words, people are born with no true identity or sense of self; they construct themselves over time. One can do this by taking "responsible action for the sake of wholeness, to correct lacks in concrete situations and thus alter themselves in the light of some projected ideal" (p. 261).

Knowledge is said "to be the way a [person] comes in touch with [their] world, puts questions to it, transforms its component parts into signs and tools, and translates [their] findings in words." This person uses this knowledge to make choices and determine future actions. Knowledge is used "to clarify and to open up a life" (Greene, 1973, p. 137). Through knowledge, one builds a life day to day.

Rather than illustrating their messages through argumentation and persuasion, as other philosophies have done, existentialists use the venue of stories to propagate their message. They do this because they believe that "life is not the unfolding of a logical plan; one cannot argue from trustworthy premises what a life should be like or how it should be lived…meaning is created as we live our lives reflectively." Stories personify the reflective experience and provide accounts of "the human struggle for meaning" (Nodding, 1995, p. 62). Characters generally face a life of "angst, anxiety and alienation in an absurd universe" (Gutek, 2009, p. 100).

Existentialism & Education

The founders of existentialism made little reference to education and the role of the teacher, the learner, the environment or the curriculum. The mission of existentialism "analyzes the basic character of human existence and calls the attention of [people] to their freedom" (Wingo, 1965, p. 419). However, much can be gleaned from the original words of thinkers that apply to the state of an existentialist education, as education has come to be seen as "a foundation of human progress" (Park, 1968, p. 299). Furthermore, a "careful" understanding of existentialism reveals "strong qualitative ties which provide a framework for understanding the roles individuals play, and how they struggle with those roles in educational institutions" (Duemer, 2012). A few modern philosophers, including Van Cleve Morris and George Kneller, have written extensively, applying existential thought to education.

In an existentialist school, individualism must be "the center of educational endeavor" (Knight, 1998, p. 77). Van Cleve Morris sees education as a way "to awaken awareness in the learner," with the task of education falling chiefly on secondary schools at a time when schools provide "occasions and circumstances for the awakening and intensification of awareness" (Park, 1968, p. 300). He says that prior to puberty (a time called the Pre-Existential Period), children are not really aware of the human condition or yet conscious of their personal identity and should learn the basics of education. After puberty, young adolescents experience their Existential Moment, when they become more aware of themselves in relation to the world. To Morris, school should be concerned with developing "that integrity in [students] necessary to the task of making personal choices of action, and taking personal responsibility for these choices, whether the culture smiles or frowns" (1968, p. 313).

School policy that supports the existentialist philosophy focuses on the individual student, as teachers enter the "private world" of the student. The here and now life experiences are more important than the messages from the past. Teachers encourage personal responsibility and show students respect and belief in their potential, always keeping in mind that the students should be themselves. They do not teach problem-solving, a popular methodology espoused by other philosophies such as pragmatism. Problem-solving is "too linked to universal reason," and to an existentialist teacher, "problem-solving is acceptable only if the problem originates in the life of the [student] who has to appropriate the solution" (Kneller, 1968, p. 320).

Formal values training is not part of the existential curriculum. People are not born with values, or the propensity to be good. Each is free to become whatever they want to become. Knight states that an individual can make choices that are harmful to others, but they can also make ethical choices. One has "the great potential of bettering, worsening, or even destroying human existence" (p. 76). To existentialists, "living the responsible life includes acting upon one's decision to be true or authentic to his or herself" (p. 77). Teachers should help develop competencies in free choice by using strategies in the Ethical Method, providing sources that prompt discussion about perennial issues that challenge people throughout their lives.

Teachers are faced with a dilemma when they teach; they are confronted with questions that are value-based. They have to determine what is the right thing to teach, when to teach it, and when to leave a student alone to their devices. Existentialist thinker Soren Kierkegaard asserted that the main duty of teaching is to be a learner who actively shares views with the student, thus facilitating personal and social transformation. This learning relationship "furnishes a model of conviction for all who can see, a context for trust and the way of establishing a mutual vision" (Walters, 2008, p. 113).

Pointing to an additional dilemma, Kline and Knight Abowitz, in an essay on the dehumanization of school educators, cite "Teaching Philosophy in Europe and North America," a paper from United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization that argues that "efficiency and effectiveness are the main considerations in the values of education." The authors write of teachers being "conscious beings and existing"; however, a "culturally constructed burden" molds their professional choices and actions (Kline & Knight Abowitz, 2013).

Humanities are a major part of an existentialist education. Humanities provide the insight into life's major dilemmas, providing both the positive and negative perspectives that illustrate people making choices. The fundamentals of traditional education should be studied as well, as they are a "foundation of creative effort and individual ability to understand oneself" (p. 78). Other subject areas may be included for study, as long as they have meaning for the individual.

Noddings, writing of the lack of existentialist principles in present-day secondary-school liberal arts education, argues that what "passes for the liberal arts in high school - the specific disciplines of English, mathematics, history, and the sciences - are little more than preparation for further study in those narrowly defined subjects. Not only do they make few connections to existential themes, they make almost no connection to one another" (Noddings, 2011). She continues, "Rather than setting up the liberal arts as a separate program to be studied in preference to something less desirable, I would like to draw on the liberal arts to enrich everything we teach."

Philosophers who have shaped the tenets of existentialism are: Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Applications

Existentialist Methods & Principles in the Classroom

Modern followers of existentialism in education offer methods and principles that can be adapted in the contemporary classroom.

Ethical Method: The Ethical Method is any method that promotes facilitating the way to choose and the habit of choosing. Teachers facilitate situations whereby students "grapple with urgent perennial issues," asking such questions as: "How can self-interest be accommodated to the general welfare?" The purpose of providing method in making choices is that when faced with the need to make choices, "persons will have the courage, the social stamina and the personal vigor to do so" (Power, 1982, p. 24).

Existentialist Learning Principles: Pine states that there are certain principles of learning that existentialists support:

• The learner's beginning point in creating values and learning is the setting of goals, as the learner is a free and responsible agent.
• Learning is an experience which occurs inside the learner and is activated by the learner, with the process of learning primarily controlled by the learner and not the teacher.
• Learning is the discovery of the personal meaning and relevance of ideas, with the learner deciding what is meaningful and what must be discovered.
• Learning occurs from the consequence of experience, authentic experience.
• Learning is emotional as well as intellectual, in that the state of the whole person impacts learning.
• Learning is a valuing experience, with the student sharing that which they value most.
• Teaching is learning, with the teacher becoming part of the process of learning as they learn from the learning.

Existentialist Teaching Principles: Existentialists believe that there is "a special facilitative human relationship between the student and the teacher" (Pine, 1974, p.19). An existentialist teacher will design a teaching approach to increase the student's freedom, to discover meaning for their life and to improve their encounters along the way. Pine states that teachers who follow the existential philosophy may follow these principles:

• They teach with an existentialist attitude in mind rather than through technique; they strive to know the student's reality and to see as the student sees.
• They view students as subjects, not objects; they do not rely on diagnosing or evaluating per established standards and norms.

Facilitative Learning: Pine also outlines certain conditions that facilitate learning within an existentialist classroom. Learning is facilitated in an atmosphere which:

• Encourages people to be active.
• Promotes and facilitates the individual's discovery of the personal
• meanings of ideas.
• Emphasizes the uniquely personal and subjective nature of learning.
• Encourages openness of self rather than concealment of self.
• Supports difference as good and desirable.
• Recognizes people's rights to make mistakes.
• Encourages trust in people as well as to trust themselves.
• Creates teachers who become learners and resource people rather than transmitters of knowledge.

Viewpoints

There are those thinkers who do not consider existentialism to be a philosophy at all. Up to the inception of this thought process, philosophical views have been well-developed systematic bodies of thought that support arguments and conclusions that are based on argument. Opponents see existentialism as an approach, more than a philosophy, more of "an inclination rather than a systematic school of thought" (Gutek, 2009, p. 101). Existentialists see life as "too varied, complex, confused and unpredictable to be arranged in neatly structured philosophical categories" (p. 101).

While existentialism may be viewed as a philosophy of thought, there are those who are not impressed with this stream of thinking. While existentialism supports growth of one's own being, opponents of this philosophy make continued reference to existentialism as "a pessimistic negative philosophy…a source of nihilistic gloom…a meaninglessness that provokes anxiety" (Solomon, 2007, p. 1). However, existentialists view their philosophy as an "important stream of American life and thought… that supports individualism and insistence on self-reliance" (p. 1). Existentialism is said to be more interested in "the affective side of man, his capacity to love, to appreciate, and to respond emotionally to the world about him" (Morris, 1968, p. 311).

Those who live the existentialist life may consider any other philosophical approach to be "propaganda served to a captive audience" (Knight, 1998, p. 77). Education under any other philosophical view prepares students for "consumerism or makes them into cogs in the machinery of industrial technology and modern bureaucracy." To existentialists, much of education "stifles and destroys individuality and creativity" (p. 77).

Existentialism promotes individual possibilities as limitless, as "no absolute limit can be set with respect to either human accomplishment or aspiration" (Powers, 1982, p. 279). However, while this may be a lofty goal for existentialists, there is just not enough time for one to accomplish everything one chooses. When making choices, students must be focused in their approach to study. Powers (1982) points out that "immature, untutored students need some help to realize personal genius, whatever it may be" (p. 279). Curriculum should be used as "a means to develop hidden talent and not allow it to enslave students" (p. 279).

There are certain trends that reduce personal choice and self-direction and interfere with an existential approach to life. Gutek states that educational systems have the potential to impede personal authenticity and depersonalize the teaching/learning experience. The modern focus on standardized testing encourages teachers to teach to the test; "uniformity becomes the norm and uniqueness and difference" is seen as abnormal, thus, "authenticity becomes limited" (pp. 121-122).

Terms & Concepts

Absurd Life: Existentialism has coined the term absurd life, meaning that one begins life without a prior destined path (a priori), that life is empty before one gives meaning to it. Noddings (1995) provides an example of this: "If we feel ourselves bored or discouraged, asking daily "Is this all there is? … it is up to us either to accept the emptiness of life or to fill it with meaning through our choices and action" (p. 61).

Anxiety: Existentialist literature often reflects anxiety within its characters, as they face "existences that are temporary and that will disappear; living with this knowledge is a source of anxiety" (Gutek, 2009, p. 100).

Authentic: To be authentic means to "choose a course of action and then complete it" (Barash, 2001, p. 2).

Existential Moment: The Existential Moment occurs when young people become "conscious of their presence as a self in the world." This generally occurs around the time of puberty and is characterized by "an awareness of one's presence in the world, insight into one's own consciousness and responsibility for one's conduct" (Gutek, 2009, p. 122).

Knowledge: Knowledge, to an existentialist, is "intuitive." Knowledge "originates in and is composed of what exists in the individual consciousness and feelings as a result of [one's] own eyes and the projects one adopts in the course of [one's] life" (Kneller, 1968, p. 316). Knowledge is only valued if it has value for the individual.

Pre-existential Period: This term, coined by Van Cleve Morris, reflects the period in a child's life prior to puberty when the child is not "really aware of his or her human condition, not yet conscious of his or her personal identity or destiny" (Gutek, 2009, p. 122). During this period, students should learn basics, subject matter and problem-solving skills.

Process of Learning: Under the existentialist philosophy, learning occurs when the student is involved and personal meaning occurs. Pine (1973) states that the learning process "has to do with something which happens in the unique world of the learner" (p. 20). This process is controlled by the learner and not the teacher. If the student feels involved and can make personal meaning with the subject, then the student will learn; if not, "it will be shut out from [their ] field of perception" (p. 20).

Bibliography

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Suggested Reading

Aspden, P. (1993, September 10). The greatest of thinkers, the smallest of men? Times Higher Education Supplement, (1088), 15.

Camus, A. (1942). The myth of Sisyphus. Paris: Gallimard.

Carroll, J. (2007). Existentialism's call to action [Letter]. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53, B14. Retrieved June 20, 2009, from EBSCO online database Academic Search Complete:

Ediger, M. (1992). Philosophy of education and the mathematics curriculum. Journal of Instructional Pscyhology, 19, 236-241. Retrieved June 20, 2009 from EBSCO online database Academic Search Complete:

Feldman, A. (2007). Teachers, responsibility and action research. Educational Action Research, 15, 239-252. Retrieved June 20, 2009, from EBSCO online database Academic Search Complete:

Heslep, R. (2002). Haugeland's new existentialism [Book Review]. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 21, 505-516. Retrieved June 22, 2009, from EBSCO online database Academic Search Complete:

Ozmon, H., & Craver, S. (2008). Philosophical foundations of education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Sartre, J.-P. (1947). Existentialism. Trans. B. Frechtman. New York: Philosophical Library.

Vandenberg, D. (2001). Identity politics, existentialism and Harry Broudy's educational theory. Educational Philosophy & Theory, 33(3/4), 365-380. Retrieved June 20, 2009, from EBSCO online database Academic Search Complete: