EXISTENTIALISM,
The Definition
It
is a Philosophical doctrine, which emphasizes the freedom of human beings to
make choices in a world where there are no absolute values outside man himself.
They believe that man creates meaning and essence of their lives and not being
created for them by deities or by authorities or neither by philosophical or
theological doctrines. They emphasize that the decisions that a man makes will
enable him to realize what kind of person he will be and make him distinct from
other people. And if a person has developed and is aware of his own identity he
will be able to find meaning and purpose for his existence. Existentialism has
no concrete concept to support the existence of God or any absolute value. They
just believe that a man is the molder of his own destiny. For them truth is
never absolute, but it is always relative to each individual who is the sole
determiner of the truth for himself, and every value is always dependent upon
free choice of every man. They further advocate that existence is the basic
value for everyman and the significance of every value lies upon the
circumstances pertaining to man’s existence.
In
the Fields of Philosophy
Ø
METAPHYSICS – the branch of Philosophy
that deals with the nature of being and reality, essence, truth, space, time,
essence of God, as well as the origin and purpose of the universe.
“Reality
is subjective with existence preceding essence.”
Ø
EPISTEMOLOGY – the branch of Philosophy
that deals with the study knowledge.
“Knowing
is to make personal choices.”
Ø
AXIOLOGY – the branch of Philosophy that
deals with the problems of values.
“Values
should be freely chosen.”
Start of the Philosophy
Existential
themes have been hinted at throughout history. Examples include the Buddha's teachings, the Bible in the Book of Ecclesiastes
and Book
of Job, Saint Augustine in his Confessions, and in Saint
Thomas Aquinas' writings. Individualist political theories, such as those
advanced by John
Locke, advocated individual autonomy and self-determination rather than
state rule over the individual. This kind of political philosophy, although not
existential per se, provided a welcoming climate for existentialism. In 1670, Blaise
Pascal's unfinished notes were published under the title of Pensées
("Thoughts"). He described many fundamental themes common to
what would be known as existentialism two and three centuries later. Pascal
argued that without a God,
life would be meaningless and miserable. People would only be able to create
obstacles and overcome them in an attempt to escape boredom. These
token-victories would ultimately become meaningless, since people would
eventually die. This was good enough reason not to choose to become an atheist,
according to Pascal. Existentialism, in its currently recognizable 20th century
form, was inspired by Søren Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky
and the German
philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund
Husserl, and Martin Heidegger. It became popular in the
mid-20th century through the works of the French writer-philosophers Jean-Paul
Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, whose versions of it were
set out in a popular form in Sartre's 1946 Existentialism is a Humanism and
Beauvoir's The Ethics of Ambiguity.
Types of
Existentialism
Ø
Atheistic
Existentialism is the
form of existentialism most commonly encountered in today's society. What sets
it apart from theistic existentialism is that it rejects
the notion of a god and his transcendent will that should in some way dictate
how we should live. It rejects the notion that there is any "created"
meaning to life and the world, and that a leap of faith is required of man in
order for him to live an authentic life.
Ø
Theistic
Existentialism is, for
the most part, Christian in its outlook, but there have
been existentialists of other theological persuasions (like Judaism). The
main thing that sets them apart from atheistic existentialists is that they
posit the existence of God, and that He is the source of our being. It is
generally held that God has designed the world in such a way that we must
define our own lives, and each individual is held accountable for his or her
own self-definition. God is incomprehensibly paradoxical (this is exemplified
in the incarnation of Christ); theism is not
rationally justifiable, and belief in God is the ultimate leap of
faith.
Ø
Nihilism. Though nihilism isn't
existentialism, and existentialism isn't nihilism, these two philosophies are
often confused. While a sort of nihilistic existentialism does indeed
exist, it isn't as radical as pure nihilism. Another reason why these
philosophies are often confused is that Friedrich Nietzsche is a central philosopher in
both. What sets existential nihilists apart from pure nihilists is the fact
that, while nihilists don't believe in any meaning at all,
existential nihilists only believe this in relation to any sort of meaning to
life (though this position is implied in "regular" nihilism, and
existential nihilists may also subscribe to the full nihilistic view,
existential nihilism is a separate view). While other existentialists will
allow for meaning in people's lives (that meaning they themselves inject into
it), existential nihilists will deny that this meaning is anything but
self-deception. Existential nihilists could thus seem to be more pessimistic
than the other existentialists, but even here, conclusions vary. Some will
claim that the best thing to do is to commit suicide while others will claim
that the lack of objective meaning to life means you should just do as you wish
- a hedonism
of sorts. There also are those who hold that nihilism is both a necessary
burden of the authentic thinker and a source of dread, pushing them to hold in
suspension his or her tendency to accept the reality of values while
maintaining the unfulfilled desire for their discovery.
Existence
Precedes Essence
A central
proposition of existentialism is that existence precedes essence. This
amounts to the assertion that the outer manifestation (existence) of an entity
is more determinative than its inner being (essence). Asserting that
"existence precedes essence" is a rebellion against the Platonic
Ideas, the Forms, which in Plato's philosophy are the true reality behind
appearances of things in the world. When it is said that man defines himself,
it is often perceived as stating that man can "wish" to be something
- anything, a bird, for instance - and then be it. According to Sartre's own
account, however, this would rather be a kind of bad faith. What is meant by
the statement is that man is (1) defined only insofar as he acts and (2) that
he is responsible for his actions. To clarify, it can be said that a man who
acts cruelly towards other people is, by that act, defined as a cruel man and
in that same instance, he (as opposed to his genes, for instance) is defined as
being responsible for being this cruel man. Of course, the more positive
therapeutic aspect of this is also implied: You can choose to act in a
different way, and to be a good person instead of a cruel person. Here it is
also clear that since man can choose to be either cruel or good, he is, in
fact, neither of these things essentially. To claim, then, that
existence precedes essence is to assert that there is no such predetermined
essence to be found in man, and that an individual's essence is defined by him
or her through how he or she creates and lives his or her life. As Sartre puts
it in his Existentialism is a Humanism:
"man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and
defines himself afterwards."
Notable
Personalities
The first
philosophers considered fundamental to the existentialist movement were Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, though neither used the
term "existentialism" and it is unclear whether they would have
supported the existentialism of the 20th century. Their focus was on human
experience, rather than the objective truths of math and science that are too
detached or observational to truly get at human experience. Like Pascal, they
were interested in people's concealment of the meaninglessness of life and the
use of diversion to escape from boredom. But Pascal did not consider the role
of making free choices, particularly regarding fundamental values and beliefs:
such choices change the nature and identity of the chooser, in the view of
Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Kierkegaard's knight
of faith and Nietzsche's Übermensch
are examples of those who define the nature of their own existence. Great
individuals invent their own values and create the very terms under which they
excel.
One of the
first German existentialists was Karl
Jaspers, who recognized the importance of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and
attempted to build an "Existenz" philosophy around the two.
Heidegger,
who was influenced by Jaspers and the phenomenologist Edmund
Husserl, wrote his most influential work Being
and Time which postulates Dasein (dah-zine), translated
as, all at once, "being here", "being there", and
"being-in-the-world"—a being that is constituted by its temporality,
illuminates and interprets the meaning of being in time. Although
existentialists view Heidegger to be an important philosopher in the movement,
he vehemently denied being an existentialist in the Sartrean sense, in his "Letter
on Humanism".
Jean-Paul
Sartre is perhaps the most well-known existentialist and is one of the few
to have accepted being called an "existentialist". Sartre developed
his version of existentialist philosophy under the influence of Husserl and
Heidegger. Being and Nothingness is perhaps his most
important work about existentialism. Sartre was also talented in his ability to
espouse his ideas in different media, including philosophical essays, lectures,
novels, plays, and the theater. No Exit and
Nausea are two of his celebrated works. A major
theme throughout his writings was freedom and responsibility.
Albert
Camus was a friend of Sartre, until their falling-out, and wrote several works with
existential themes including The Rebel, The Stranger, The Myth of Sisyphus, and Summer in Algiers.
Camus, like many others, rejected the existentialist label, and considered his
works to be concerned with people facing the absurd. In The Myth of Sisyphus,
Camus uses the analogy of the Greek myth to demonstrate the futility of
existence. In the myth, Sisyphus is condemned for eternity to roll a rock up a
hill, but when he reaches the summit, the rock will roll to the bottom again.
Camus believes that this existence is pointless but that Sisyphus ultimately
finds meaning and purpose in his task, simply by continually applying himself
to it.
Simone de Beauvoir, an important existentialist
who spent much of her life alongside Sartre, wrote about feminist and
existential ethics in her works, including The
Second Sex and The Ethics of Ambiguity. Although often
overlooked due to her relationship with Sartre, de Beauvoir integrated
existentialism with other forms of thinking such as feminism, unheard of at the
time, resulting in alienation from fellow writers such as Camus.
Common Themes
Ø Dread
Dread, sometimes
called angst, anxiety or even anguish is a term that is common to many
existentialist thinkers. Although its concrete properties may vary slightly, it
is generally held to be the experience of our freedom and responsibility. The
archetypal example is the example of the experience one has when standing on a
cliff where one not only fears falling off it, but also dreads the possibility
of throwing oneself off. In this experience that "nothing is holding me
back," one senses the lack of anything that predetermines you to either
throw yourself off or to stand still, and one experiences one's own freedom. It
is also claimed, most famously by Sartre, that dread is the fear of nothing (no
thing). This relates both to the inherent insecurity about the consequences of
one's actions (related to the absurdity of the world), and to the fact that, in
experiencing one's freedom, one also realises that one will be fully
responsible for these consequences; there is no thing in you (your
genes, for instance) that acts and that you can "blame" if something
goes wrong. Of course, most of us only have short and shallow encounters with
this kind of dread, as not every choice is perceived as having dreadful
possible consequences (and, it can be claimed, our lives would be unbearable if
every choice facilitated dread), but that doesn't change the fact that freedom
remains a condition of every action.It is also worth noting that Søren Kierkegaard, in his The Concept of Dread, maintains that dread,
when experienced by the young child in facing the possibility of responsibility
for his actions, is one of the main forces in the child's individuation.
As such, the very condition of freedom can be said to be a part of any individual's
self.
Ø
Bad Faith
Bad Faith is seen as any denial of free
will by lying to oneself about one's self and freedom. This can take many
forms, from convincing oneself that some form of determinism
is true, to a sort of "mimicry" where one acts as "one
should." How "one" should act is often determined by an image
one has of how one such as oneself (say, a bank manager) acts. This image
usually corresponds to some sort of social norm. This doesn't mean that all
acting in accordance with social norms is bad faith: The main point is the
attitude one takes to one's own freedom, and the extent to which one acts in
accordance with this freedom. A sign of bad faith can be something like the
denial of responsibility for something one has done on the grounds that one
just did "as one does" or that one's genes determined one to
do as one did. Exactly how one lies to oneself is hard to get a hold of. Sartre
denies the subconscious the power to do this, and he claims that
the person who is lying to him/herself has to be aware that he/she is lying -
that he/she isn't determined, or this "thing" he/she makes
him/herself out to be.
Ø
Freedom
The
existentialist concept of freedom is often misunderstood as a sort of liberum
arbitrium where almost anything is possible and where values are
inconsequential to choice and action. This interpretation of the concept is
often related to the insistence on the absurdity of the world and that there
are no absolutely "good" or "bad" values. However, that
there are no values to be found in the world in-itself doesn't mean that
there are no values: Each of us usually already has his values before a
consideration of their validity is carried through, and it is, after all, upon
these values we act. In Kierkegaard's Judge Vilhelm's account in Either/Or,
making "choices" without allowing one's values to confer differing
values to the alternatives, is, in fact, choosing not to make a choice - to
"flip a coin," as it were, and to leave everything to chance. This is
considered to be a refusal to live in the consequence of one's freedom, meaning
it quickly becomes a sort of bad faith. As such, existentialist freedom isn't
situated in some kind of abstract space where everything is possible: Since man
is free, and since he already exists in this world, it is implied that his
freedom is only in this world, and that it, too, is restricted by it. What isn't
implied in this account of existential freedom, however, is that one's values
are immutable; a consideration of one's values may cause one to reconsider and
change them (though this rarely happens). A consequence of this fact is that
one is not only responsible for one's actions, but also for the values one
holds. This entails that a reference to "common values" doesn't
"excuse" the individual's actions, because, even though these are the
values of the society he is part of, they are also his own in the sense that he
could choose them to be different at any time. Thus, the focus on freedom in
existentialism is related to the limits of the responsibility one bears as a
result of one's freedom: The relationship between freedom and responsibility is
one of interdependency, and a clarification of freedom also clarifies what one
is responsible for.
Ø
The Absurd
The notion of
the Absurd contains the idea that there is no meaning to be found in the world
beyond what meaning we give to it. This meaninglessness also encompasses the
amorality or "unfairness" of the world. This contrasts with
"karmic" ways of thinking in which "bad things don't happen to
good people"; to the world, metaphorically speaking, there is no such
thing as a good person or a bad thing; what happens happens, and it may just as
well happen to a good person as to a bad person. This contrasts our daily
experience where most things appear to us as meaningful, and where good people
do indeed, on occasion, receive some sort of "reward" for their
goodness. Most existentialist thinkers, however, will maintain that this is not
a necessary feature of the world, and that it definitely isn't a property of
the world in-itself. Because of the world's absurdity, at any point in time,
anything can happen to anyone, and a tragic event could plummet someone into
direct confrontation with the Absurd. The notion of the absurd has been
prominent in literature throughout history. Franz Kafka,
Fyodor
Dostoevsky and many of the literary works of Jean-Paul
Sartre and Albert Camus contain descriptions of people who
encounter the absurdity of the world. Arguably, the most extensive
existentialist study of "the absurd" was done by Albert
Camus in his classic essay The Myth of Sisyphus.
Educational
Implication
Education
to the existentialists should enable man to make choices for his life. It
should be a means to open his very eyes to the naked truth of his existence and
be aware of his status quo and in so doing education serves as a guiding spirit
for him in making prudent decisions and wise actions.
Ø Aim
of Education:
Philosophical
analysis of human experience, life, love and death
Ø Nature
of the Curriculum:
Child and
Subject-matter Centered
Ø Role/Character
of the Teacher:
Facilitator,
moderator, consultant, adviser
The teacher should only act as a guide, a resource
person or facilitator of learning and must not interfere in the decisions of
the student. The teacher has “the right to teach his students how to think but
not what to think.”
Ø Role/Character
of the Learners:
Curious,
assertive, inquiry, expressive, articulate, personally and socially aware
The student must be allowed
to decide for himself and undertake activities that he believes are significant
and beneficial to his life.
Ø Method
of Teaching:
Group Dynamics
Ø Nature
of the Classroom:
Democratic/Liberal
Existentialism believes that the classroom should be
a market of free ideas that would guarantee complete individual freedom.
Ø Source
of Knowing:
Books,
experience, society, environment
Ø Influence
on the Present Educational System:
The use of
group dynamics
REFERENCES:
§
Duka,
Cecilio D., Reviewer for the Licensure Examination for Teachers, 1999, 2nd
Edition, pp. 315-316.
§
Zulueta, Francesco. Et.Al, Philosophy Made
Easy, National Bookstore, 2000, pp. 202-204.
§
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism
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