Meaning of existentialism

According to Jonathan Webber, (2011). Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes individual

existence, freedom and choice. It is the view that humans defines their own meaning in life and
try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe. It focuses on the question
of human existence and the feeling that there is no purpose or explanation at the core of
existence. It holds that as there is no God or any other trans

cendent force. The only way to counter this nothingness (and hence to find meaning of life) is by
embracing existence.

Existentialism originated with the 19th century, philosophers Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich
Nietzsche although neither used the term in their works. In the 1940s and 1950s French
existentialists such as Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus (1913-1960) and Simone de
Beauvoir(1908-1986) wrote scholarly and fictional works that popularized existential themes
such as dread,boredom,alienation,the absurd freedom ,commitment and nothingness. So
existentialism is a philosophical theory which emphasizes the existence of individual person as a
free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of will.

Definition of existentialism

Existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free
will, choice and personal responsibility. The belief is that, people are searching to find out whom
and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on their experiences, beliefs and
outlook, and personal choices become unique without the necessity of an objective form of truth.
An existentialists beliefs that, a person should be forced to choose and be responsible without the
help of law, ethnic rules or traditions.

EXISTENTIALISM AND METAPHYSICS

George (1980) said bright man is faced with the spark realities of life, death and meaning
and he has the unutterable freedom of being responsible for his own essence.
 The traditional philosophies surrender mans authority to a logical system and the
Christian on God.
The realistic look to nature at meaning and the pragmatist relies on the community.
All of these paths are ways of removing man from the frightful reality of being
responsible for his choice.
Metaphysics is arguing that reality is subjective with a proceed essence.

EXISTENTIALISM AND EPISTEMOLOGY

Existentialism believes that there is indifference between one external world and internal
world to what is represented by personal choice.
Existentialism in epistemology ensures to know ourselves as actors of life stage and act
according to individual choices.
Since Its individual who give meaning to such things as nature, meaning and truth could
not built in the universe. Knowing it based up on the authority.
Epistemology is when our known comes from making own personal choices.

EXISTENTIALISM AND AXIOLOGY

Existentialism advocates people are free to choose values freely.

Each person makes and is responsible for his or her ethical decision and aesthetics view
of point.
Each of us is free to determine the nature of good conduct.
Choice of beauty of them differs from the public norm.
Similarly beauty is in the eye of beholder rather than in public standards. What is
beautiful to me is not beautiful to other nevertheless, existentialism stress responsibilities.
Reality grows out of individual experience and ones frames of reference.
Emphasized the existence at individuality or thinking as introvert subjective.

EXISTENTIALISM AND EDUCATION

Existentialism examines existence and focuses on the role of the individual plays
in terms of his or her own feelings, thoughts and responsibilities.
 Education should focus on individual human reality and should deal with the
individual as a unique being.
It should be recognized that the individual is a emotional and irrational creatures
as much or more than unemotional and rational ones.
The first step in any education is to understand ourselves .Adult lie to children
about birth, sex, money and many other things that the children can learn about
the good and bad things in life.
Should be option for learning ,they prefer diversity in education ,in curriculum
and the way things are taught, individual can learn in traditional ways but must
seek greater human possibilities and new ways of learning.

EXISTENTIALISM AND AIMS OF EDUCATION

Existentialist education seek to create awareness of the institutions ,forces and tends that
limit freedom ,create an intensity of awareness regarding the freedom to choose, cultivate
the sense that each human being is responsible for his own self, definition and for acting
to fulfill his emerging self and distinguish between trivial and meaningful choice.
Capacity for self awareness, freedom, choice and responsibility are the foundation for self
awareness. Increasing self awareness includes being aware of alternatives, motivations
and any other factor influencing a persons freedom of choice.
Freedom and responsibility ,people are free to choose among their alternatives and which
give them some control over their own destiny
Striving for identity and relationship to other people are concerned about preserving their
uniqueness and centeredness, yet at the same time they have an interest in going outside
themselves to relate to other being and to nature.
Values of existential therapy. According to Schneider and Krug as quoted by Corey(2013)
..Existential Therapy ,embraces three values, the first one is; the freedom to become
within the context of natural and self imposed limitations, the second is ; the capacity to
reflect on the meaning of our choice, the third is ;the capacity to act on the choice we
make.

EXISTENTIALISM AND CURRICULUM

 According to existentialism ,curriculum symbolize a world of knowledge to explore such
knowledge should provide concrete content for making free analysis and criticism and
establish a firm foundation for the individual creative effort.
Curriculum suiting the needs, abilities and attitude of the individual which realize the self
forms parts of the curriculum, self examination and the social obedience as the lesson in
the curriculum.
Curriculum should be mainly liberating the individual as the foundation for human
freedom.
Curriculum should be designed that a student does have every experience that make up
his or her life.
Curriculum should be integrity of subject matter in which at a certain point in human
development certain material is appropriates the relation to the materials.

EXISTENTIALISM AND THE METHODS OF TEACHING

According to existentialism methods of teaching must develop the creative, abilities in

children techniques which appeal to feeling, emotion, creativity and deeper meaning of
life.
Existentialists advocate Socratic methods of teaching such as asking questions and
refining answers and pushing the issues until some acceptable conclusion is reached
while the teacher seeks to draw the information from students by means of skillful
directed questions student become aware of the working of their own mind by seeking the
answer of teachers questions.
Existentialists favor the Socratic approach to teaching as Socratic Method is personal,
intimate affair in which knowledge and wisdom are achieved through the mutual
interaction of two living beings the teacher and the taught.
Existentialists do not advocate mass education as it results in rote learning which cause
the student to repeat what he or she has been taught in the classroom.
Existentialists reject the group methods because in group dynamic the superiority of the
group discussion over individual discussion is prominent and hence the opportunity of
unique individualism and free choice is lost.
EXISTENTIALISM AND DESCIPLINE

The meaning of transcendence is nothing is revealed and thereby the self becomes the
true self, freedom becomes a genuine possibility and beings are understood in their truth.
Existentialists looked faith in academic discipline casting their lot in with the most
passionate adventures of thoughts.
The stand point of existence they took militated not just against metaphysics but against
any scientific stand point.
In opposition to attempts to absorb the stand point of science directly into philosophy and
to mare of its limits.

EXISTENTIALISM AND TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

Role of the teacher is to provide diversification within the curriculum to the individual
learners; they say that each child as an individual has a unique way of learning.
The teachers need to focus on children as an individual and interact with them as subjects
and not object personalities and not numbers.
The teacher has permission to become the learner and the learner to become the teacher,
but because the teacher has more experiences in life perceptions, it is his or her job to
promote an awareness possibilities of the world through an openness to past, present and
future possibilities.
The teacher is an enabler who helps the students appropriate internalize and make over.

EXISTENTIALISM RELEVANCE TO EDUCATION

Pedagogy must allow the students to develop their own unique possibilities
, that is to say, the teaching methods should be more participatory in order to give room
for students to learn on their own capacity example through discussion method of
teaching; the students can discover many issues on their own.
Curriculum should include a diverse content as well as the varied pedagogical methods
 , the prepared curriculum should match with the respective methods of teaching in order
to convey the required knowledge on a particular topic.
The school should provide an atmosphere where the individuals develop in a healthy way,
children learn better when relieved from intense competition, harsh discipline and fear
from failure. Thus, each child can grow to understand his own needs and values and take
charge of the experiences for changing them.
Any subject in school even extra activities like athletics, music etc.Can present
existential situations for teaching and the development of human beings
, for a learner to develop mentally and physically, he or she must be let free to engage in
extra curriculum activities like athletics, music ,sports and games.
Democracy in schools should be more practiced so as to make the individuals/learners to
share different ideas ie.partcipation in planning, self government, encouragement of a
free atmosphere characterized the school. That means a student should be given a chance
to express his or her ideas freely on a topic being taught in the class.
The teachers are in a position to foster individual growth he can facilitate development of
originality and creativity by providing a climate as well as basic skills and tools which
make exploration possible. The aims of school tasks should be to nurture self discipline
and cultivate self- evaluation .Mass teaching and mass testing are not advocated. Primary
emphasize must always be on the person as learner and not on the learning program. The
schedule must be flexible and open, and the teacher must build positive relationship
between himself and his students.

DARK SIDE OF EXISTENTIALISM IN EDUCATION

It reject the existence of human nature by proposing that existence comes before
essence, meaning that our consciousness has the opportunity to determine how we
feel about the world around us independent of our basic genetic and
environmental characteristics.
Non ration approach- highly subjective means that some methodologies are not
good to be used when teaching the learners, for example mass teaching method
depends much on how competent the teacher is in a particular topic, and the
students act as the receivers of what is taught whether it is right or not.
 It base on what feels right rather than what is. That is to say, existentialism theory
believes in what it focuses to be true rather than basing on reality which can be
proved beyond the unreasonable doubt.
It does not put enough emphasize on future, existentialism considers only the life
existing at the moment and never think about the future life, in this case the
learners will not be taught to overcome the challenges when they complete their
studies ,their mind becomes so narrowed in terms of thinking critically about life.
It puts much emphasize on individual freedom which seems to be a challenge in
the course of learning.forexample if the learner is given enough freedom can
forget important issues related to his or her studies and hence can lose direction
toward his or her future.

Existentialism what is seen today is the product of the world wars. It gives importance to the
lived to the human experience rather than given according to them ,this is no pre given
essence ,ones essence is determined through one existential choices .Existentialism has got its
roots deep since the 19th century .Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche were the pioneers.
REFFERENCES

1. Heidegger. The essence of truth .New York: continuum, 2005print.

2. Webber, J.ed... (2011).reading Sartre on phenomenology and existentialism, London,
Routledge.
3. Corey, G. (2013).theory of practice of counseling and psychotherapy.Bclmont, CA:
Brooks/colccengige learning.
4. George, A.S (1959). The review of metaphysics vol.13, philosophy education society Inc.
5. Sartre, J.P (2004), the transcendence of the Ego, Trans Andrew Brown, Routledge.
NO NAMES REG.NO. SIGNATURE

1. BENSON SHILLA AM/BAED/160291

2. EMILY ERICK AM/BAED/160354

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10 ZEPHANIA VERONICA AM/BAED/15352
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15 MWASIKILI KELVIN AM/BAED/160801
16 MWALONGO DIGNA E AM/BAED/160787
17 RULAKUZE CHRISTINA AM/BAED/160912
18 GEORGE SAMWEL AM/BAED/160388

QUESTION.

Study the existentialism school of thought and make notes on;

I. Meaning and definition

II. Main philosophical ideas(metaphysics, epistemology and axiology)
III. Existentialism and education, aims of education, curriculum, methods of teaching, the
discipline, the teacher and the students.
IV. Relevance to education and the dark side of it.