This is a Powr

1. Mary Raymond
Kathy Jackson
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2. What is Existentialism?
 When many people think of existentialism, they
think of the dark and lonely individual.
 A person is a conscious subject; not a thing to be
predicted or manipulated.
 Basic themes:
nothingness, anxiety, absurdity, death and
alienation.
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3. INDIVIDUALISM!
 What we found in our research, however, is that it is a
philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness of the
individual.
 “In the existentialist world, each person is
born, lives, chooses his or her course, and creates the
meaning of his or her own existence.”
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4. Make Your Own Choice
 Christianity says, “Look to God, who watches over
and takes charge of all.”
 Plato and Aristotle said, “Look to a rational system
of logical necessity.”
 Naturalism says, “Follow nature; let nature be
responsible.”
 The Experimentalists say, “Look to the scientific
method; look to the community.”
Wrong! Look to your own choice!
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5. Philosophers of Existentialism
 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)
 Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
 Martin Buber (1878-1965)
 Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
 Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
 Maxine Greene (1917- )
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6. Friedrich Nietzsche
 Nietzsche influenced the idea of individualism: he
thought traditional morality weakened
people, smothering their individuality.
 His philosophy centers around the idea of
“life-affirmation,”-question all of that which
“drain life’s energies” no matter how popular
those beliefs.
• “God is dead”.
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7. Soren Kierkegaard
 Devout Christian – one should take a “leap of faith” in
their belief of God even though there is no proof.
 People should make their own choices and be held
completely responsible.
 “Education should be subjective and religious, devoted
to developing individuality and the individual’s
relationship with God.”
 Opposed vocational and technical schools because they
are too objective - even believed that the objectivity of
science leads people away from their Christian beliefs,
becoming more group-centered.
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8. Martin Buber
 Promoted the “need for mutual respect and dignity
among all humans.”
 I And Thou - best-known book.
 “I - It” - objective relationship
 “I - Thou” - subjective relationship
 Teacher/Student relationship
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9. Martin Heidegger
 “Being” and not the lonely, estranged individual.
 “Being-in-the-world” - Dasein analysis
Individual interprets a personal world of meaning.
1. Environment
2. Social
3. Individual - “Who Am I”
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10. Jean-Paul Sartre
 Best-known leading philosopher of
existentialism.
 Student of Heidegger in the 1930’s.
 Atheist
 Being & Nothingness
 “being-for-itself”-consciousness of man
 “being-in-itself”-objects of consciousness
 “Existence precedes essence.”
 “Man is condemned to be free.”
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11. Sartre con’t.
 Sartre saw “nature”, “law”, and “science” as human
creations.
 Rules and restrictions are absurd creations of
humans.
 “People try to be God” - he does not believe God
exists - further evidence of human absurdity.
 Who is responsible for existence today (war,
starvation, poverty)? People are! If they can create
war, they can create peace.
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12. Maxine Greene
 Modern existentialism
 “Wide-awakeness”
 Open to possibilities, be wide awake
and be reasonable.
Reasonableness can be defined as
understanding and comprehending
your lived experience.
 Supports the arts and humanities
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13. Are we “raising a nation of
sheep?”
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14. Existentialism and Education
How do we create individualism in the classroom?
 Get to know your student.
 Greet your student at the door.
 Let your students get to know you.
Diversity in education
 Curriculum
 Different ways of teaching
 Every teacher a student and every student a teacher.
 They encourage Arts and Humanities, i.e. Charter
Schools
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15. Schools
 Two schools that are built on the existentialist philosophy
1. Summerhill school in Suffolk, England
 Founded in 1921 by AS Neil
 Children should be themselves-if they want to lie around, let them,
they do not have to go to class.
 Referred to as a democratic society-children and adults have equal
votes, children even help create the rules of behavior and the
curriculum
 Subjects are the whole spectrum from chemistry to art
2. Sudbury Valley School, Framingham, MA
 “…freedom is essential to the development of personal
responsibility”
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16. Pros and Cons
 Pros of existentialism  Cons of existentialism
 Encourages individuality-  Hard to implement totally in
acknowledges no two the 21st century public
children are alike-teach as classroom
individuals  It’s hard to choose your own
 Encourages responsibility existence when we are so
 Helps people answer the dependent on outside stimuli
question “Who am I?” like money and survival. We
 Mutual respect between the
are not totally ourselves when
student and the teacher we go on a job interview. We
have to be what we think the
interviewer wants us to be.
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17. Our Thoughts
 We found this to be an interesting philosophy but also
a challenging one. It was a challenging thought
process because on one hand you have look to your
own choice, but philosophers such as Kirkegaard, who
is a devout Christian, is also looking to a higher power
than himself. But perhaps that is what individualism
is, this is his own choice.
 The quote that we feel captures this philosophy is one
we found in notes from Sartre’s “Being and
Nothingness”: “Freedom is humanity’s curse as well as
its blessing, and what we make of that freedom is our
own.”
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20. References: September 7, 2009, from
 Slides 2 and 3: Retrieved
http://www.geocities.com/riceharvest/existentialism.htm
 Slide 4: Ivory, G. Noddings Chapter 4: Existentialism: Full. Retrieved
September 9, 2009, from New Mexico State University, History and
Philosophy of Education Web site:
http://education.nmsu.edu/emd/faculty/ivory/emd572/notes/nod04ex
full.pdf
 Slides 7-13: Ozmon, Howard A, Craver, Samuel M. , (2008).
Philosophical Foundations of Education
 Slide 12: Phillips, A. (2009 September). Maxine Greene, Master
Educator, Philosopher and Humanist. VOA News. Retrieved
September 25, 2009, from
http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2009-09-25-
voa22.cfm
 Slide 15: Sudbury Valley School. Independence. Retrieved September
9, 2009 from http://www.sudval.org/01_abou_01.html
 Slide 15: Summerhill School. FAQ. Retrieved September 9, 2009 from
http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/QAs-2009.pdf
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