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"Philosophy of Education"

2015 year, number 1

Existentialist direction in the philosophy of education

O. D. Oleinikova, B. V. Saprygin
Novosibirsk state pedagogical University, Vilyuiskaya str., 28, Novosibirsk, 630126, Russia
Keywords: philosophy of education, existentialism, Existenzial, borderline situation, moral education, existentialist pedagogy, pedagogical atmosphere, crisis, ideal of human being, personality

Abstract

The twenty-first century that has recently begun brings up the issue of formation of a personality capable of giving an adequate response to the challenges of modern times. The humanistic ideas of existentialism, by their penetration into pedagogy, are able to provide a methodological assistance in solving this problem. Existentialist philosophy is relevant in all times because of imperfection of the world and human relations and, therefore, it ought to have a certain influence on the development of educational thought, although it may not have an immediate access to the education system. Of all existentialists, it was O. F. Bollnow who addressed the issues of philosophy of education most fully. He believed that the traditional existentialism has to be modernized because, «although it expresses the challenges of our time, but for that very reason it makes no reference whatsoever to the direction of a conscious search for solutions». Therefore, Bollnow tries to give it a new form, combining it with pedagogical issues which are always topical. In his book «Existenzphilosophie und Padagogik», O. F. Bollnow represents pedagogy as an applied philosophical discipline whose focus of analytic attention is on the issues of upbringing of the person who is open to the world, his/her forms of existence being labile. In studying a variety of «labile forms» of human existence he describes peculiarities of this existence using the existentialist categories such as crisis, admonition, encounter etc. and introduces a concept of «functional upbringing». In his opinion, any information or influence, any objective environment or sociocultural milieu always perform a function of upbringing. The existentialist pedagogy was identified by O. F. Bollnow as the pedagogy of «non-permanent forms» so far as the pedagogical situations and the pupils themselves are impermanent, changeable over time, and consequently it is not possible to technologize the process of upbringing or to work out an algorithm once and for all. Although he proceeds from the assumption that the existentialist philosophical analysis should become a methodology of humanistic pedagogy, Bollnow nevertheless believes that success is possible only if certain «overcoming» of existential philosophy should be brought about. By «overcoming» he means that the pedagogy should be given an optimistic direction. Studying the foundations of the German philosophy of education seems to be fruitful and important as its investigations have shown the importance of understanding the variety of interpersonal emotional attitudes and relations which allow the teacher to realize all the incomprehensibility of existence and therefore to have respect for the inner world of the pupil and to show willingness to understand its depths and riches.