Existentialism is a European philosophy originating before the 20th century that focuses on individual experience, freedom of choice, and personal responsibility. It deals with questions about the meaning of life, identity, and the nature of reality. Existentialism believes that through free will and personal choice, individuals are responsible for creating meaning and purpose in their own lives. Key philosophers who contributed to existentialist thought include Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir.

1. EXISTENTIALISM
P R E S E N T E D T O :
D R . S H A M S A A Z I Z
P R E S E N T E D B Y :
T A H I R A R A F I Q

2. INTRODUCTION:
Existentialism is mainly a European philosophy that originated before the turn of the
20th(twentieth) century , but it become popular after world war (1939-1945).
The seeds of existentialism may be traced back to an earlier period of the history of
philosophy.
Existentialism deal with
▪ Concreteness of experience.
▪ Personal concern.
▪ Commitment.
▪ Uniqueness of the individual.

3. INTRODUCTION:
Value of existentialism is:
▪ Freedom of choice.
▪ Individual dignity.
▪ Personal love.
▪ Creative effort.
Example:
Knowing is to make personal choice. To choose or appropriate what I want to do, know.
▪ Who am I?
▪ What is the meaning of life?
▪ What is death?
▪ What is identity?
▪ What is nature?
▪ Is there a god?
▪ What happen when I die?
▪ Existentialism belief on “Nurture rather than nature”.

4. DEFINITION:
• Existentialism is a philosophical movement which claims that individual human beings
have full responsibility for creating the meanings of their own lives.
• In simple terms, existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the
meaning of life through free will, choice and personal responsibility.

5. PHILOSOPHY OF EXISTENTIALISM:
• Friedrich WilhelmNietzsche(1844-1900).
• Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) (father of modern existentialism).
• Martin Buber (1878-1965).
• Martin Heidegger (1889-1980).
• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980).
• MaxineGreene(1917).

6. JEAN-PAUL SARTRE / MAXINE-GREENE:
• Student of Heidegger best known leading philosopher of existentialism “Man is
condemned to be free”.
• Modern existentialism.
Soren Kierkegaard :( 1813-1855):
▪ The first European philosopher.
▪ Father of modern existentialism.

7. MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889-1979):
In his book being and time, gave a very Impressive analysis of human existence, the
prominence of the important themes of existentialism like care, anxiety, guilt and above all
death brought out here.
“Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one”.
• All existentialists emphasize the person as subject.
• Consider as nature of the human condition.
• The individual is the sole judge of his or her own action.
• Emphasize on human responsibility and judgment in ethical matters.
• Human existence is the starting point of thinking.

8. AIMS OF EDUCATION:
Existentialist believe that most important kind of knowledge is about the human
condition and the choices that each person has to make, and that education is a
process of developing consciousness about the freedom to choose and the
meaning of responsibility for one’s choice.

9. SUBJECTIVE KNOWLEDGE / TOTAL DEVELOPMENT:
• The existentialism rightly, point out that subjective knowledge is even more important
than objective knowledge.
• Total Development has aimed at total development of personality through education.

10. CHILD-CENTERED EDUCATION:
• Existentialism education is child-centered. It gives full freedom to the child the teacher
should help the child to know himself and recognize his being.
• To help the student understand and appreciate themselves as unique individual who
accept complete responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• To educate the whole person, not just the mind, since feeling is not divorced from reason
in decision making.
• To help the learner become fully his authentic self.
• To prepare the individual for social adjustment.
• To develop the unique personality of child/learner.
• To develop sense of responsibility in child.

11. CURRICULUM:
• Existentialism prefer to free learners to choose what to study and also determine what is
true and by what criteria to determine their truths.
• The curriculum would avoid systematic knowledge or structured disciplined, and the
students would be free to select from many available learning situations.

12. LEARNING EXPERIENCE / RELIGIOUS +MORAL
EDUCATION:
• An existentialism curriculum would consist of experience and subjects.
• Existentialism emphasize upon religion + moral education.
• Religious allow a person to develop himself and give him an understanding of his
existence in the cosmos. It shows the religious path of self realization.

13. LEARNING EXPERIENCE / RELIGIOUS +MORAL
EDUCATION:
• Learning is self- paced, self directed.
• Students are given a wide variety of option from which to choose.
• Students are afforded great latitude in their choice of subject matter.
• The humanities are given emphasize to provide students with vicarious experiences that
will help unleash their own creativity and self-expression.
• Composed of fine arts, drama, creative expression, literature and philosophy.
• Vocational education is seen more as a means of teaching students about themselves
and their potentials than that of earning a livelihood.

14. Subjective/curriculum:
• Liberal arts, philosophy, mathematics, history, geography, political science sociology,
theology, fine arts, character training.
Teacher role:
• According to existentialism the teacher creates an educational situation in which the
student may establish contact with himself, become conscious of it and achieve self
realization.

15. Teacher role:
• To help student define their own essence by exposing them to various paths they take in life.
• To create an environment in which they freely choose their own preferred way.
• To relate with each student openly and honesty.
• To help the individual identity to know himself better.
• To assist and guide the learner in all there process and practices as choosing, or acting etc.
• As identifier of choice who challenges the learners to become fully existence.
• Poser of alternatives.
• Questioner.
• To freely choose what subject they want to study as well as he or she interested in it.
• To define their own essence or meaning of life.
• To provide path ways for students to explore their own values, meanings, choices and self-
expression.
• The teacher’s primary responsibility is to provide all these things, and to maintain a learning
environment for learners where student feel encourage to express themselves through discussion,
creative projects and choice of study areas.
• Self learners developed attitudes and skill of self assignment.

16. CLASSROOM
• Structured, regularity, uniformity maintain that classroom should be oriented toward the
teacher, who should serve as an intellectual and moral role model for the students.
• Classroom is necessary for learning to create learning environment.
• For student “to find their way”.
• Define meaning and direction as:
• Why I am here?
• What is my purpose?
• Character training + perfect other.

17. THE STUDENT ROLE:
• The student should feel completely free for realizing his “self”. Under the guidance of the
truth, the Student should try to realize his “self” through introversion.
• Learning by doing.
• Work together to solve common problems.

18. METHOD OF TEACHING:
• Focus is on the individual.
• In the teaching history, existentialism focus on the action of historical individual, who
provide possible models for the student own behavior, rather than emphasizing historical
events.
• Existentialism encourages individual creativity; creativity is an expression of oneself.
• To help students knowing themselves and their places in society.
• Here, teacher remains non-judgmental and take care not to impose their values on their
students since values are personal.
• Critical thinking.
• Problem solving.
• Co-operative learning.

19. CONCLUSION:
Existentialism is not a complete philosophy. It is philosophy which combines with virtue ethics
and deontology. Existentialist understanding of what it is to be human can summarized in his
view that the underlying motivation for action is to be found in nature of consciousness which
is desire for beings. It is up to each agent to exercise his freedom in such a way that he does
not lose sight of his existence as a facticity, as well as free human being.