EXISTENTIALISM.

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Today we shall consider this subject Existentialism the nature of reality ,knowledge and value.

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EXISTENTIALISM
Existentialism is a philosophy that tries to look at life as it really is, the good side and the bad side, joys and sorrows, the beautiful and the ugly. Akinpelu (1981) calls it "the philosophy of existence." Examples of existentialist philosophers are J. P. Sartre, Martin Buber, Albert Camus and a contemporary educator, Maxine Greene.

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NATURE OF REALITY
Existentialist believe, as pragmatists and realists do, that the things in this world which we can touch, see and feel, are real and do exist.

Some of the basic ideas of existentialists are:
1• That man is free and decides things for himself. He is free to choose what he wants to become. Jean Paul Sartre, a prominent existentialist says "Man is nothing else but what he makes himself." This means that everybody's future lies in his own hands.
2• In making any choice, man must be fully responsible for the consequences of his choice. This means that whether the choice is good or bad, nobody else is to be blamed but the individual who made the choice.

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(https://pixabay.com/illustrations/love-fear-existential-mind-heart-5121984/)

KNOWLEDGE
As far as the existentialists are concerned, three things are important for one to gain true knowledge that can lead one to action. And there are
1• Personal experience, (2) reasoning and (3) emotion or feeling. They regard personal experience as true knowledge which cannot be duplicated, imitated or adequately described to another person. Therefore, knowledge is whatever a person interprets it to be. It is the person who is poor who knows what it really means to be poor. However, not all experiences are subjective. Hence, existentialists recommend the use of reasoning ( that is weighing the points in favour and against an idea, to arrive at true knowledge).

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Again, feeling or emotion is as important as reason in man's life. This is so because one may know what is right but he may not have a strong feeling to do it. In this case, his feeling determines his action or what he considers proper at that time.

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VALUE
Existentialists believe that man is the judge of what is of value to him. This means that value is personal because it is the person who is interested in a thing who values it. This means that value is also subjective. Nobody willingly and knowingly chooses what is bad. One makes a choice after considering all possible factors including the consequences of choosing. Therefore, one should not be compelled to follow the "crowd", the majority opinion or the society's traditions in one's action. To allow the majority opinion to decide for one is to sell one's freedom of choice.

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EXISTENTIALIST AIMS OF EDUCATION. Existentialists have about four aims of education
1• They believe that the task of education is to improve the individual's ability to decide correctly. The initiative to decide must come from him and education is to help him develop this initiative.
2• Education should also help the individual to search for and discover who he is. This is the idea of self - realization which involves finding who you are, what you can do and what your limits are. This way, a person understands himself better.
3• A key quality in character development is self - reliance. Existentialists believe that education should help the individual cultivate this quality which is necessary for free existence.
4• In developing the above abilities, the individual cannot rely on his own efforts alone. He needs the assistance of other resources. Examples are, his experiences from school and his experiences from his cultural setting.

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Therefore, education should enable a person to use experiences from school and home background to achieve self- fulfilment.

Thank you and do have a bless week ✨✨❤