Education and the Art of Living

272 Pages·2013·0.64 MB·English

Education and the Art of Living
Christoph M. Teschers
A thesis
submitted in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the degree
of
Doctor of Philosophy
in
Education
at the
University of Canterbury
School of Educational Studies and Leadership
PhD Thesis
Supervisors:
Prof. Peter Roberts
Dr. Kathleen Quinlivan
21st November 2013
Abstract
Today’s societies are characterised by a host of opportunities and challenges. The pace of
life is quicker than ever before, and the changes and developments in societies, science and
technology come about faster every day. One of the major challenges for human beings is
to make a myriad of choices on a daily basis, which will define their place in society, in life
and in the world altogether. To make prudent and sensible decisions is, therefore, one of the
key competencies for a successful and good life.
This study revisits the idea of an education focused on the personal development and
well-being of human beings instead of economic growth. Drawing on philosophical ideas
about the good life – especially Schmid’s art of living concept Lebenskunst – and recent
research in positive psychology, an argument is made for a shift of focus in education and
schooling towards a good life and an art of living for today’s students. Possible implications
of this change of focus for educational practice are discussed, including suggestions for
curricula and school subjects, the structure of schools and learning environments, teaching
methods, and teacher training.
The original contributions to knowledge in this study are: a critique of Schmid’s concept
from an educational point of view; a comparison of positive psychology research and philo-
sophical concepts of the art of living with a focus on Schmid’s work; the development of an
educational approach to the art of living, including a discussion of schooling in relation to
the art of living; and consequent first steps towards the development of an education for life
concept.
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Acknowledgements
At this point, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to a number of people
who contributed significantly to this thesis. First of all, I would like to thank my super-
visors, Professor Peter Roberts and Dr Kathleen Quinlivan, who were the most supportive
supervisors I can imagine. They supported my thinking, my English language skills and
my academic development with their competent and kind guidance. Now that I can see the
shortcomings in my written English skills at the beginning of this journey, I feel very grateful
towards Peter for accepting me as a student anyway. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Baljit
Kaur, who was part of my supervisory team during the first year of my study and especially
supported my research in the area of positive psychology and education.
Further, I would like to thank my fellow PhD students at the College of Education, who
supported my journey in various ways. I would like to extend special thanks for their aca-
demic contributions to John Calvert, Filipe Santos and David Keqi Liu. They provided me
with opportunities to discuss every possible topic of philosophical, ethical or social signifi-
cance in relation to my study and also pointed out various works of relevant literature to me.
I also would like to thank Abdullah Mohd Nawi for proofreading the final draft of this thesis.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my partner Barbara, who not only had to read
and correct my broken English until I finally managed to write in coherent sentences, but
who also put up with me being a student for three and a half years of our adult life – where
other people actually have a life. I also would like to thank my parents and family: this thesis
would have hardly been possible without their support.
All of you and the many other people, who supported me and I did not mention individ-
ually, please accept my deepest thanks and gratitude.
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Contents
Contents iii
List of Figures vii
1 Introduction 5
2 Philosophical Concepts of the Art of Living 12
2.1 Various Interpretations of the Art of Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2 Major Philosophical Concepts in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The Philosophic Life – Socrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Hedonism – Epicurus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Eudaimonia – Aristotle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
The Morally Good Life – Kant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
The Care of the Self – Foucault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.3 Religion and Spirituality – a Cross-Cultural Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . 32
The Relation Between Religion and Spirituality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Differences and Parallels in Eastern and Western Cultures . . . . . . . . 34
3 Emotions and the Good Life 41
3.1 Defining Feelings, Emotions and Other Affects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.2 A Classification of Emotions – Past, Present, Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.3 Defining Relevant Emotional Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
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Sensational and Attitudinal Pleasures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Happiness and Eudaimonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Joy and Enjoyments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Satisfaction and Contentment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Well-Being and Subjective Well-Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.4 Positive and Negative Emotions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.5 Suffering and Despair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.6 The Good Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4 Positive Psychology and the Art of Living 61
4.1 The Relevance of Positive Psychology for an Art of Living . . . . . . . . . 62
4.2 The Usage of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3 Subjective Well-Being & Positive Emotions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Emotions About the Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Emotions About the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Emotions About the Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.4 Enhancing Positive Emotions and Enduring Happiness . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Positive Emotions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Enduring Happiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Signature Strengths and the Six Core Virtues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.5 Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Why Flow? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
What is Flow? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Social and Cultural Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Limitations of Optimal Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.6 Meaning in Life and Harmony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Resolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Harmony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
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5 “Lebenskunst” – Schmid’s Concept of the
Art of Living 89
5.1 Schmid’s Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.2 Choice and Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Problems of Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Choice and the Art of Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Education and Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.3 The Quest for a New Art of Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Philosophy of the Art of Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Ethical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Descriptions of the Art of Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Fundamental Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.4 The Care of the Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The Subject of the Care of the Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The Labour of Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.5 An Educational Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Hermeneutics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Techniques for an Art of Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Education for the Art of Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6 Lebenskunst and Positive Psychology in Dialogue 137
6.1 The Relevance of the Art of Living and Positive Psychology Today . . . . . 137
6.2 Concepts and Definitions of a “Good Life” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
6.3 Concepts of the Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.4 Social Influences on Individual Human Beings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
6.5 Control Over Consciousness and the Care of the Self . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
7 An Educational Approach to the Art of Living 158
7.1 Reasons for an Educational Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
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7.2 An End of Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
7.3 The Importance of the Art of Living for Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.4 An Educational Critique of Schmid’s Concept “Lebenskunst” . . . . . . . . 171
7.5 Equity, Equality and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Theories About Equality and Equity in Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Social Equality and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Understanding Equal Educational Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
An Art of Living Approach to Equity in Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
8 Beyond Schooling 189
8.1 Education and Schooling – a German Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
8.2 De-Schooling and the Art of Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
The De-Schooling Critique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Possible Ways Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
8.3 The Art of Living and Schooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
8.4 The Relevance of Anthropology for Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
An Educational Approach to Anthropology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
The Art of Living and Anthropology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Consequences for an Education for Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
9 Life-Pedagogy – An Education for Life Concept 212
9.1 Pedagogical Content and Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Skills and Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Hermeneutics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Bildung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Spirituality and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Mindsets and Attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
9.2 Requirements for Teaching the Art of Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
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The Teacher, His or Her Personality and Developing an Art of Living . . 230
Pedagogical Approaches for Teaching the Art of Living . . . . . . . . . 233
Teaching Settings and School Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Implications for Teacher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
10 Conclusion 244
Bibliography 250
List of Figures
5.1 Hierarchy of ethics as proposed by Schmid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6.1 Example: John’s self-concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Preface
I would like to explain briefly why this topic is of personal importance to me and why I have
written a PhD thesis about it. It is possible to conceive of my personal journey of learning
and development in a hermeneutic fashion, as will be explained in more detail later in this
preface and at various points in this thesis.
The starting point and underlying motivation for this research topic can be found in my
own upbringing and experiences during adolescence in a German middle-class environment;
in particular, it was my personal struggle to figure out which route to take after school. My
default plan, which I favoured mostly during my time at high-school up to the last two years,
had been to follow the old tradition of stepping into my father’s footsteps and to become an
IT expert. However, in my last two years of school, somewhere around the age of 18 or 19,
this path became less certain. The grammar school qualification I was to obtain allowed me
– in theory – to choose between so many different career paths that to review them all or even
to get an overview seemed impossible. This is when I first experienced a lack of structural
support for making the right decision for me and a “good” future (whatever that is). This
problem of contemporary societies, where informed and prudent decision making is limited
by too many choices, will be discussed later on in this thesis and identified as a significant
reason for combining the art of living and education.
In the end, I worked in about five very different jobs (such as dance teacher, financial ad-
visor, paramedic, IT administrator and youth worker), and I explored a number of different
subjects at university (computer science, English literature, education, psychology and phi-
losophy), until I finally found what felt right for me after no less than three to four years of
trial and error. At that time, I observed similar orientation problems within my peer-group,
and also witnessed these difficulties later on with many young people during my role as a
youth worker. Over the years, I worked with young people from different social and eco-
nomic levels and many, if not most of them, struggled to find their own way towards living a
good life, whatever that might mean for them. The difficulties I noticed, however, were not
so much the problems of how to achieve a goal and to move forward in a certain direction,
but what to do at all and which direction to take in life. Therefore, the underlying motivation
that inspired this thesis was and is to improve the situation for young people and to give them
the necessary tools, skills and (self-) understanding to find their way towards a good life.
One of these aspects is to strengthen the students’ faculty of hermeneutics: the ability to
make sense of and give meaning to the world one is living in (Gadamer, 1975). As will be
discussed later on in this thesis, the hermeneutic circle of perception, interpretation (giving
meaning to what one perceives), shaping one’s own self and view of the world through this
interpretation, and a subsequent altered perception based on one’s overall view of the world,
is an important aspect of developing one’s own art of living. The process of hermeneutics
is also significant to my understanding of education and learning processes. An example of
this hermeneutic circle in my own learning and development is that today, after having spent
nearly four years on this topic, I am now not sure if my stated desire of making life easier
for young people will actually be good for them. As will be discussed later on, personal
development and growth are strongly related to struggle, trying times and even despair. If
everything is easy and effortless, there is no need to strive, grow and evolve. Although I have
no answer for this question yet, I still believe that certain knowledge, skills and understanding
can help to develop one’s own art of living and in the end live a “better” life than without
these things.
Also, as can be seen in the theory of the art of living, leading a good and beautiful life is
not only a question for adolescents but a journey people might struggle with all their lives.
Therefore and due to my broad understanding of education as a never ending process that
might happen everywhere and anytime, the scope of this topic widens beyond schooling to
include one’s full lifespan. Of course, not all aspects of lifelong education can be explored
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