Mans Search for Meaning - Essay Example

Name Instructor’s name Course Date The unexamined life is not worth living- Synthesis using Frankl's “Man's Searching for Meaning” and Freire's "Banking Concept of Education” Synthesis refers to the bringing together of an assortment of concepts and presenting them as a whole. Using Viktor Frankl’s Man's Searching for Meaning and Paulo Freire's Banking Concept of Education, this essay attempts to form a synthesis that analyzes Socrates’ renowned quotation, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. Socrates said this famous quote when he was in trial for his heresy. He was put through the trial for standing against and challenging the accepted beliefs of that time. He also instilled this sense of challenging the accepted beliefs in his students and encouraged them to use their logic and thinking rather than blind belief. Socrates was given an option: either to die or to live the rest of his life in exile or prison. However, Socrates chose the former. The reason for his choice emphasizes upon the importance that he placed on the quality of life and the need to think logically and critically. He was of the view that living in prison or in exile would devoid him of the process of examining the world around him and analyzing as to how it could be made a better place to reside in. The unexamined life does not constitute enough logic and thinking to do justice to living. Socrates demanded that Athens pay him honor for his contributions to opening up the thinking of his students and for regarding life with scrutiny and analyzing it for the sake of improving it. Since that was not an option given to Socrates, and he said he would rather die than abandon the truth, the jury was left with no choice but to give a vote of punishment in favor of death (Palachuk). In the world today, we do not find ourselves in a dilemma as stringent as Socrates. We have the free will to decide whether we examine our life or not. Socrates apology offered in his defense at the trial opens up many thought-provoking questions regarding the course of life that we take. Socrates gave up his life but did not renounce the truth and his philosophy. He stood strong in the face of opposition that not only leveled criticisms at him for corrupting the young and tender minds of students but also to weaken and disgrace religion. Socrates was unswerving in his commitment to the truth and did not let the living lure him away for what he believed in. However, although we are not faced with an option to die or to give up our beliefs and philosophies, we often tend to choose convenient conventionality over truth and reason (Kemerling). The concept underlying Socrates thinking is that questioning life and making rational choices based on logic and reason rather than blind belief form are the true essence of living. An individual that does not inculcate a sense of curiosity and does not make the effort to establish whether a supposed belief is merely a notion or has some substantial evidence to it has no purpose in life and is not being fair to it. The significance of knowing and following the truth is such that Socrates did not consider unexamined life to be less consequential than the examined one, nor did he regard unexamined life as one of the different stances that people may take about life; rather, he simply refuted the worth of living a life that is not examined. The concept of examined life and the meaning attached to truth and logic can be explored in light of Victor Frankl and Paulo Freire philosophies. Victor Frankl was a captive in a Nazi concentration camp and in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, he related his experiences of living in the camp. He was the pioneer of the theory of logotherapy which he used to help the inmates understand and discover the meanings of their lives. According to Frankl, the main aim of logotherapy was to discover implications in one’s life. This should form the essence of a person’s living and the driving force to struggle in the face of trails and sufferings that came his way. With his therapy, Frankl used to motivate the inmates to discover meaning in their own lives. The effect of the therapy is of great importance when considering Socrates statement. The process of discovering what life was all about and what it meant to the inmates gave them the drive and the patience to bear the abject horror and sufferings of the concentration camp. It gave them the will to survive and tolerate a life that was very emotionally and physically draining. Just like Socrates, Frankl believed that learning about life is of prime importance and is an indispensable tool to assimilate empirical knowledge from experience and then review it in order to comprehend the reason for the happenings. Frankls embraced life whole-heartedly and was of the view that lives can be enriched wit meaning (Gray). While his stay at the concentration camp, Frankl realized that the sufferings of the people and the hardship they bore in great detail, especially because he was going through the same thing and could relate to the feelings and struggle of his fellow inmates. He realized that many of the prisoners passed away when they were subjected to lesser hardship and suffering as compared to those who survived. The survivors were those people who had the audacity to think about the future and the strength to review their lives and discover the meaning hidden in it. These people did not give way to despair in light of their suffering and held on to the inspiration that they had discovered in the procedure of examining life. In spite of the hardships and trials, these people chose to fight for their right to survive by understanding the very foundations of survival itself. The “will to meaning” that Frankl called logotherapy is similar to the “striving for an ordered, meaningful cosmos on the part of the rabbinic teachers in their own times” (Graduate Theological Foundation 124). Graduate Theological Foundation states that Frankl’s logotherapy not only encompasses the concept of the human person being in possession of a sense of meaningfulness but also of a personal sense of indebtedness. Life does not only have meaning embedded in it, but also demands a sense of responsibility from the individual. Life is meaningful, and requires the individuals to respond to it appropriately by accepting responsibility for it. According to the Graduate Theological Foundation, the core idea implicit in Frankl’s philosophies is that life is an arena to comprehend meaning but this discovery places upon individuals an exception of themselves as illustrated in Frankl’s quotation: “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible. Responsibleness is the essence of human existence” (Graduate Theological Foundation 124). This statement presents an argument for the attitude of teacher as portrayed in Paulo Freire's Banking Concept of Education. Freire reviews the student-teacher relationship and concludes that it is narrative in nature. The responsibility of the teacher is to teach the students. However, the relationship of the teacher with the student is such that the teacher is the narrating subject while the student is the listening object. According to Freire, the student takes on a more passive role. This is due to the way the teacher is using pedagogical tools to impart education. The education becomes as education from the oppressed and suppresses the students from developing a creative, questioning and empirical approach to life. The contents of the education, whether empirical dimensions or values of reality, are fed into students in a such a way which make them inert, unresponsive and petrified. The way that the teacher delivers the lecture makes the reality appear as if it was stationary, still, compartmentalized, and expected. At other times, the teacher indulges in discourse that is entirely unfamiliar to the existential knowledge of the students. Thus, Freire asserts that the job of the teacher becomes not indulging the students in an interactive and thought-provoking session but to fill the students with the contents of the narration (“Educational Banking”). In the banking concept of education, teachers take control of students and dictate what will be learnt. They force-feed information into students and mould their thinking in a way such that the world is regarded as static and motionless. According to Freir, in the banking concept of education, instead of questioning the world, students are required to fit into the world as it is and is better suited for the oppressors whose peace rests in the passiveness of the students (“Pedagogy” 76). It segregates the learner and the learner’s consciousness from the world and so plays an integral role in oppression. This is in open conflict with the teachings of Socrates, who stood for questioning and inquiring about the world. The banking concept of education does not empower the students and they do not play an active role in changing the world. Such a life, as explained by Socrates, is not worth living since students are not encouraged to be liberal or take a stand against the oppressive segments of the society as well as understanding the meaning of life. Whatever beliefs and attitudes that the forefathers believed in and followed, students are required to comply with and observe with the same norms. As a result, the banking concept of education, by limiting the understanding of the students about the world around them, prevents the students from realizing their full potential, recognizing the association between people and the world, encouraging inquiry and paving the way to change. As implicit from the statement made by Socrates i.e. ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’, the choice of the life that we choose rests upon our shoulders; Frankl also agrees to this notion as he said, “The last of human freedoms is the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances” (Simpson 13). Hence liberty is a state of mind and a tragedy or some negative circumstance is not necessary to shake the person into understanding the meaning of one’s life. Hence living an examined life is essential for the intellectual growth of students. If they are encouraged to speak, question the world, understand the meaning of life, they would be better equipped to make changes to the world, making it a better place to live in. An unexamined life would create frustration since the oppressors can rule easily and no one would be there to challenge them. Drawing together the philosophies of Freir and Frankl, individuals should question life and try to discover the meaning implicit in it in order to live a live that is worth living. Works Cited Freire, Paulo. Educational Banking. Laurie Williams, 1999. Web. 28 July 2010. Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the oppressed. 30th ed. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000. Print. Graduate Theological Foundation. Foundation theology 2006: faculty essays for ministry professionals. Indiana: Cloverdale Corporation, 2006. Print. Gray, Michael C. Man’s Search for Meaning. Michael Gray, 2010. Web. 28 July 2010. Kemerling, Garth. Socrates: Philosophical Life. Britannica Internet Guide Selection, 2001. Web. 28 July 2010. Palachuk, Karl W. The Unexamined Life in Not Worth Living. Relax Focus Succeed, 2009. Web. 28 July 2010. Simpson, Robyn. Attitude, Aptitude, Altitude - Choose Your 'Tude! Robyn Simpson, 2009. Print. Read More