Existentialism and its relevance to the contemporary system of education in India: Existentialism and present educational scenario

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CHAPTER 5, EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF EXISTENTIALISM:
The cognitive understanding of truth follows various ways and means. At the idealistic stage of philosophy, 'intuition' was being used, by which the learner got a subjective knowledge of reality. Since the dawn of scientific means of enquiry, the tendency diverted towards objective knowledge of all the phenomenon of the world. The objective knowledge does not count the feelings and experiences of the learner, away from subjective consciousness. Contrary to objective knowledge, existentialist knowledge is intuitive. Existentialists consider science as a tool, not determinant and experimentalism as a method, not a goal. A whole new understanding of the 'truth' is going to be called for understanding whereby the learner's feeling towards truth comes to play as significant a role as his mere cognitive understanding of it. For anything to be true, it must first pass into and be taken hold of by some subjective consciousness. Knowledge becomes knowledge only when subjectivity takes hold of it and puts it into his own life. The validity of knowledge is determined by ist value to the individual. There are no norms; the individual is responsible for his own knowledge.
Soren Kierkegaard wants people free from the illusion of objectivity. Kierkegaard says that we should destroy scientific myth. This myth not only dominates our thought, but is actually to be welcomed by us as enlightenment and progress. He says that we have lost the capacity for subjectivity, and it is the task of philosophy to rediscover it for us. He says, A complete true account of the behaviour of everything could be provided, if we took trouble and observe enough .
Kierkegaard presents three characteristics of subjective knowledge. First, it is personal and cannot be passed from one person to the next, nor added to by different researchers. It is gained through experience and cannot be taught in the classroom. Second, subjective

Dr. Rukhsana Akhter was born in Srinagar City, She pursued her M.A., M.Ed and M.Phil degree from University of Kashmir. She also received her Doctorate Degree from the same University. Dr. Rukhsana has more than 20 research papers to her credit published at national and international levels. She was associated with major research projects sponsored by U.G.C. and MHRD New Delhi. She also attended a number of seminars workshops and conferences and has delivered a number of extension lecturers in various training colleges of the valley. Besides teaching she is resource person to a number of educational institutions. Presently, she is working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Education in Government College of Education, Srinagar, J&K, India.