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Title:

The Phenomenon of Existential Dimensions of Utopian Thinking

Subject and Keywords:

models of utopian thinking   existential experience   educational experience   phenomenological analysis

Abstract:

The author distinguishes and analyzes two types of utopian thinking and the accompanying idealistic reasoning heuristics. The first model of utopian thinking can be summarized as one absolutizing The-Same (that-which-is-the-same), while the second consists in absolutizing The-Other (that-which-is-entirely-other). A metaphorical exemplification of the first model is the topos associated with the mythological tale of Odysseus' homeland; the same role in the case of the second model is played by the topos represented by the biblical story of Abraham and the Promised Land. In each of these models, we are dealing with emphasis being placed on the existential dimension of seeking the path „towards”: in the first case, to an already-familiar place (The-Same), and in the second case, to a place not yet known (The-Other). The-Same and The-Other, however, are not simple and pure antinomies, because The-Same contains constitutively an element of The-Other, while an element of The-Same can be found within The-Other as well. Human educational experience, considered in terms of idealistic absolutization of The-Same and The-Other and the existential dialectic of their unequivalence thus appears to be suspended between hope and the need to return to the native land (reality of The-Same), and the hope and desire to enter the Promised Land (reality of The-Other).

Place of publishing:

Wrocław

Publisher:

Instytut Pedagogiki Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego

Date issued:

2016

Format:

application/pdf

Identifier:

ISBN 978-83-62618-23-1

DOI:

10.34616/22.19.101

Language:

pol

Relation:

Utopia a edukacja, T.1, s. 11-24.

Rights holder:

Copyright by Jarosław Gara

Location of original object:

Biblioteka Instytutu Pedagogiki UWr

Autor opisu:

h.w.