Adulthood as an existential-ethical continuum in andragogic perspective and its implications for education

Abstract

This philosophical, anthropological study within a fundamental agogic perspective, employed an existential phenomenological approach to find out what adulthood is, fundamentally. Adulthood as being-ethical, is a more adequate description than chronological, biological, psychological and sociological descriptions of adulthood. Finding out what being-ethical is, required investigating what it means to be human. Only humans exist, and must participate effectively in agogic-dialogic relationships to alleviate existential yearning and experience dignifiedness. A code of effective agogy is presented. This code is the basis for a universal, fundamental code of ethics which transcends particular moral codes and professional codes of ethics. The words "ethicals", "ethicalness" and "ethicality" are employed to name, respectively, individual requirements in the code; acting according to the code; and the inescapable interrelatedness of experiencing dignifiedness and adhering to ethicals. Detailed explanations are given of what it means to respond fundamentally ethically. Adultness, humanness and ethicalness are different perceptions of the same continuum. All humans, whether aware of it or not, have an unattainable ideal of perfect humanness, to which they must perennially progress in order to experience dignifiedness, and humanness entails perennially becoming more human. Since no human can become perfectly human, the ideal of perfect humanness can be called "God". This means that the code of humanness is also the code of Godliness and the word "spiritual" is used to distinguish fundamental God from religious Gods. Spiritual responsibility is the interrelatedness of being-questioning and being-questioned. Ultimately, a person's humanness is assessed against the ideal of perfect humanness, by his or her own spiritual conscience. Humanity is the interrelatedness of the realities of existentiality, agogicality, ethicality, and spirituality and humanness is the inseparability of the continua of existentialness, ethicalness, agogicalness and spiritualness. A detailed existential-ethical description of education is given. The thesis ends with a post-scientific view of what essentially agogic orientated (educative) teaching is, and four recommendations are offered to enhance the effectiveness of agogy in teaching and learning institutions. Despite an extensive and radical study, it is acknowledged that the mystery that is humanity, can never be totally revealed.