Abstract
Both in formal situations (as school teachers, football trainers, etc.) and in many, often unpredictable informal situations (both inside and outside institutions)—adults come close to children. Whether we intend it or not, we continually give them examples of what it is to live as a human being, and thereby we have a pedagogical responsibility. I sketch what it could mean to let ourselves “be built up”, in a Kierkegaardian sense, on the foundation of unconditional love, presupposing that this love is possible for all human beings. Kierkegaard’s Upbuilding discourses invite each reader to engage in a dialogue with the possibilities in the text. Thereby the reader may become aware of his or her present situation in life and see possible alternatives. These discourses or “talks” (taler in Danish) exemplify a manner of indirect communication which perhaps may be transferred to encounters with works of art in general: How could I let examples in literature, pictures, films and music invite and challenge me—to ask myself who I am right now and who I ought to be? My aim is to present an alternative to the instrumental advices that adults are given today. I attempt to clarify the leading concept “upbuilding examples”, sketch the difference between upbuilding, education and Bildung, refer to works of art that seem to have upbuilding possibilities, and consider why upbuilding examples should be studied and how they could be studied in small self-governed groups of adults.
Highlights
Both in formal situations and in many, often unpredictable informal situations—adults come close to children
Dostoevsky has a thought-provoking comment to adults in The Brothers Karamazov: You pass by a little child, you pass by, spiteful, with ugly words, with wrathful heart; you may not have noticed the child, but he has seen you, and your image, unseemly and ignoble, may remain in his defenceless heart
My vision is that the participants in such groups could try and help each other to become ‘‘better human beings’’ (Wivestad 2012)—persons who seek and do what is good and avoid evil
Summary
Dostoevsky has a thought-provoking comment to adults in The Brothers Karamazov: You pass by a little child, you pass by, spiteful, with ugly words, with wrathful heart; you may not have noticed the child, but he has seen you, and your image, unseemly and ignoble, may remain in his defenceless heart. Kierkegaard does differentiate between Dannelse and Misdannelse, but his focus is the avoidance of hatred, strife and revenge between human beings, who, in his perspective, in reality are equal, in spite of all outward distinctions. He maintains that upbuilding—as a work of love—is a necessary condition for education: ‘‘education without the upbuilding is, eternally understood, miseducation. Kierkegaard has presented several good examples in his Eighteen upbuilding discourses (1990) These beautiful texts may help the reader in an indirect way to see what builds us up as human beings.
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