Can Boredom Educate Us? Tracing a Mood in Heidegger’s Fundamental Ontology from an Educational Point of View

Abstract

Martin Heidegger (1989-1976 was convinced that we can learn something about the way we inhabit the world by turning attention to our fundamental moods. It was one important theme of his fundamental ontology in the 1920s. There is, according to Heidegger, an intricate connection between awakening our moods and developing a reflexive stance. He provides us with a rich phenomenological description of different forms of boredom. In this article I approach Heidegger's conception of boredom from an educational point of view. I am suggesting a reading where the experience of boredom has transformative potentialities that also can illuminate our cultural situation as a whole. By turning away from boredom there is always a possibility of turning away from ourselves.Keywords Boredom Á Martin Heidegger Á Ontological education Á AuthenticityIn the educational realm there is much ado about learning. Everybody seems to agree that a good learning environment requires that people get involved, perhaps even interested and engaged. We have a concept for a mental state when a person is fully immersed in her activities-''flow'' as a feeling of wholeness and full involvement (Csikszentmihalyi 1990). But little do we speak about the opposite, the uneasy feeling of boredom and emptiness that overwhelms us when things turn out to be uninspired.What happens to us when we become bored? One way of putting it could be to say that boredom signifies an experience where we become indifferent and lack interest. To be bored seems to imply a kind of detachment where things appear as detached and meaningless to us whereas the experience of intense motivation rather refers to a passionate unity with the object of our attention. In this respect it seems that both boredom and interest are like coincidentia oppositorium that play an important role in the descriptions of our attitudes toward our everyday practices. They describe, in an evaluative way, how I am grateful to Gunilla Holm for reading a previous version of this paper and for commenting on both philosophical argument and language.

On The Nature of Boredom

“…However, Plato defended the need for consistency and regularity of the heavenly bodies, similar to Christians such as St. Thomas Aquinas. With the advent of Christianity, "acedia" was understood to be one of the "seven deadly sins" (Mansikka 2009). Several words were used to represent the concept of boredom, such as "dryness of the soul", "inexplicable sorrow", "loss of love", "complete paralysis of the will".…”

“…Because when individuals are full of joy, they also immune to all other sins, when people suffer from boredom, they will inevitably seek some instant and immediate pleasure which itself represents self deception and distance from the love of God. It was assumed to be a kind of distortion of the relationship to God (Mansikka 2009). The English word "boredom" first appeared in print in 1766.…”

“…Modern literature relating to boredom does not regard it as a moral or existential reaction. The human being today feels isolated and tends to strive to achieve a fully functioning capacity or self-realization (Mansikka 2009). Today, boredom is considered a a complex phenomenon that includes psychological, social, and physiological dimensions.…”

“…A few theorists have hypothesized that boredom may occasionally lead to positive outcomes such as increasing creativity and in motivating change (e.g. Harris 2000;Mansikka 2009). Heidegger (1995) argued that experiencing profound boredom as a part of feeling existential indifference, rather than situational boredom, can become transformative or result in a radical turn for "being" (dasein) and may enhance the original possibilities to avoid this emptiness.…”

The Concept of Profound Boredom: Learning from Moments of Vision

“…Pezze and Salzani (2009) trace this development in both philosophical and sociological terms to connect to what is known as the phenomena of boredom and modernity. Finally in the education sphere the issue of boredom has been explored in the work of Stafford and Gregory (2006) and Mansikka (2009).…”