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122-612: Buber's main proposition is that we may address existence in two ways: One of the major themes of the book is that human life finds its meaningfulness in relationships . In Buber's view, all of our relationships bring us ultimately into relationship with God , who is the Eternal Thou. Martin Buber said that every time someone says Thou, they are indirectly addressing God. People can address God as Thou or as God, Buber emphasized how, "You need God in order to be, and God needs you for that which

244-457: A Person (1961). A student of his there, Marshall Rosenberg , went on to develop Nonviolent Communication . Rogers and Abraham Maslow (1908–70) pioneered a movement called humanistic psychology , which reached its peak in the 1960s. In 1961, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Rogers was also one of the people who questioned the rise of McCarthyism in

366-500: A building and being 443.2 meters tall , express what an object is like but do not directly describe whether or not that building exists. According to this view, existence is more fundamental than regular properties because an object cannot have any properties if it does not exist. According to second-order theorists, quantifiers rather than predicates express existence. Predicates are expressions that apply to and classify objects, usually by attributing features to them, such as "is

488-405: A butterfly" and "is happy". Quantifiers are terms that talk about the quantity of objects that have certain properties. Existential quantifiers express that there is at least one object, like the expressions "some" and "there exists", as in "some cows eat grass" and "there exists an even prime number". In this regard, existence is closely related to counting because to assert that something exists

610-404: A certain process rather than static state. Rogers calls this the good life , where the organism continually aims to fulfill its potential. He listed the characteristics of a fully functioning person (Rogers 1961): This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one's potentialities. It involves

732-430: A different thick concept of existence; he stated: "to be is to be perceived", meaning all existence is mental. Existence contrasts with nonexistence, a lack of reality. Whether objects can be divided into existent and nonexistent objects is a subject of controversy. This distinction is sometimes used to explain how it is possible to think of fictional objects like dragons and unicorns but the concept of nonexistent objects

854-502: A fully congruent person, realizing their potential is not at the expense of experiencing positive regard. They are able to lead authentic and genuine lives. Incongruent individuals, in their pursuit of positive regard, lead lives that include falsity and do not realize their potential. Conditions put on them by those around them make it necessary for them to forgo their genuine, authentic lives to meet with others' approval. They live lives that are not true to themselves. Rogers suggested that

976-520: A hierarchical structure. They believed a transcendent entity, called "the One" or "the Good", is responsible for all existence. From it emerges the intellect, which in turn gives rise to the soul and the material world. In medieval philosophy , Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109 CE) formulated the influential ontological argument , which aims to deduce the existence of God from the concept of God. Anselm defined God as

1098-466: A humanistic approach to conducting therapy and a scientific approach to evaluating therapy need not be incompatible." Rogers's theory (as of 1951) was based on 19 propositions: In relation to No. 17, Rogers is known for practicing " unconditional positive regard ", which is defined as accepting a person "without negative judgment of .... [a person's] basic worth". With regard to development, Rogers described principles rather than stages. The main issue

1220-406: A logical property that every existing thing shares; they do not include any substantial content about the metaphysical implications of having existence. According to one view, existence is the same as the logical property of self-identity . This view articulates a thin concept of existence because it merely states what exists is identical to itself without discussing any substantial characteristics of

1342-532: A long philosophical tradition in relation to the existence of universals. According to Platonists , universals have general existence as Platonic forms independently of the particulars that exemplify them. According to this view, the universal of redness exists independently of the existence or nonexistence of red objects. Aristotelianism also accepts the existence of universals but says their existence depends on particulars that instantiate them and that they are unable to exist by themselves. According to this view,

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1464-434: A lot of information about Khrushchev . "We were asked to figure out what we thought of him and what would be the best way of dealing with him. And that seemed to be an entirely principled and legitimate aspect. I don't think we contributed very much, but, anyway, we tried." Howard Kirschenbaum has conducted extensive research on the work of Carl Rogers and the person-centered/client centered approach. Kirschenbaum published

1586-456: A negative singular existential is true if the individual it refers to does not exist. Meinongianism has important implications for understandings of quantification. According to an influential view defended by Willard Van Orman Quine , the domain of quantification is restricted to existing objects. This view implies quantifiers carry ontological commitments about what exists and what does not exist. Meinongianism differs from this view by saying

1708-463: A nonexisting object. Closely related to the problem of different types of entities is the question of whether their modes of existence also vary. This is the case according to ontological pluralism, which states entities belonging to different types differ in both their essential features and in the ways they exist. This position is sometimes found in theology; it states God is radically different from his creation and emphasizes his uniqueness by saying

1830-416: A park bench may enter into an "I–Thou" relationship with the stranger merely by beginning to think positively about people in general. The stranger is a person as well, and gets instantaneously drawn into a mental or spiritual relationship with the person whose positive thoughts necessarily include the stranger as a member of the set of persons about whom positive thoughts are directed. It is not necessary for

1952-408: A person uses with "I" refers to the two pairs: "I–Thou" and "I–It", and likewise "I" is implicit in every sentence with "Thou" or "It". Each "It" is bounded by others and It can only exist through this attachment because for every object there is another object. The "Thou", on the other hand, has no limitations. When "Thou" is spoken, the speaker has no thing (has nothing), hence, "Thou" is abstract; yet

2074-424: A property of individuals while second-order theories say existence is a second-order property, that is, a property of properties. A central challenge for theories of the nature of existence is an understanding of the possibility of coherently denying the existence of something, like the statement: "Santa Claus does not exist". One difficulty is explaining how the name "Santa Claus" can be meaningful even though there

2196-482: A property of some but not all entities, was first formulated by Alexius Meinong . Its main assertion is that there are some entities that do not exist, meaning objecthood is independent of existence. Proposed examples of nonexistent objects are merely possible objects such as flying pigs, as well as fictional and mythical objects like Sherlock Holmes and Zeus. According to this view, these objects are real and have being, even though they do not exist. Meinong states there

2318-518: A realm he came to prize as "the indescribable, the spiritual." After two years, Rogers left the seminary to attend Teachers College, Columbia University , obtaining an M.A. in 1927 and a Ph.D. in 1931. While completing his doctoral work, he engaged in child study. He studied with Alfred Adler in 1927 to 1928 when Rogers was an intern at the now defunct Institute for Child Guidance in New York City. Later in life, Rogers recalled: Accustomed as I

2440-410: A robust explanation of why statements about what is possible and necessary are true. According to him, possible objects exist in possible worlds while actual objects exist in the actual world. Lewis says the only difference between possible worlds and the actual world is the location of the speaker; the term "actual" refers to the world of the speaker, similar to the way the terms "here" and "now" refer to

2562-458: A rock falls on a plant and damages it, or a plant grows through rock and breaks it. Abstract objects, like numbers, sets, and types, have no location in space and time, and lack causal powers. The distinction between concrete objects and abstract objects is sometimes treated as the most-general division of being. The existence of concrete objects is widely agreed upon but opinions about abstract objects are divided. Realists such as Plato accept

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2684-438: A second-order property. According to second-order theories, to talk about existence is to talk about which properties have instances. For example, this view says that the sentence "God exists" means "Godhood is instantiated" rather than "God has the property of existing". A key reason against characterizing existence as a property of individuals is that existence differs from regular properties. Regular properties, such as being

2806-634: A seminar titled "Why Am I Entering the Ministry?" after which he decided to change careers. In 1924, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin, married Helen Elliott (a fellow Wisconsin student whom he had known from Oak Park), and enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in New York . Some time later he reportedly became an atheist. Although referred to as an atheist early in his career, Rogers eventually came to be described as agnostic. However, in his later years it

2928-487: A series of residential programs in the U.S., Europe, Brazil and Japan, the Person-Centered Approach Workshops, which focused on cross-cultural communications, personal growth, self-empowerment, and learning for social change. In 1987, Rogers suffered a fall that resulted in a fractured pelvis : he had life alert and was able to contact paramedics. He had a successful operation, but his pancreas failed

3050-461: A specifically Rogerian, person-centered approach to politics as dialogue have made substantial contributions to that project. From the late 1950s into the '60s, Rogers served on the board of the Human Ecology Fund , a CIA -funded organization that provided grants to researchers looking into personality. In addition, he and other people in the field of personality and psychotherapy were given

3172-684: A strict religious and ethical environment as an altar boy at the vicarage of Jimpley, he became rather isolated, independent and disciplined, and acquired knowledge and an appreciation for the scientific method in a practical world. At the University of Wisconsin–Madison , where he was a member of the fraternity Alpha Kappa Lambda , his first career choice was agriculture , followed by history and then religion . At age 20, following his 1922 trip to Beijing , China , for an international Christian conference, Rogers started to doubt his religious convictions. To help him clarify his career choice, he attended

3294-417: A strict sense, all negative singular existentials are false, including the assertion that "Ronald McDonald does not exist". Universalists can interpret such sentences slightly differently in relation to the context. In everyday life, for example, people use sentences like "Ronald McDonald does not exist" to express the idea that Ronald McDonald does not exist as a concrete object, which is true. Another approach

3416-401: A subclass of possible objects; creationists say that they are artifacts that depend for their existence on the authors who first conceived them. Intentional inexistence is a similar phenomenon concerned with the existence of objects within mental states. This happens when a person perceives or thinks about an object. In some cases, the intentional object corresponds to a real object outside

3538-402: A system to measure the degree of directiveness or non-directiveness a counselor employed. The counselor's attitude and orientation were shown to be instrumental in the decisions the client made. The application to education has a large robust research tradition similar to that of therapy, with studies having begun in the late 1930s and continuing today (Cornelius-White, 2007). Rogers described

3660-421: A universal that is not present in the space and time does not exist. According to nominalists , only particulars have existence and universals do not exist. There is an influential distinction in ontology between concrete and abstract objects . Many concrete objects, like rocks, plants, and other people, are encountered in everyday life. They exist in space and time. They have effects on each other, like when

3782-657: A wide variety of dialogic activities among politicians, activists, and other social leaders, often outside the U.S. He also lent his support to several non-traditional U.S. political initiatives, including the "12-Hour Political Party" of the Association for Humanistic Psychology and the founding of a "transformational" political organization, the New World Alliance . By the 21st century, interest in dialogic approaches to political engagement and change had become widespread, especially among academics and activists. Theorists of

I and Thou - Misplaced Pages Continue

3904-475: Is a difference between entities and the fundamental characteristics that make them the entities they are. Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) introduced this concept; he calls it the ontological difference and contrasts individual beings with being. According to his response to the question of being, being is not an entity but the background context that makes all individual entities intelligible. Many discussions of

4026-492: Is a first-order property or a property of individuals . This means existence is similar to other properties of individuals, like color and shape. Alexius Meinong and his followers accept this idea and say that not all individuals have this property; they state that there are some individuals, such as Santa Claus , that do not exist. Universalists reject this view; they see existence as a universal property of every individual. The concept of existence has been discussed throughout

4148-669: Is a gestalt which is available to awareness though not necessarily in awareness. It is a fluid and changing gestalt, a process, but at any given moment it is a specific entity. (Rogers, 1959) In the development of the self-concept, he saw conditional and unconditional positive regard as key. Those raised in an environment of unconditional positive regard have the opportunity to fully actualize themselves. Those raised in an environment of conditional positive regard feel worthy only if they match conditions (what Rogers describes as conditions of worth ) that others have laid down for them. Optimal development, as referred to in proposition 14, results in

4270-498: Is addressed as It, and the I–Thou relation becomes the being of the I–Thou relation. God is now spoken to directly, not spoken about. There is no world that disconnects one from God, a world of It alone, when I–Thou guides one's actions. "One who truly meets the world goes out also to God." God is the worldwide relation to all relations. Martin Buber's work of I and Thou has had a profound and lasting impact on modern thinking, as well as

4392-400: Is an elementary concept, meaning it cannot be defined in other terms without involving circularity. This would imply characterizing existence or talking about its nature in a non-trivial manner may be difficult or impossible. Disputes about the nature of existence are reflected in the distinction between thin and thick concepts of existence. Thin concepts of existence understand existence as

4514-405: Is an object corresponding to any combination of properties. A more specific criticism rejects the idea that there are incomplete and impossible objects. Universalists agree with Meinongians that existence is a property of individuals but deny there are nonexistent entities. Instead, universalists state existence is a universal property; all entities have it, meaning everything exists. One approach

4636-511: Is an object for any combination of properties. For example, there is an object that only has the single property of "being a singer" with no other properties. This means neither the attribute of "wearing a dress" nor the absence of it applies to this object. Meinong also includes impossible objects like round squares in this classification. According to Meinongians, sentences describing Sherlock Holmes and Zeus refer to nonexisting objects. They are true or false depending on whether these objects have

4758-503: Is between merely possible, contingent , and necessary existence. An entity has necessary existence if it must exist or could not fail to exist. This means that it is not possible to newly create or destroy necessary entities. Entities that exist but could fail to exist are contingent; merely possible entities do not exist but could exist. Most entities encountered in ordinary experience, like telephones, sticks, and flowers, have contingent existence. The contingent existence of telephones

4880-493: Is called negative singular existential and the expression Ronald McDonald is a singular term that seems to refer to an individual. It is not clear how the expression can refer to an individual if, as the sentence asserts, this individual does not exist. According to a solution philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) proposed, singular terms do not refer to individuals but are descriptions of individuals . This theory states negative singular existentials deny an object matching

5002-454: Is closely related to the problem of modes of existence. This topic is based on the idea that some entities exist to a higher degree or have more being than other entities, similar to the way some properties, such as heat and mass, have degrees. According to philosopher Plato (428/427–348/347 BCE), for example, unchangeable Platonic forms have a higher degree of existence than physical objects. The view that there are different types of entities

I and Thou - Misplaced Pages Continue

5124-418: Is common in metaphysics but the idea that they differ from each other in their modes or degrees of existence is often rejected, implying that a thing either exists or does not exist without in-between alternatives. Metaphysician Peter van Inwagen (1942–present) uses the idea that there is an intimate relationship between existence and quantification to argue against different modes of existence. Quantification

5246-478: Is contradictory. This conclusion follows from the premises that one can only deny the existence of something by referring to that entity and that one can only refer to entities that exist. Universalists have proposed different ways of interpreting negative singular existentials. According to one view, names of fictional entities like "Ronald McDonald" refer to abstract objects , which exist even though they do not exist in space and time. This means, when understood in

5368-509: Is impossible because the world needs to contain at least all necessary entities. Entities that exist on a physical level include objects encountered in everyday life, like stones, trees, and human bodies, as well as entities discussed in modern physics , like electrons and protons. Physical entities can be observed and measured; they possess mass and a location in space and time. Mental entities like perceptions, experiences of pleasure and pain as well as beliefs, desires, and emotions belong to

5490-607: Is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one does not know whether the entity exists. Ontology is the philosophical discipline studying the nature and types of existence. Singular existence is the existence of individual entities while general existence refers to the existence of concepts or universals . Entities present in space and time have concrete existence in contrast to abstract entities, like numbers and sets. Other distinctions are between possible , contingent , and necessary existence and between physical and mental existence. The common view

5612-501: Is made between existence and essence . Essence refers to the intrinsic nature or defining qualities of an entity. The essence of something determines what kind of entity it is and how it differs from other kinds of entities. Essence corresponds to what an entity is, while existence corresponds to the fact that it is. For instance, it is possible to understand what an object is and grasp its nature even if one does not know whether this object exists. According to some philosophers, there

5734-472: Is no Santa Claus. Second-order theories understand existence as a second-order property rather than a first-order property. They are often seen as the orthodox position in ontology. For instance, the Empire State Building is an individual object and "being 443.2 meters (1,454 ft) tall" is a first-order property of it. "Being instantiated" is a property of "being 443.2 meters tall" and therefore

5856-461: Is not generally accepted; some philosophers say the concept is contradictory. Closely related contrasting terms are nothingness and nonbeing. Existence is commonly associated with mind-independent reality but this position is not universally accepted because there could also be forms of mind-dependent existence, such as the existence of an idea inside a person's mind. According to some idealists , this may apply to all of reality. Another contrast

5978-420: Is reflected in the fact that they exist in the present but did not exist in the past, meaning that it is not necessary that they exist. It is an open question whether any entities have necessary existence. According to some nominalists , all concrete objects have contingent existence while all abstract objects have necessary existence. According to some theorists, one or several necessary beings are required as

6100-410: Is related to the counting of objects; according to Inwagen, if there were different modes of entities, people would need different types of numbers to count them. Because the same numbers can be used to count different types of entities, he concludes all entities have the same mode of existence. Theories of the nature of existence aim to explain what it means for something to exist. A central dispute in

6222-409: Is reported he spoke about spirituality. Thorne, who knew Rogers and worked with him on a number of occasions during his final ten years, writes that "in his later years his openness to experience compelled him to acknowledge the existence of a dimension to which he attached such adjectives as mystical, spiritual, and transcendental". Rogers concluded that there is a realm "beyond" scientific psychology,

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6344-561: Is studied by the subdiscipline of metaphysics known as ontology . The terms "being", "reality", and "actuality" are often used as synonyms of "existence", but the exact definition of existence and its connection to these terms is disputed. According to metaphysician Alexius Meinong (1853–1920), all entities have being but not all entities have existence. He argues merely possible objects like Santa Claus have being but lack existence. Ontologist Takashi Yagisawa (20th century–present) contrasts existence with reality; he sees "reality" as

6466-446: Is that an entity either exists or not with nothing in between, but some philosophers say that there are degrees of existence, meaning that some entities exist to a higher degree than others. The orthodox position in ontology is that existence is a second-order property or a property of properties. For example, to say that lions exist means that the property of being a lion is possessed by an entity. A different view states that existence

6588-481: Is that public life need not consist of an endless series of winner-take-all battles among sworn opponents; rather, it can and should consist of an ongoing dialogue among all parties. Such dialogue is characterized by respect among the parties, authentic speaking by each, and—ultimately—empathic understanding among all parties. Out of such understanding, mutually acceptable solutions will (or at least can) flow. During his last decade, Rogers facilitated or participated in

6710-512: Is that singular existence can be expressed in terms of general existence. For instance, the sentence "Angela Merkel exists" can be expressed as "entities that are identical to Angela Merkel exist", where the expression "being identical to Angela Merkel" is understood as a general term. Philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine (1908–2000) defends a different position by giving primacy to singular existence and arguing that general existence can be expressed in terms of singular existence. A related question

6832-402: Is the development of a self-concept and the progress from an undifferentiated self to being fully differentiated. Self Concept ... the organized consistent conceptual gestalt composed of perceptions of the characteristics of 'I' or 'me' and the perceptions of the relationships of the 'I' or 'me' to others and to various aspects of life, together with the values attached to these perceptions. It

6954-518: Is the meaning of your life." Buber explains that humans are defined by two word pairs: I–It and I–Thou . The "It" of I–It refers to the world of experience and sensation. I–It describes entities as discrete objects drawn from a defined set (e.g., he, she or any other objective entity defined by what makes it measurably different from other entities). It can be said that "I" have as many distinct and different relationships with each "It" as there are "Its" in one's life. Fundamentally, "It" refers to

7076-573: Is the predicate. Quantifier constructions can also be used to express negative existential statements; for instance, the sentence "talking tigers do not exist" can be expressed as "it is not the case that there exist talking tigers". Many ontologists accept that second-order theories provide a correct analysis of many types of existential sentences. It is, however, controversial whether it is correct for all cases. Some problems relate to assumptions associated with everyday language about sentences like " Ronald McDonald does not exist". This type of statement

7198-423: Is to assert that the corresponding concept has one or more instances. Second-order views imply a sentence like " egg-laying mammals exist" is misleading because the word "exist" is used as a predicate in them. These views say the true logical form is better expressed in reformulations like "there exist entities that are egg-laying mammals". This way, "existence" has the role of a quantifier and "egg-laying mammals"

7320-404: Is to say existence is the same as self-identity. According to the law of identity , every object is identical to itself or has the property of self-identity. This can be expressed in predicate logic as ∀ x ( x = x ) {\displaystyle \forall x(x=x)} . An influential argument in favor of universalism is that the denial of the existence of something

7442-552: Is to understand negative singular existentials as neither true nor false but meaningless because their singular terms do not refer to anything. Western philosophy originated with the Presocratic philosophers , who aimed to replace earlier mythological accounts of the universe by providing rational explanations based on foundational principles of all existence. Some, like Thales (c. 624–545 BCE) and Heraclitus (c. 540–480 BCE), suggested concrete principles like water and fire are

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7564-407: Is whether there can be general existence without singular existence. According to philosopher Henry S. Leonard (1905–1967), a property only has general existence if there is at least one actual object that instantiates it. Philosopher Nicholas Rescher (1928–2024), by contrast, states that properties can exist if they have no actual instances, like the property of "being a unicorn". This question has

7686-699: Is widely considered one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy research and was honored for his pioneering research with the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1956. The person-centered approach , Rogers's approach to understanding personality and human relationships, found wide application in various domains, such as psychotherapy and counseling ( client-centered therapy ), education ( student-centered learning ), organizations, and other group settings. For his professional work he received

7808-638: The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Rochester, New York. From 1935 to 1940 he lectured at the University of Rochester and wrote The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child (1939), based on his experience in working with troubled children. He was strongly influenced in constructing his client-centered approach by the post-Freudian psychotherapeutic practice of Otto Rank , especially as embodied in

7930-523: The history of philosophy and already played a role in ancient philosophy , including Presocratic philosophy in Ancient Greece , Hindu and Buddhist philosophy in Ancient India , and Daoist philosophy in ancient China . It is relevant to fields such as logic , mathematics , epistemology , philosophy of mind , philosophy of language , and existentialism . Dictionaries define existence as

8052-459: The types of existing entities revolve around the definitions of different types, the existence or nonexistence of entities of a specific type, the way entities of different types are related to each other, and whether some types are more fundamental than others. Examples are the existence or nonexistence of souls ; whether there are abstract, fictional, and universal entities; and the existence or nonexistence of possible worlds and objects besides

8174-400: The "I–It" relationship inherent in segregation does reduce human beings to "things". The book has been translated to English twice, by Ronald Gregor Smith in 1937 and by Walter Kaufmann in 1970. Existence Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing . Existence is often contrasted with essence : the essence of an entity

8296-574: The '80s (1983). He remained a La Jolla resident for the rest of his life, doing therapy, giving speeches and writing. Rogers's last years were devoted to applying his theories in situations of political oppression and national social conflict, traveling worldwide to do so. In Belfast , Northern Ireland , he brought together influential Protestants and Catholics; in South Africa, blacks and whites; in Brazil, people emerging from dictatorship to democracy; in

8418-630: The 1950s. In articles, he criticized society for its backward-looking affinities. Rogers continued teaching at the University of Wisconsin until 1963, when he became a resident at the new Western Behavioral Sciences Institute (WBSI) in La Jolla , California. Rogers left the WBSI to help found the Center for Studies of the Person in 1968. His later books include Carl Rogers on Personal Power (1977) and Freedom to Learn for

8540-469: The Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Psychology from the APA in 1972. In a study by Steven J. Haggbloom and colleagues using six criteria such as citations and recognition, Rogers was found to be the sixth most eminent psychologist of the 20th century and second, among clinical psychologists, only to Sigmund Freud . Based on a 1982 survey of 422 respondents of U.S. and Canadian psychologists, he

8662-696: The Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The "I–Thou" relationship is quoted in his Letter from Birmingham Jail and his sermon, "A Testament of Hope." In that sermon, King describes the cultural and legal climate of segregation in his time as an "I–It" relationship, and that only when the divinity within the African American population is seen is the relationship transformed to "I–Thou." King says, "I cannot reach fulfillment without thou". He also mentions this unique relationship in his Letter, reiterating

8784-701: The Istituto dell'Approccio Centrato sulla Persona (Person-Centered Approach Institute) in Rome, Italy. Rogers's international work for peace culminated in the Rust Peace Workshop, which took place in November 1985 in Rust, Austria . Leaders from 17 nations convened to discuss the topic "The Central America Challenge". The meeting was notable for several reasons: it brought national figures together as people (not as their positions), it

8906-455: The I–Thou relation, love is a subject-to-subject relationship. Love is not a relation of subject to object, but rather a relation in which both members in the relationship are subjects and share the unity of being. The ultimate Thou is God. In the I–Thou relation there are no barriers. This enables us to relate directly to God. God is ever-present in human consciousness, manifesting in music, literature, and other forms of culture. Inevitably, Thou

9028-524: The United States, consumers and providers in the health field. His last trip, at age 85, was to the Soviet Union, where he lectured and facilitated intensive experiential workshops fostering communication and creativity. He was astonished at how many Russians knew of his work. Between 1974 and 1984, Rogers, his daughter Natalie Rogers, and psychologists Maria Bowen, Maureen O'Hara, and John K. Wood convened

9150-615: The University of Chicago, Thomas Gordon , established the Parent Effectiveness Training (P.E.T.) movement. Another student, Eugene T. Gendlin , who was getting his Ph.D. in philosophy, developed the practice of Focusing based on Rogerian listening. In 1956, Rogers became the first president of the American Academy of Psychotherapists. He taught psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1957–63), during which time he wrote one of his best-known books, On Becoming

9272-454: The academic discourse about the nature of existence is whether existence is a property of individuals. An individual is a unique entity, like Socrates or a particular apple. A property is something that is attributed to an entity, like "being human" or "being red", and usually expresses a quality or feature of that entity. The two main theories of existence are first-order and second-order theories. First-order theories understand existence as

9394-483: The actual world. These discussions cover the topics of the basic stuff or constituents underlying all reality and the most general features of entities. There is a distinction between singular existence and general existence. Singular existence is the existence of individual entities. For example, the sentence " Angela Merkel exists" expresses the existence of one particular person. General existence pertains to general concepts, properties, or universals . For instance,

9516-688: The approach to education in Client-Centered Therapy and wrote Freedom to Learn devoted exclusively to the subject in 1969. Freedom to Learn was revised twice. The new Learner-Centered Model is similar in many regards to this classical person-centered approach to education. Before Rogers's death, he and Harold Lyon began a book, On Becoming an Effective Teacher—Person-centered Teaching, Psychology, Philosophy, and Dialogues with Carl R. Rogers and Harold Lyon , that Lyon and Reinhard Tausch completed and published in 2013. It contains Rogers's last unpublished writings on person-centered teaching. Rogers had

9638-404: The aspect of experience, which is perceived as I–It, and the aspect of relation, which is perceived as I–Thou. Buber uses an example of a tree and presents five separate relations: Through all of these relations, the tree is still an object that occupies time and space and still has the characteristics that make it what it is. If "Thou" is used in the context of an encounter with a human being,

9760-510: The behavioral model known as The Interpersonal Gap ), documenting the application of person-centered approach to counseling military personnel returning from World War II. The first empirical evidence of the client-centered approach's effectiveness was published in 1941 at the Ohio State University by Elias Porter , using the recordings of therapeutic sessions between Rogers and his clients. Porter used Rogers's transcripts to devise

9882-611: The courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life. (Rogers 1961) Rogers identified the " real self " as the aspect of a person that is founded in the actualizing tendency, follows organismic values and needs, and receives positive regard from others and self. On the other hand, to the extent that society is out of sync with the actualizing tendency and people are forced to live with conditions of worth that are out of step with organismic valuing, receiving only conditional positive regard and self-regard, Rogers said that people develop instead an "ideal self". By ideal , he

10004-535: The descriptions exists without referring to a nonexistent individual. Following this approach, the sentence "Ronald McDonald does not exist" expresses the idea: "it is not the case there is a unique happy hamburger clown". According to first-order theories, existence is a property of individuals. These theories are less-widely accepted than second-order theories but also have some influential proponents. There are two types of first-order theories: Meinongianism and universalism. Meinongianism, which describes existence as

10126-464: The difference affects both God's features and God's mode of existence. Another form of ontological pluralism distinguishes the existence of material objects from the existence of space-time . According to this view, material objects have relative existence because they exist in space-time; the existence of space-time itself is not relative in this sense because it just exists without existing within another space-time. The topic of degrees of existence

10248-438: The existence of merely possible objects. According to actualism , only actual entities have being; this includes both contingent and necessary entities but excludes merely possible entities. Possibilists reject this view and state there are also merely possible objects besides actual objects. For example, metaphysician David Lewis (1941–2001) states that possible objects exist in the same way as actual objects so as to provide

10370-417: The explanatory foundation of the cosmos. For instance, the philosophers Avicenna (980–1037) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) say that God has necessary existence. A few philosophers, like Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), see God and the world as the same thing , and say that all entities have necessary existence to provide a unified and rational explanation of everything. There are many academic debates about

10492-523: The field of psychology in particular. Figures in American history have been influenced by this work, including one of the founding fathers of modern humanistic psychology, Carl Rogers . In 1957, Rogers and Buber engaged in their famous Dialogue, where Buber's philosophy of "I and Thou" was discussed. Rogers compares his person-centered therapy and the necessary psychological contact to the I–Thou relationship; while Buber does not completely agree, pointing out that

10614-419: The following five hypotheses regarding learner-centered education: In 1970, Richard Young, Alton L. Becker , and Kenneth Pike published Rhetoric: Discovery and Change , a widely influential college writing textbook that used a Rogerian approach to communication to revise the traditional Aristotelian framework for rhetoric. The Rogerian method of argument involves each side restating the other's position to

10736-399: The foundation for a system of therapy. He initially called it "non-directive therapy" but later replaced the term "non-directive" with "client-centered", and still later "person-centered". Even before the publication of Client-Centered Therapy in 1951, Rogers believed the principles he was describing could be applied in a variety of contexts, not just in therapy. As a result, he started to use

10858-420: The greatest conceivable being. He reasoned that an entity that did not exist outside his mind would not be the greatest conceivable being, leading him to the conclusion God exists. Carl Rogers Carl Ransom Rogers (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987) was an American psychologist who was one of the founders of humanistic psychology and was known especially for his person-centered psychotherapy . Rogers

10980-646: The highest type of existence, and saw material objects as imperfect and impermanent copies of Platonic forms. Philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BCE) accepted Plato's idea that forms are different from matter, but he challenged the idea that forms have a higher type of existence. Instead, he believed forms cannot exist without matter. He stated: "being is said in many ways" and explored how different types of entities have different modes of existence. For example, he distinguished between substances and their accidents , and between potentiality and actuality . Neoplatonists like Plotinus (204–270 CE) suggested reality has

11102-412: The human being is not He, She, or bound by anything. You do not experience the human being; rather you can only relate to him or her in the sacredness of the I–Thou relation. The I–Thou relationship cannot be explained; it simply is. Nothing can intervene in the I–Thou relationship. I–Thou is not a means to some object or goal, but a definitive relationship involving the whole being of each subject. Like

11224-417: The idea that abstract objects have independent existence. Some realists say abstract objects have the same mode of existence as concrete objects; according to others, they exist in a different way. Anti-realists state that abstract objects do not exist, a view that is often combined with the idea that existence requires a location in space and time or the ability to causally interact. A further distinction

11346-445: The incongruent individual, who is always on the defensive and cannot be open to all experiences, is not functioning ideally and may even be malfunctioning. They work hard at maintaining and protecting their self-concept . Because their lives are not authentic, this is difficult, and they are under constant threat. They deploy defense mechanisms to achieve this. He describes two mechanisms: distortion and denial . Distortion occurs when

11468-434: The individual perceives a threat to their self-concept. They distort the perception until it fits their self-concept. This defensive behavior reduces the consciousness of the threat but not the threat itself. And so, as the threats mount, the work of protecting the self-concept becomes more difficult and the individual becomes more defensive and rigid in their self-structure. If the incongruity is immoderate this process may lead

11590-491: The individual to a state that would typically be described as neurotic. Their functioning becomes precarious and psychologically vulnerable. If the situation worsens it is possible that the defenses cease to function altogether and the individual becomes aware of the incongruity of their situation. Their personality becomes disorganised and bizarre; irrational behavior, associated with earlier denied aspects of self, may erupt uncontrollably. Rogers originally developed his theory as

11712-465: The melting of the between, so that the relationship with another "I" is foremost. Buber's two notions of "I" require attachment of the word "I" to a word partner. The splitting into the individual terms "I" and "it" and "thou" is only for the purposes of analysis. Despite the separation of "I" from the "It" and "Thou" in this very sentence describing the relationship, there is to Buber's mind either an I–Thou or an I–It relationship. Every sentence that

11834-399: The mental state, like when accurately perceiving a tree in the garden. In other cases, the intentional object does not have a real counterpart, like when thinking about Bigfoot . The problem of intentional inexistence is the challenge of explaining how one can think about entities that do not exist since this seems to have the paradoxical implication that the thinker stands in a relation to

11956-465: The more-fundamental term because it equally characterizes all entities and defines existence as a relative term that connects an entity to the world it inhabits. According to philosopher Gottlob Frege (1848–1925), actuality is narrower than existence because only actual entities can produce and undergo changes, in contrast to non-actual existing entities like numbers and sets . According to some philosophers, like Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), existence

12078-520: The most-fundamental level. Materialists usually explain mental entities in terms of physical processes; for example, as brain states or as patterns of neural activation. Idealism, a minority view in contemporary philosophy, rejects matter as ultimate and views the mind as the most basic reality. Dualists like René Descartes (1596–1650) believe both physical and mental entities exist on the most-fundamental level. They state they are connected to one another in several ways but that one cannot be reduced to

12200-428: The nature of existence. Thick concepts of existence encompass a metaphysical analysis of what it means that something exists and what essential features existence implies. According to one proposal, to exist is to be present in space and time, and to have effects on other things. This definition is controversial because it implies abstract objects such as numbers do not exist. Philosopher George Berkeley (1685–1753) gave

12322-425: The next night and he died a few days later after a heart attack. One of Rogers's most famous lines is: "Death is final, and accepting that is the most difficult thing to undertake. That loved one is not coming back and nothing can change that. Nothing compares to them. Life is precious and vulnerable, so be wise with how you choose to spend it, because once death arrives there is no turning back." Rogers's theory of

12444-565: The other. Fictional entities are entities that exist as inventions inside works of fiction . For example, Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character in Arthur Conan Doyle 's book A Study in Scarlet and flying carpets are fictional objects in the folktales One Thousand and One Nights . According to anti-realism, fictional entities do not form part of reality in any substantive sense. Possibilists, by contrast, see fictional entities as

12566-429: The properties ascribed to them. For instance, the sentence "Pegasus has wings" is true because having wings is a property of Pegasus, even though Pegasus lacks the property of existing. One key motivation of Meinongianism is to explain how negative singular existentials like "Ronald McDonald does not exist" can be true. Meinongians accept the idea that singular terms like "Ronald McDonald" refer to individuals. For them,

12688-405: The realm of the mind; they are primarily associated with conscious experiences but also include unconscious states like unconscious beliefs, desires, and memories. The mind–body problem concerns the ontological status of and relation between physical and mental entities and is a frequent topic in metaphysics and philosophy of mind . According to materialists , only physical entities exist on

12810-414: The root of existence. Anaximander (c. 610–545 BCE) opposed this position; he believed the source must lie in an abstract principle that is beyond the world of human perception. Plato (428/427–348/347 BCE) argued that different types of entities have different degrees of existence and that shadows and images exist in a weaker sense than regular material objects. He said unchangeable Platonic forms have

12932-443: The satisfaction of the other, among other principles. In a paper, it can be expressed by carefully acknowledging and understanding the opposition, rather than dismissing them. The application to cross-cultural relations has involved workshops in highly stressful situations and global locations, including conflicts and challenges in South Africa, Central America, and Ireland. Rogers, Alberto Zucconi, and Charles Devonshire co-founded

13054-429: The self is considered humanistic , existential , and phenomenological . It is based directly on the " phenomenal field " personality theory of Combs and Snygg (1949). Rogers's elaboration of his theory is extensive. He wrote 16 books and many more journal articles about it. Prochaska and Norcross (2003) states Rogers "consistently stood for an empirical evaluation of psychotherapy. He and his followers have demonstrated

13176-407: The sentence "politicians exist" states the general term "politician" has instances without referring to a particular politician. Singular and general existence are closely related to each other, and some philosophers have tried to explain one as a special case of the other. For example, according to Frege, general existence is more basic than singular existence. One argument in favor of this position

13298-478: The spatial and temporal location of the speaker. The problem of contingent and necessary existence is closely related to the ontological question of why there is anything at all or why is there something rather than nothing . According to one view, the existence of something is a contingent fact, meaning the world could have been totally empty. This is not possible if there are necessary entities, which could not have failed to exist. In this case, global nothingness

13420-412: The speaker "takes his stand in relation". What does it mean to experience the world? One goes around the world extracting knowledge from the world in experiences betokened by "He", "She", and "It". One also has I–Thou relationships. Experience is all physical, but these relationships involve a great deal of spirituality . The twofold nature of the world means that our being in the world has two aspects:

13542-497: The state of being real and to exist as having being or participating in reality . Existence sets real entities apart from imaginary ones, and can refer both to individual entities or to the totality of reality. The word "existence" entered the English language in the late 14th century from old French and has its roots in the medieval Latin term ex(s)istere , which means "to stand forth", "to appear", and "to arise". Existence

13664-402: The stranger to have any idea that he is being drawn into an "I–Thou" relationship for such a relationship to arise. But what is crucial to understand is the word pair "I–Thou" can refer to a relationship with a tree, the sky, or the park bench itself as much as it can refer to the relationship between two individuals. The essential character of "I–Thou" is the abandonment of the world of sensation,

13786-429: The term person-centered approach to describe his overall theory. Person-centered therapy is the application of the person-centered approach to therapy. Other applications include a theory of personality, interpersonal relations, education, nursing, cross-cultural relations and other "helping" professions and situations. In 1946 Rogers co-authored "Counseling with Returned Servicemen" with John L. Wallen (the creator of

13908-420: The therapist-client relationship is on somewhat unequal footing, they do concede that there are momentary, true connections made between therapist and client that are "reciprocal" and have a degree of "mutuality". Rogers expressed that in moments where clients undergo true change, there is a distinct connection and understanding between client and therapist, as in I–Thou relationships. Buber's work also influenced

14030-463: The widest domain of quantification includes both existing and nonexisting objects. Some aspects of Meinongianism are controversial and have received substantial criticism. According to one objection, one cannot distinguish between being an object and being an existing object. A closely related criticism states objects cannot have properties if they do not exist. A further objection is that Meinongianism leads to an "overpopulated universe" because there

14152-456: The work of Rank's disciple, noted clinician and social work educator Jessie Taft . In 1940 Rogers became professor of clinical psychology at the Ohio State University, where he wrote his second book, Counseling and Psychotherapy (1942). In it, Rogers suggests that by establishing a relationship with an understanding, accepting therapist, a client can resolve difficulties and gain the insight necessary to restructure their life. In 1945, Rogers

14274-407: The world as we experience it. By contrast, the word pair I–Thou describes the world of relations. This is the "I" that does not objectify any "It" but rather acknowledges a living relationship. I–Thou relationships are sustained in the spirit and mind of an "I" for however long the feeling or idea of relationship is the dominant mode of perception. A person sitting next to a complete stranger on

14396-459: Was a private event, and was an overwhelming positive experience where members heard one another and established real personal ties, as opposed to stiffly formal and regulated diplomatic meetings. Some scholars believe there is a politics implicit in Rogers's approach to psychotherapy. Toward the end of his life, Rogers came to that view himself. The central tenet of Rogerian, person-centered politics

14518-518: Was considered the most influential psychotherapist in history (Freud ranked third). Rogers was born on January 8, 1902, in Oak Park, Illinois , a suburb of Chicago . His father, Walter A. Rogers, was a civil engineer , a Congregationalist by denomination. His mother, Julia M. Cushing, was a homemaker and devout Baptist. Carl was the fourth of their six children. Rogers was intelligent and could read well before kindergarten. Following an education in

14640-597: Was invited to set up a counseling center at the University of Chicago. In 1947, he was elected president of the American Psychological Association. While a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago (1945–57), Rogers helped establish a counseling center connected with the university and there conducted studies to determine his methods' effectiveness. His findings and theories appeared in Client-Centered Therapy (1951) and Psychotherapy and Personality Change (1954). One of his graduate students at

14762-427: Was suggesting something not real, something always out of reach, a standard people cannot meet. This gap between the real self and the ideal self, the "I am" and the "I should", Rogers called incongruity . Rogers described the concepts of congruence and incongruence as important in his theory. In proposition #6, he refers to the actualizing tendency. At the same time, he recognized the need for positive regard . In

14884-469: Was to the rather rigid Freudian approach of the Institute—seventy-five-page case histories, and exhaustive batteries of tests before even thinking of "treating" a child—I was shocked by Dr. Adler's very direct and deceptively simple manner of immediately relating to the child and the parent. It took me some time to realize how much I had learned from him. In 1930, Rogers served as director of

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