The False Self From the Pedagogical Perspective

Abstract The article continues a broader theme of long-term action research aimed at reorienting education towards sustainability. The study uses a broader, more holistic research perspective, which takes into account the quality of the current relationship between nature and humanity, which is related to the formation of relations in the Anthropocene age and their consequences. The effects of the era put the pressure on the development of individuals’ self-processes, promoting unsustainability in education and other areas, and posing serious challenges to the use of the social communication and technology intensive environment. The case study is devoted to the examination of the phenomenon of the false self. For the study of the false self, we have used an acceptable approach to action research when it can be used as a research strategy and as a research method. Therefore, we have used the experience of the researchers and the special emphasis from the historical experience of the false self theory as a broader strategic structure for recognizing the phenomenon under study. We have used the structure of youth experience, where action research serves as a method to identify the life experience of young people. This way, the study attempts to combine the two application opportunities of the action research. These are two types of experience gained in different ways, with different structures and where it is possible to combine these structures by integrating or synthesizing them in a way that allows identifying the prospective development of these relationships, leading to a more natural path to more sustainable development. The case study is designed in such a way as to create a broader insight into the nature of the false self based on the research experience of the authors and their views on the choice of pedagogical solutions that can change the relationship between humanity and nature and improve the viability of both parties. A historically significant explanation of the phenomenological hermeneutic phenomenon of the false self is used, as well as an explanation of the respective method of immersing into the phenomenon proposed by Goethe. The issue of ontological succession is critical in the implementation of educational programs of the Anthropocene age, as the question of the ecological evolutionary basis of the human species is reduced. The current wicked problems of the Anthropocene age are based on the foundation that does not take into account the universal experience of humanity inherent in non-contextual and undifferentiated identities, the importance of which is sometimes underestimated by users of both critical and integral thinking theory. The discussion section and conclusions suggest using the life experience, restoring ontological succession and studying the non-conceptual perception in contemporary conditions. Proposals are made to seek approaches to transforming Anthropocene thinking and to reduce the problems of the age in education and social behavior in order to revive the issue of the choice and implementation of living approach models in the educational practice through the natural development of human abilities.