The information on this website comes out of the ongoing research by Dr Christoph Teschers and other members of the research group on the topic of the art of living in relation to education. The guiding question for Dr Teschers’ research since starting on this endeavor in 2009 has been: What can we do as educators to support (young) people to develop their own art of living and live the best life possible for them?
Much of the work presented here is based on Wilhelm Schmid’s philosophical concept of Lebenskunst (art of living). Schmid is a contemporary German philosopher who has thought and written extensively on the question of what it means to live a beautiful life (German: schönes Leben) and to develop an art of living. For Schmid it is important to emphasize that a beautiful life lies in the eyes of the beholder, in this case the person living this life. We cannot prescribe what it means to live a beautiful life as every person has their own set of views, norms, values, aspirations, interests and ideas of what gives them meaning and how such a life might look like. However, Schmid explains that we can explore the surrounding circumstances — the aspects and environments that support the development of people’s own art of living — that can lead them to pursue their own version of a beautiful life.
These circumstances, the societal and personal contexts, knowledge areas, skills and faculties that support people to develop their own art of living is the starting point for the research presented on this website. Dr Teschers and colleagues are exploring how the notion of the art of living can inform education and what education (in the widest sense) can do to support people’s develop of an art of living earlier rather than later in life.