For my project I chose the coastal area incorporating North Shields, Tynemouth , Whitley Bay and Wallsend. In each area I analysed the changes in society and industry that occurred since the industrial revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century. In my investigation many recurring narratives arose such as the effects of the industrial revolution and its decline and the rise of “Drinking Culture”. Both highlighted the evolution of the technology and the postmodern change in personal relationships and social structures. The coastal region has undergone major changes throughout history. During the 19th and early 20th century the industrial revolution heralded a boom period in the North East. Its mines and yards produced the ships and coal that powered the British empire. However the fall of the British empire ended the North East’s industrial prosperity. In my project I will look at how this has affected the people of the North East focusing on the work of Marx and Hegel who introduced the notion of evolution into history. I will also use more contemporary writers such as David Harvey to fully comprehend the changes that have occurred, such as the fragmentation of our culture and the class system within society. I will also be looking at the effects of modernity and postmodernity on the architectural makeup of the coast line.
Month: January 2006
Objectives + My objective for this project is to look at the role that religion plays in our society and examine its positive and negative aspects. + I am going to concentrate on the effect that Christianity in particular has on the West, especially in politics. + I will look at religion with regards to social policy, including controversial issues such as: * Abortion *Contraception *American aid to developing countries ridden by HIV. + I am going to use as a basis for my enquiry the ideas of Bertrand Russell, arguably the 20th century’s greatest philosopher and a prominent social critic who is famous for his atheism and views on religion + I aim to critically examine his arguments in the light of other disciplines including sociology, psychology and anthropology to see if his ideas are reinforced by other leading thinkers. + I am then going to apply his ideas to the contemporary world to examine if they are still valid 50 or so years on and to finally conclude whether I believe religion in the form it takes today is overall a positive or negative social force.
● It has become apparent that a huge increase in those taking part in extreme sports has occurred over the last 40 years. There are currently, across the globe, 168 million participants in activities such as sky-diving, SCUBA diving and snowboarding. It is my contention that this growth is due to more than greater accessibility to facilities for such sports. ● Jean-François Lyotard: maintenance of the death of grand-narratives meaning that we lose our ability to create an identity for ourselves. New methods for self validation must be found in the postmodern society. Text: The Postmodern Condition [2005] ● Friedrich Nietzsche: we must go above and beyond ourselves if we are to escape this mentality. We must adhere to masterly behavior and act as we please. Text: Beyond Good and Evil [1998] ● GWF Hegel: only in pushing to the limits of death do we experience freedom. In risking life we affirm life. Text: The Phenomenology of Spirit [1977] ● By looking at the possible relationships between extreme sports and the three philosophers cited above it should become apparent that whilst the postmodern society encourages individuals to seek new methods of self-identification, of which extreme sports is one, partakers in extreme sports maintain a Hegelian notion of death, in seeking it to affirm life, whilst not going beyond it as Nietzsche would request. In this respect, extreme sports offer a positive method of self-validation in the postmodern climate which pushes but does not exceed boundaries.
AIM: Explore the complexity that arises with respect to our understanding of the word mother(hood) in non-genetic gestational (full) surrogacy. METHODOLOGY: • Consider the recent achievements of reproductive biology • Analysis of the word mother(hood) and what is “natural” mother(hood) • Consider the influence of the gestational mother (being-in-the-womb + genotype-phenotype distinction) • Consider the “supplementarity” of the gestational mother. CONCLUSION: Both genetic mother and gestational mother are of equal importance for the child’s existence. KEY CONCEPTS: • Being-in-the-world • Thrownness • Genotype-Phenotype distinction • Supplement
How has art changed since the era of modernity (late 19th century to 1970s)? What evidence is there for these changes in the work of artists like Antony Gormley and Damien Hirst? What is it about contemporary art that makes it ‘postmodern’? Is the postmodern era really a complete break from modernity, or just another state of it? Modern art: broke away from traditional methods and began to experiment. No longer having to paint of draw objects exactly as they appear. More emotion through art. Postmodern art: celebrates and demonstrates chaos of modern life; even more inventive; anything goes; no distinction between higher and lower art; uses features from the past (eg Grayson Perry’s vases). De Duve: nowadays the important question in art is ‘What can be considered art?’. Baudrillard: fashion is what motivates change in art; we want things to be more shocking. Lyotard: importance of profit making when deciding the ‘value’ of a piece of art; idea of ‘the sublime’ coming back into importance in contemporary art. Postmodernity just another state of modernity? From modernity to postmodernity: materials used; methods of presentation; relationship between artist and viewer; media influence; ‘anything goes’; competitive element; purpose/message; historic narratives; concern with current events.
The aim of this project is to define such concepts as “art” and “the avant- garde”. Having outlined the rise of Liberalism and explained its position as having influenced the beginnings of avant- garde, I will look at key avant- garde movements, namely Abstract Expressionism, Dada and the Situationists, linking society in each time period to the reasons behind each movement, as well as the concepts and issues raised by key artists and philosophers. I will explain the meaning of “the avant- garde” in each case, as well as the impact each had on it’s culture. I will then investigate modern avant- garde art, including some of the new media used. I will briefly consider the controversial concept of the death of the avant- garde, issues raised by modern artists and whether the shock factor of art has gone. I will conclude by looking at what can actually be considered “art”, as all the movements studied have had doubts and criticisms thrust upon them due to supposed lack of context, meaning or skill. Key artists and philosophers I will be looking at include Immanuel Kant, Jean- Francois Lyotard, Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell among others. As well as visiting art galleries and travelling exhibitions, I have been volunteering at the Hatton Art Gallery in Newcastle, which is an excellent source for information, including public opinions on various different exhibitions.
CHANGE Photography as the creation of a new language and form of representation and documentation. The change in the relationship between individuals and their immediate world as a result of the globalisation of communications and the media. The rise of iconography and the celebrity and the duality of image versus reality which this entails. Photographic images start off their existence as a means of mediation between the external world and human beings. They are meant to aid our comprehension of the world in some way; however, there is a danger that instead of representing the reality of the world, they can obscure it. Like all images, they are encoded with a cultural significance which it is easy to overlook. Photographs, especially those featured in the media and in advertising, represent not the world itself, but merely an eidolon – an idealised, and therefore fictional image of the world. A division between reality and unreality is therefore created when, neglecting to decode these images, we project them back into society: it is at this point of reflection that we allow the fiction contained within the images to become a reality. In this project I will be looking at the implications of the ‘fiction versus reality’ dualism which photography brings about. I will begin by looking at the political and cultural uses of photography by four key public figures (Queen Victoria, Adolf Hitler, J F Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe) in order to track the evolution of photography and its integration into society. I will be looking at the works of Vilem Flusser, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard and E H Gombrich to look at photography itself, and then at the works of J G Ballard, Guy Debord and Alison Jackson in order to explore the deeper, psychological implications of photography and the ‘image’ within society.
Aims: I aim to find in this project the changes in our beliefs on freedom over the past 50 years. I will do this by examining a number of different areas; Politics, sociology and philosophy. I will investigate how far we are free and how far we, as individuals, are able to have an input in global decisions. I will also use Aldous Huxley’s masterpiece Brave New World. With this I will compare the negative utopia Huxley created with our world today. How far are we conditioned with the use of television and mass media and can you compare these two modern creations with Huxley’s invented Soma? In terms of politics, this is the domain where are where are freedoms are formed. Politics sets forth the rules that both protect us and inhibit us. However how far has and can our voice been heard? How far can we influence governments? With one million people protesting in London alone over the war in Iraq, the British government still sent troops to a war which was both illegal and unethical. On a sociological level I will be examining freedom in terms of racism and minority groups. Have minority groups gained equal footing a predominantly white western world? With the philosophy world I will use Derrida and most of all Michel Foucault. He aimed to show that we are in actual fact freer that we actually think. He confronts all types of political thought. He aimed to find links between global politics and the individual. Sources: As I have said the major philosopher I will use in Michel Foucault and his works Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexulaity. I will also look at philosophers such as Nietzsche and Derrida. The major piece of literature I will use is Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Which will supply both an early twentieth century view on freedom and a piece with which I can compare our world today.
Central Questions: ▫ How and why do we want to capture our memories in media such as photographs, film and literature? ▫ What can we learn from this need to preserve our experiences? In particular this will relate to Robert Antelme’s The Human Race. ▫ How does our need to preserve memory relate to our struggle with the other? Exploration of the Territory and Central Concepts: ▫ Look at current ways of memory capture such as web archiving, and see how these relate to a need to capture experience as comprehensively as possible. ▫ Look closely at The Human Race and more generally at the ways in which we strive to preserve the memory of the holocaust. I also intend to separate individual and collective memory. ▫ Look at Heidegger’s work on the other in Being and Time. ▫ Look at Derrida’s notion of the other in relation to identity. I want to link identity to memory and see how we assert our individual and group identities through memory capture.
Aims and Objectives ▪ To begin by establishing the Modern and Postmodern styles and characteristics of Architecture and more importantly, how and why they came about. ▪ To Show how Ouseburn Valley has been affected by the changing styles of Architecture. ▪ To illustrate how and why society’s view of the world has changed with the regeneration of Ouseburn Valley. Intentions. I will progress to evaluate the effects of this change by considering the following questions: ▪ Material change results in special change. Thus, how do our interpretations of space and time alter with the shift from modernism to postmodernism? ▪ Furthermore, how does this affect the way we act with respect to the world? ▪ How does our view of knowledge and reality change as a consequence of Postmodernism? Sources. The key source for my investigation will be David Harvey’s Condition of Postmodernity. In addition to this, I will refer to: Fredric Jameson – Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism. Perry Anderson – The Origins of Postmodernity. Jean-Francois Lyotard – The postmodern condition.
Introduction. The Rhizome and the arborescent model. The powerful tree trunk, here representing a hierarchy of opinion against the horizontal, discontinuous and free flight of the rhizome. The trunk is filiation. The rhizome on the other hand represents multiplicities. It has no beginning or end, just a middle (a milieu). It is a subterranean shoot, it spreads horizontally, and at certain junctures plateaus arise. A rhizome is about connectivity. It does not run opposed to the arborescent (or state) but it is a line of escape/flight, a different way. No one language in a rhizome, multiplicity. Arborescent might seek a universal language. Nomad thought verses state space. The overall aim is to investigate the music press and the changes that have occurred due to advances in communication and technology and to look at the potential future of the music press plus industry and the implication for the consumer, artist and the record labels. Plateaus. What are the new plateaus that have arisen due to advances in technology and communication? New web sites, the advent of file sharing. The consumer ideally jumps from one to another (metacritic.com) and makes informed decisions on what to listen to or buy. The eventuality of the rhizome might be becoming ‘a self facilitating media node,’ (Nathan Barley, Channel 4). What about those who can’t reach these plateaus? Is the arborescent structure still in existence? The event. ‘The best of all worlds is not the one that reproduces the eternal, but the one in which new creations are produced, the one endowed with a capacity for innovation or creativity: a teleological conversion of philosophy,’ (p79, The Fold, Deleuze). Deleuze’s theory of the event and the growing sense that music is becoming more about the event. The live sphere is the only one that doesn’t represent an absence. Can the press ever influence us more than the first hand experience? Examples, Polyphonic Spree, Arctic Monkeys. War Machines. The war machine is a kind of movement which is separate to the state, and it causes concern to, or somehow disturbs the sedentary cultures within the state. For the purpose of this discussion the arborescent root within the music industry could be equated with the state. Independent labels and bands as war machines. They try to mix the state apparatus up. Runs away from as well as struggle against the state. Eventually become recoded by capital, example Creation records. Reterritorialization and deterritorialization, capitalism and the attempt by the state to limit desires. Do the new plateaus mean a creation of desires. Hell is For Heroes and Captains of industry case studies Interview with an independent label and band. The band have been signed to a major, and independent, and a have released an album on their own label. Captains of Industry is run as a collective, skills which can be used are used. There is no management structure and yet they have been relatively successful. How much can a small label and a rock band do? The culmination of war machines to strangle the arborescent root. Bands that have been directly affected by the changes in technology- Arctic Monkeys, Wilco etc. Are there pitfalls to file sharing? Conclusion. Is the music mainstream music press losing its influence? How much did it have in the first place? Is there a cycle going on- the arborescent, the struggle to topple it then the creation of another? If we are bored of trees, why do we keep planting them?
Object, Place, Event. The Internet and the World Wide Web of Interactive Global Networking. A Mechanism of Change. A new medium is claiming to absorb almost all older forms of media and literature which is very different from previous mediums. The Internet is a super integrative medium which moves one step further and claims to leave behind the physical ground of older media, transforming these into non-corporeal electronic data that can be stored and accessed beyond the constraints of space, thus making time the decisive criterion by which we should judge the new media age and the future of language and literature. This current media change is negating not only the physical nature of prose, but the individual as we know him or her, be it the author or the political individual rooted in a local community. This claims to change the self into a non corporeal being and thus can be considered in many ways to end 2,500 years of Western Metaphysics. The interactive global is not primarily a storage device, but rather a communication tool that attempts to build a free intellectual and emotional virtual community. In order to participate in this virtual community, one is forced to necessarily negate the physical conditions of human existence and to invent a virtual personality with an easily changeable identity. The Negation of the ‘Natural’. Has the internet destroyed the singular work of literature, of art, in such a way as to engender not only a loss of its aura or its affect, but its former context as transposed by the bourgeoisie to a secular ritual of the work of literature or art?
Can one consider the ethical viewpoint of both sides of terrorism? If terrorists believe their actions cause the greater overall good, would J.S. Mill condone them? Can the media be held responsible for the growth in terrorism? The growth in the media is consistent with the growth of terrorism, is this significant? The intention of terrorists is to reach a wide audience, does the media aid them in achieving their ends? What implications would censoring the media cause for us? Could it be considered to limit our freedom?
Roy Keane is one of the greatest players of his generation and one of the most controversial. This essay aims to come to a conclusion as to whether Roy Keane is an Egoist or an Existentialist. Aims and objectives: To critically assess the philosophical ideas of Egoism and Existentialism; To relate these philosophical ideas to football and Roy Keane’s actions and what he has said; To look at the evidence put forward and come to a conclusion as to whether Roy Keane is an egoist or an existentialist
Territory • I wished to look at those with autistic spectrum disorders and the treatment methods that are used to attempt to improve, or even cure, this condition. Philosophical Concepts • I looked at Sartre’s and Descartes theories on freedom in order to make a comparison between the two. Key texts used were ‘Nausea’ by Sartre and ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’ by Rene Descartes. • Also given consideration was Kant’s ‘Categorical Imperative’ taken from his work ‘Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Morals.’ This was a deontological ethical theory, concentrating on the act itself, not the consequences. • Kant’s theory was compared with a teleological theory. I looked at Mill’s Utilitarianism to show the contrast between looking at the consequences of the act, as opposed to the act itself. Aims and Objectives. • To reach a conclusion on how much freedom those with Autism need/should be given. • To discuss whether those who care for them have the right to make decisions on their behalf, and if so is this compromising their freedom • Look at whether it is the act itself or the consequences of the act that is important in making an ethical decision. • Decide whether we should follow Kant’s older ethical theory or Mill’s modernised version of Utilitarianism.
Territory: All Saints Church, Hannington; a small country church, in the village of Hannington in Hampshire. Situated in the centre of the village, it is both physically, and spiritually the core of the village. As well as Sunday Worship the church is used for Women’s Institute meetings and play groups and holds lots of village history, for example the millennium tapestry, and engraved windows of Rose Hodgson and William Whistler. Major Concepts: The main aim of my project is to prove that the loss of strict dogma in society from a universal law or code of practice is problematic, as it has caused the decline in morality that we witness in society today. * My main focus is on the Ten Commandments from Exodus Chapter 20. It is evident that numbers 5-10 are still important in society to both believers and non-believers. Whilst before the importance lay upon the Christian doctrine, now society enforces Laws. * There is a difference now in which crimes are punishable, as the rise in science has made all things measurable. We can empirically verify if for example a rape has happened through DNA testing, whereas in the past it was one person’s word against another’s. This dependence on scientific fact extracts from the importance of faith and resembles a reason for the decline in religious belief: people do not believe what they cannot see, and therefore do not trust in a metaphysical God. Philosophers: My main focus will be upon Kant, using his Moral Law and Categorical Imperative which states, “Act only on a maxim, which has the possibility of becoming a universal law”. Whilst Kant only infers that God ought to be true rather than is true, a good Kantian is a good Christian as he infers that one must be moral to everyone at all times. * I will also study Foucault, particularly relating to his ideas on madness in Madness and Civilisation, in which he asserts to us that the rise in science has amounted to a change in society, for people who were considered mad were let out of the mental institutions in the 1980’s as they passed a scientific test. Clearly here, society is being measured, in the same way that proof in the law is measured, meaning one’s relation to oneself is measured and laws are no longer a priori moral truths. I hope to prove that whilst in a dogmatic society individuals strive to be unique, in the free society we live in, citizens strive to be like everyone else but also place themselves way above everyone else, causing a lack of community feel and a rise in immoral behaviour.
What will be discussed is the elements of form and dissolution, the discrepancies between meaning and manner, between profits of decay and the state of man. However perhaps the most interesting aspect is that of the correlation between Venice’s decline and Ashenbach struggle. This conflict is the same as we see today between the destruction and confusion that Modernism has erupted. Our Postmodern society is frayed with ambiguity and fragmentation. The decline of our own morality and our own purpose is still concurrent with that of our city. The search for truth has become a notion tainted by its own paradoxical character. The question is where does man go from here? Or is it merely that like Ashenbach, we remain struggling within ourselves. Works cited will comprise the question of Lyotard’s Postmodern theory attributed to Nietzsche and the question of Nihilism. As well as Structuralism and Deconstructionalist activity with reference to Derrida Barthes and Foucault.
Title: The advancement of genetic therapy and the philosophical implications Aims: The main aim of this project is to look at gene therapy and the advancements it has made over the last 20 years, since the discovery of DNA. I will consider the ethical implications which may occur should genetic therapy become legal. Also, I will consider how changing ones DNA structure to overcome disease may conflict with the views of predetermination. Concepts: Primarily I will look at the concept of gene therapy. The use of gene therapy has huge philosophical implications. I will use the philosophical concepts of ‘fate’ and ‘free-will’ looking particularly at early Christian philosophy including St. Augustine and Calvin. Also I will look at ethics, including ‘Utilitarianism’ along with looking in particular at the philosophies of Kant, Mill and Hobbes. Sources: For this project I will use a wide variety of sources, within a number of different areas. Some of the main sources which I will use include Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy, St.Augustine’s The City of God, and Gordon Graham’s Genes: A philosophical inquiry. I will also look at the works of Kant, Mill, Hobbes, Calvin and I will also use a number of scientific journals.
Territory: Africa has always been a focal point when discussing Third World Poverty as this vast continent contains the 24 lowest ranking nations out of the world’s 175 poorest countries. In the Western World we are frequently reminded of the poverty and suffering taking place in Africa through images in the media and events such as ‘Make Poverty History’, ‘Live 8’, and the most recent G8 summit which took place in the UK in 2005. In my project I will be exploring Africa and how it has changed over the past one hundred and fifty years; from pre-colonial times to the ‘Scramble for Africa’, through its struggle to regain independence and up to the current time. In considering how Africa has changed, or has been changed, over the last two centuries, it will also be necessary to give an account of the factors acting upon it such as Europeans as the main founders of the African colonies and the British and American governments in their political policies towards African poverty. Aims: I will look at Africa in a historical and political context and it’s relationships with Europe and America in order to determine whether or not we, in the Western World, can be held responsible for the extensive poverty in our world’s second largest continent. In addition to this, I will be assessing to what extent people actually care about those suffering in the Third World or if their way of life is so removed from our own that we view the situation as more fiction than fact. Finally, I will try to establish if the Western World has a social and moral obligation to try and ameliorate the situation and by what means. Concepts and Philosophy: In order to answer the questions set out in my aims, I will be paying particular reference to Peter Singer’s Practical Ethics and John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice. This will be in conjunction with the exploration of concepts such as; responsibility (individualistic and communitarian), moral obligation, justice and equality.
Territory. I used the corporate world as my territory and looked at it through the role and nature of the individual within this world. Areas of Investigation • I explored the relationship between the corporate world and the individual by looking at the evolution of the corporate structure and its rise to prominence within society. • I also investigated the ethics involved within a corporate structure and the relationships between individuals in this environment. • I looked at the relationship between the individual and the idea of power relations within society. • I also explored what the future of the corporate world could be and the role of the individual within this, with an emphasis on the rise of the postmodern and its impact on this world. Philosophical Ideas. I use the philosophical ideas on the nature of power and the individual from Foucault, and the rise of the corporation as an institution to replace the factory from Deleuze’s thought. When I explore the ethics within a corporate structure I look at the work of Robert Solomon and Robert Jackall on management ethics and their theory on ‘embededness’. In the relation to the future of the corporate world I have looked at the postmodern thought of Gianni Vattimo and Jean-Francois Lyotard to consider the idea that the over-arching structure of the universal narrative is disintegrating to be replaced by a multitude of individual voices. Conclusions. Throughout my project I seek to explore the relationship between the individual and the corporate world and to explain how this has changed as different aspects of the world have developed and the way in which we are propelled towards the postmodern individual