How is nature represented and how is this important to our attitudes towards it? My project aims to explore this question in the hope that one reading it will be able to assess each representation and its implications and in turn assess the way nature is represented today. It is clear that attitudes have a long way to go even in our current climate but why and how are they to change? This project will look at different representations to assess this. From the Romantics with Kant and Coleridge’s notion of nature as the sublime, to the postmodern viewpoint of Heidegger and his theory of technology, to the current attitude we find ourselves today with contemporary philosophers such as Michele Serres. Hopefully attitudes will change to ensure a secure future for nature and this project aims to assess what this attitude may be.
Author: Glen
David Mancuso, born October 1944, threw the first Loft party “Love Saves the Day” on Valentine’s Day 1970. It practically established what we now know as DJ / club culture through its reinvention of dance culture. My project aims to apply elements of the conceptual machinery developed by Deleuze and Guattari, in their collaborative project of ‘Capitalism and Schizophrenia’, to the history of The Loft and to dance / club culture in general. The possibilities within Capitalism (but also the limitations) outlined by Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy will be explored within this context. The main areas of investigation are the political status, in Deleuze and Guattari’s schemata, of The Loft (its visitors and David Mancuso included) and the actual individual experience of nightclubbing and dancing, as it might be understood in terms of the model of thought which they develop. The compatibility of David Mancuso’s intentions (“Love is the message”) with this theory will also be explored.
TERRITORY: The exploitation of animals in genetic engineering. CHANGES: * Advancements in technology and therefore genetic engineering. * Attitudes towards illness and genetic defects. Potential changes: * Media hysteria towards genetic engineering. * The world as we currently know it to be. CONCEPTS: Ethical theorists – Peter Singer and Donna Haraway. Plus briefly also including; eugenics and the teachings of; Green-Peace, Catholicism, Judaism and Buddhism. Throughout my project I analyse the different forms of justifications offered for exploiting animals including; 1. Efficiency and practicalities. 2. Gaining knowledge and understanding. 3. Improving the environment. 4. Improving the human race. 5. Medical advancements. I offer examples for each of these justifications taken from Channel Four’s three-part documentary ‘Animal Farm’ broadcast on 19/3/07, 26/3/07 and 2/4/07. These justifications are juxtaposed with the work of Singer and Haraway, I also offer brief assessments of genetic engineering by; the philosophy of Eugenics, Green-Peace, Catholicism, Judaism and Buddhism in order to assess whether or not the exploitation of animals in genetic engineering can be justified.
The book about the time James Frey spent in a rehab clinic found its way onto the New York Times bestseller list after Oprah Winfrey added it to her “World’s Most Powerful book club.” Starting up with concepts such as freewill and determinism and the authenticity of autobiographies I began to look at what part the self plays in writing such works. Looking at Rousseau’s Confessions amongst other things it was obvious that a shift had occurred in terms of human responsibility coinciding with the greater importance placed upon the individual through the centuries. Starting with the different approaches of Rousseau and Frey I began to contrast the concept of Freewill in terms of Addiction. Modern thought would be to class addiction as a chronic illness where both the involuntary cravings and the voluntary use (of given substance) are CAUSED. However, “The recognition that addiction is a brain disease does not mean that the addict is simply a hapless victim” Whilst also taking into account the contemporary philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, I looked at to what extent the addict can be held responsible for his actions. The extreme philosophy of Sartre and to an extent Frey leaves the responsibility solely on the shoulders of the individual, whereas modern thought including genetic work claims a strong link to Determinism.
The main focus for this project will be on the work of Michel Foucault (see photo), looking at sexuality in terms of the discourse and power structures which have created and moulded it. Ultimately, I wish to use sexuality as an example of discourse which permeates our deepest pleasures and desires. These desires in turn are what create our identities and govern our relationship with the world. There is therefore a need to differentiate between animal (or biological) desire and social (or discursive) desire, the former being the framework within which the latter exists. Foucault’s work stresses the importance of our awareness of discourse and the violence through which it is enforced and subsequently the need to live with a critical attitude which he calls ‘the art of not being governed.’ Bibliography: Michel Foucault – The History of Sexuality: 1, Didier Eribon – Insult; the Making of the Gay Self, Georges Bataille – Story of the Eye, Deleuze and Guattari – Anti-Oedipus, Destricted (DVD)
Insomnia/Society of the Spectacle. The narrator suffers from insomnia, he describes this feeling as being ‘never really asleep and never really awake…everything is a copy of a copy of a copy.‘ This, Guy Debord says, is caused by a veil that has emerged between us and society, where nothing is real. We have moved from Being into Having. What we ARE is no longer important; what we HAVE is. The expanse of mass corporations has created a society controlled and driven by consumerism. People have forgotten their aims and goals and have become obsessed with material possessions. Masculinity has hit a crisis point as the dynamics of society life have changed, namely by the increasingly common absence of the father figure. These men are in search of validation as men, something which they will not find in the consumerist society. Men have become servants to large corporations and through fighting each other they are able to feel something real, and therefore are able to catch a glimpse of the reality they seek. This has caused identity to be something elusive and missing, due to the subduing effect of consumerism. Nietzsche’s Herd/Nihilists/Free Spirits analogy. Modern society has become what Nietzsche would describe as the Herd, a majority of people who are preoccupied with their own ‘game’ and the never-ending pursuit of owning better objects. The narrator undergoes a journey from Herd to Nihilist when he splits his personality, to Free Spirit when he kills Tyler in the final scene of the film.
Modern art is generally understood to be any art created between the late 19th century and the 1970s. Following the emergence of photography, art was no longer needed as direct representation so artists turned to abstraction and experimentation. Modern art is a blanket term for all artistic movements in this period, as well as the avant-garde. Postmodern art is generally believed to be in some way opposed to an aspect of modern art, experimenting with genres, cultures and mediums not previously considered. It is art following modern art, and some areas of contemporary art. It accepts past styles and traditions, unlike modern art, as well as embracing new media. Lyotard did not distinguish modern art and postmodern art in the traditional way described above, he believed that postmodern art was always at work within modern art; it is the avant-garde in all its forms, it is whatever is new and progressive about modern art, forcing it into new territory. He therefore said that something must be postmodern (new and disruptive) before it can become modern (acceptable). Although the postmodern eventually becomes the modern, it never entirely loses its ability to shock and disturb. He believed that modern art showed us that the unpresentable exists, while postmodern art attempted to present it. This paradoxical task leaves in the viewer a mixture of pleasure and pain, known as Kantian sublime. Lyotard thought the ultimate task of art to be presenting the unpresentable, which is fulfilled by the avant-garde, in which matters of taste and public opinion simply aren’t important. The sublime is the feeling when the imagination is pushed to the limit, causing pain as the individual is faced with something beyond them, which they have no control over and are faced with their true position in the world. Pleasure follows this as our reason reasserts itself and we become aware of the superiority of human reason over perception. The mathematical sublime is when we are confronted with an object unbelievably large, so we cannot see and comprehend it as a whole. The dynamical sublime refers to our confrontation with something far more powerful than us, in which case we are aware of our own mortality and insignificance. Having looked at Lyotard’s postmodernism and postmodern art in detail, with both Lyotard’s examples and my own, I will conclude with a brief examination of the works of Anderson and Jameson, as they provide arguments both for and against Lyotard’s work, taking their own examples to illustrate points made.
Territory: The Collapse of the Soviet Union. Theorists: Kant, Hegel and Fukuyama. Philosophical Concepts: Universal History, End of History and Progress. Within this project I have discussed the idea that the collapse of the Soviet Union has brought an end to history. This was the theory put forward by Francis Fukuyama in his 1989 Article ‘The End of History.’ This idea is rooted in the idea of a universal history, it does not suggest that there is an end of events, it suggests that the development or evolution of society has reached its final phase with the Capitalist Liberal Democracy. Fukuyama relies on Hegel for much of his inspiration, the evolution of society follows Hegelian Dialectics, essentially a thesis being overturned by an antithesis, then a synthesised thesis is produced until another antithesis is created. For Kant history is bounded in morality, progressing from a state of nature towards a universal cosmopolitan state. Kant believes that man’s asocial sociability forces the individual to develop towards civilised society, ultimately allowing freedom under external laws within a republican constitution. I have looked at this idea of Kantian Progress in relation to Gorbachev’s restructuring (Perestroika) of the Soviet Union. Progress can also be seen looking at the development of political systems, towards a system which values the autonomous individual, and believes in representative rule of the people.
CONCEPT: We live in uncertain and chaotic times. As globalisation propels us forward, it is undoubtedly provoking a unique identity crisis, at the level of both the individual and the society. The vast displacements of persons during the twentieth century has demographically revolutionised the Western nation-state; multiculturalism and diversity have already been engrained into the social fabric. Concurrently, technology is creating the framework for a new culture, firmly rooted in aesthetic ideals, quickly dismantling traditional borders while subtly performing an institutionalisation of the individual. Marcuse’s “One-Dimensional Man” has come about. METHOD: The project aims to investigate such factors as the erosion of the nation-state, the “deterritorialization of culture” and the technologies of alienation in order to demonstrate how an extreme individualism, bred in Nietzsche’s shadow, is engulfing our society into new degrees of superficiality. MAIN TEXTS: Various works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Culture and Imperialism, by Edward Said, Civilisation and its Discontents, by Sigmund Freud, Culture, Globalisation and the World-System, edited by Anthony King, and One-Dimensional Man, by Herbert Marcuse.
To explore noise and its theoretical underpinnings. Drawing on the work of Deleuze and Guattari, I wish to argue that noise appears as a perpetual deterritorialization of music. Over the course of the twentieth century there arose an increased difficulty to distinguish music from its counterparts of silence and noise. It was not until Luigi Russolo’s 1913 essay The Art of Noises that noise was encouraged to be used in musical composition, consequently liberating musicians from the antiquity of harmony and rhythm which dominated musical discourse for centuries. Noise today can be found permeating numerous musical acts. However, my intention was to examine those artists whom present noise with no melodic retrieval, who remain with noise as noise. My main referral was the work and philosophies of Masami Akita (Merzbow) a quintessential figure within noise music. Attali suggested that music, the codification of noise and silence “prefigures new social relations.” Likewise, I wanted to examine noise as a possible marker of temporal and cultural difference. Territories and Change: Drawing on the work of Deleuze and Guattari, I argued that noise is a perpetual deterritorialization of music. Capitalism brings with it both restrictions but also the possibility to escape such restrictions. Just as the human is encouraged to live creatively within capitalism, noise artists likewise attempt to exist creatively within music, challenging conceptions of how music is to be defined and created. That is, noise artists such as Merzbow trace lines of flight in an attempt to resist stratification. In this sense I also examined noise as an example of a smooth space and a rhizome. Noise however cannot escape musical strata entirely; rather it remains within music, forever on its periphery challenging what it is we define as music. It thus seems that the ethos or idiom of noise is dependent upon musical strata. Noise therefore must remain within music as extra-idiomatic, that is, a sense from within music that it is uncontainable. In examining noise as a perpetual deterritorialization of music, I was examining a change in musical conceptions as they have been hitherto and as they may come in the wake of the possibilities opened up by noise.
Lenny Bruce was a controversial American comedian in the 1960’s. He spoke about sex, religion and what it is to be obscene. It was not just the content of Lenny’s act that was thought to be obscene it was also the language he used. As a result of this he was charged with obscenity. This project looks at Lenny’s work and whether he was obscene or whether he was a moral philosopher. He claimed that had the court allowed him to see his work in context and allowed him to perform his act as evidence they would not find him obscene. His act was instead read out by a policeman or written down and used as evidence. However is there a distinction between speech and writing? Is context singular? Is what is obscene a fact or just an interpretation? Looking at the change in views on the binary opposition of speech and writing from Plato to Derrida this project will discuss whether had Lenny been allowed to perform his act in court would the decision of the court been different.
In August of 2006 I noticed a Headline on a copy of The Sun newspaper, the most popular newspaper in the United Kingdom. Accompanying a full page picture of the celebrated reality television star Jade Goody, the headline read: “THE FACE OF EVIL” This headline inspired me to focus my second year project on celebrity culture. Specifically I am interested in this modern phenomena present within our culture of individuals gaining celebrity seemingly for merely the fact that they are available to us to observe on a mass scale, at peak times, the ratings for the T.V. show on which Jade Goody found her fame, Big Brother reached to over seven million. Following the notorious incident of alleged racial abuse committed by Jade onto another contestant, our chancellor of the exchequer and soon to be Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a public apology in concerns to the incident. This led me to ask several questions. Is Jade Goody seen as a public representative of British culture and standards? For what reason specifically do we ‘celebrate’ people who have gained fame in this manner? On what basis could we reasonably suggest that jade is evil personified? My suspicion is that this culture is an element of a grand illusion, a mere spectacle. Exploring this subject I have drawn on the writings of the situationist Guy Debord, and various publications concerning modern mythology.
Outline: The project will analyse extensively the philosophical theory of French philosopher, Michel Foucault and will demonstrate how his theories can be applied to performance in sport. Aim: To argue that philosophy, and in particular that of Michel Foucault, plays a significant role in performance in sport. Method: The following aspects of both Michel Foucault’s philosophy and the role they play within sport will be used to support my argument: – Discipline: Disciplinary power is spawned from and spawns in turn a whole series of techniques and knowledges of the body. Discipline, both of the self and with respect to hierarchy, is crucial in sport – Knowledge: Elements formed in a regular manner by discursive practice and which are indispensable to the constitution of a science can be called ‘knowledge’; vital in the world of sport – Power: Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society. Like discipline, respect must be paid to this concept for success to be achieved – The Self: Interaction between the self and others, the technologies of individual domination and technologies of the self. Understanding the self and other individuals will heighten performance in sport – Discourse: Essentially referring to statements, the rules by which they are governed and their subsequent circulation and exclusion – ‘Mind Games’: How the words a coach uses can influence the performance of not only his own team, but also other coaches, players and sporting authorities; strongly linked to Foucault’s notion of Discourse – Performance: How all the above themes ultimately influence sporting performance. Sources include: Foucault, Sport and Exercise – Pirkko Markula & Richard Pringle, Michel Foucault – Sara Mills and Discipline and Punish – Michel Foucault. Information collated from the internet, magazines, newspapers and television will also be used to illustrate my project
In my project I will be examining how the Bush Administration has been influenced by the work of Leo Strauss and how this has affected their rule, both in relation to the use of civil religion in America and their foreign policy. Following the War on Terror, many scholars and journalists have been quick to announce that the Bush Administration has been infiltrated by ‘Straussians’ who are using Straus’s work to support their use of Noble Lies. However, it is necessary to assess whether these politicians are distorting the meaning of Straus’s work in order to support their own agendas. To support the main arguments in my project, I will be looking at a variety of works by Strauss and the documentary “The Power of Nightmares” by Adam Curtis. Some of the concepts being explored include; Civil religion, War, and Myths/Noble Lies.
Aims. The main aim of this project is to look at the topic of capital punishment and determine if it is a viable form of punishment or if it is simply inhumane. I will look at and consider the methods used and look at religion and determine if a society is responsible for allowing or not allowing capital punishment as a method of punishment. I will also look at how society has changed over the years and determine how this has influenced the perception of capital punishment. Concepts. Primarily I will look at the topic of capital punishment and I will consider the work of Durkheim and his views on society. I will also use Nietzsche as my secondary philosopher and I will consider his works on ethics. Although ethics will not be the main focus of this project I feel that I am unable to discuss capital punishment without using ethics in some part. I may also use some Enlightenment work to justify or oppose the use of capital punishment. Sources. I intend to use a wide variety of sources for this project including both primary and secondary texts. I will use both Durkheim’s, ‘The Division of Labour in Society’ and Nietzsche’s ‘On the Genealogy of Morals’ and ‘Beyond Good and Evil’. I will also use some journals and also look at works by Rousseau, Rawls, Lyotard along with Roger Hood’s book, ‘The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective’. The internet will also provide invaluable when researching capital punishment.
Detournement provides a creative outlet that is free from commodification. A subversion of form as a negation of the Bourgeois values they originally represented. The only historically justified response tactic to the propaganda of state is innovation. The situationists disbanded following the riots and occupation of Paris in May 1968.
The perspectivism that allowed modernists to enlarge and emancipate ideas within one single and complex reality has been lost to a fragmentation of many realities that both coexist and collide within a single framework. Where, on one hand, modernists can be accused of using individual ideals to achieve communal emancipation, the postmodernist shift has meant that these have become so fragmented and ambiguous as to be lost within their numerous realities. We are experiencing a “crisis of Enlightenment thought” the very notion from which it was born. Either Postmodernism exists as a radical break from Modernism, or it is simply a revolt within itself: to a particular type of high Modernism. Questions whether it has revolutionary potential by virtue of its juxtaposition to all forms of meta-narratives, or if it is simply the commercialisation of Modernism. The central aim in my project is to use architecture as a metaphor for understanding the current shifts in the subject and knowledge. I will use Jameson to underline the Marxist structure of commoditization and fetschization of architecture, countering that with Derrida and Deconstruction. Primarily I want to attempt to understand the shift which has occurred within the subject within its global capitalist surroundings. Thinkers: Habermas, Lyotard, Jameson, Derrida, Deleuze
The aim of this project is to explore the belief that music can work as a healing or soothing mechanism for people suffering from cases of mental illness, bereavement, and any other personal problems. Music as a form of therapy • Although a relatively new form of practised therapy, music has been used as a way of helping people for hundreds of years; whether it be in calming physical disabilities, helping people to express repressed emotions, dealing with unconscious fears. • The British Society for Music Therapy was founded in 1958 by Juliette Alvin. It now treats a number of people, from adults to children, suffering from bereavement to illnesses such as cerebral palsy. Even though some illnesses are incurable, music is used as a way of providing joy and creating bonds between patient and client, and also between clients. Historical value • In Ancient Greece, it was commonly believed that music providing a form of communication with the gods. • The belief was still held in the Middle Ages, that music also symbolised a link with Satan, often being associated with the work of witches. Expressionism • Expressionism saw the emergence of pieces of music composed through unconscious emotions, rather than like previous decades of music which conformed to forms, strict melodies, rhythms and timbres. Aspects of Nietzsche’s theory of dualism emerged in many expressionist works. • Key figure was Schoenberg, who wished to see the elimination of the conscious will in expressionism. • Leads to exploring Freud and Hegel’s theories on consciousness and unconscious; overcoming problems which lie in the unconscious by realising and thus being able to treat them. The Enlightenment • The avant-garde movement had key figure Andre Breton, who developed his theory of automatism; this can be related to the way music is now used to help release emotions without the interference of thought processing. Foucault • Studies in madness; Foucault recognised the effects music could have on those suffering from forms of madness.
Territory: I have chosen to investigate the ways in which capitalism and modern consumerism have changed and shaped our concept of moral values. I will focus on the way in which consumerism manipulates and controls our society and whether the values of modern Britain are gradually being eroded. Questions that need addressing: I wish to discover why there has been a shift in the material condition of humanity in the west and how the post-modern power structures have changed us. This shift to a capitalist world with the significance of materialistic values is a model that I wish to dissect with the purpose of unveiling the mechanism of change that brought it about. The outcome of this will be the ability to grasp the shift from the old centralised ideology of value systems to the material values which are fashionable and sought after today. Additionally, I hope to discover whether the decline in religious belief in Britain is associated with the erosion of moral values. Key thinkers and sources: The main sources of my research will lie within the philosophical thought of Max Weber and Friedrich Schiller. I will also be drawing upon the ideas of Karl Marx and the modern sociologist Mike Featherstone.
Territory: Capital Punishment using ‘Ted Bundy’ and ‘The Life of David Gale’ to explore arguments for and against this form of punishment. Personalised Content: The discussion of these films is supported by information that has appeared in the media after the execution of Saddam Hussein, which has brought capital punishment back into the society’s consciousness. I have noticed a change in attitudes towards capital punishment and a trend in the reasons why it has gathered support. The threat of terrorist attacks and the increase in violent crime in society has brought about increased support for the death penalty. Prior to 2001 it was generally found that people opposed the death penalty on moral grounds, however it is now gained the greatest amount of support in recent history. The increase of support surrounding the death penalty has brought about further ethical implications, including discussion of methods used and debate over whether criminals should be allowed to die with dignity. Philosophical Content: I was interested in considering how certain ethical theories would link with capital punishment, in particular the theories put forward by Kant and Mill. I wished to link the films used to one of the theories in order to gauge whether they assisted in supporting or rejecting the particular standpoint. I linked ‘The Life of David Gale’ to Kant’s view outlined in his ‘Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Morals’ and found that the film just reinforced Kant’s view that it is acceptable to use capital punishment as a form of retribution. The argument in ‘David Gale’ is against capital punishment, but is so weakly constructed that it only assists in showing the strengths of Kant’s work. ‘Ted Bundy’ was linked to Utilitarianism as at the end of the film we see a celebration at the death of a serial killer, showing that at times capital punishment may produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number,