My Aims: • To research the advertising sector in relation to its effects upon the public and their perception of themselves. • To study and investigate certain philosophical concepts, both obvious and obscure, which can be connected with such research. • To contact individual advertising companies, both profit and not-for-profit, in order to ascertain any differences in their agendas. • To briefly survey the public as to their thoughts on the subject, a questionnaire was circulated among different groups of society. • Through study of philosophical concepts I hope to be able to develop my argument. • To briefly investigate whether we do indeed live in a culture of consumerism and its connections with advertising. • I hope to be able to conclude that advertising and the new consumerism leaves the individual in a state of confusion and identity uncertainty, with a particular focus on youth. Sources: I shall be focusing on one key thinker; Charles Taylor and his work: “Philosophical Arguments and Papers”. However, I shall also be focusing in a more general sense upon other individual works; • David Wiggins; “Sameness and Substance”. • Richard Sennett; “The Culture of the New Capitalism” and “The Corrosion of Character”. • Anthony Giddens; “Modernity and Self-Identity”. I shall also be using internet resources, research data, and contact with advertising companies and questionnaires to aid my project conclusion.
Author: Glen
Since the beginning of man, the question of what happens to us when we die has been one of the fundamental questions of ‘life’. It seems to be up to the individual as to what one believes the answer to the question is, and these beliefs vary widely. From those who believe in a definite happening after we die, to those who believe nothing happens, from those who believe we can’t possibly know, to those who believe we could find out before we get there. In this project I will look at different beliefs in the afterlife, whether religious, atheistic, or agnostic and try to see how possible it is to know what happens to us when we die, and whether people’s beliefs are based on fact, fantasy or faith. I will discuss a number of different views of the afterlife, outlining the fundamental attributes of each belief, and evidence for holding such beliefs. I will also discuss the ritual surrounding people’s death and how important these are to the loved ones of the deceased and how they vary depending on what one believes happens after death. I will also examine why people hold these views of the afterlife and how strong these views are and how they affect the lives and deaths of the believers.
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.
Key concepts: University education system, changes in teaching methods, the idea behind university, vocational elements to further education, course structure and the general university institution set up/structure. Object and territory: The object-Is represented by the student; the student represents the consumer of the territory and is essentially the most affected and involved aspect of the movements occurring within the university education system. Within my project I have looked to the student with regards to how they are affected by changing teaching methods, different forms of institution, funding issues, course structure changes, employability aspects and government incentives etc. The territory- Is Newcastle University; this institution gives me an example of a 19th century university which offers various types of degree. In order to use this university within my project I researched into the history and future of the institution in terms of the significant changes that were either planned or has already occurred. The university was essentially used as a representative for universities nationally, because my project homes in more generally to university systems as a whole rather than one specific university. This is possible because the issues and transformations that have occurred for Newcastle are typically apparent within all universities nationally. Research methods: In order to research my topic I used a variation of methods, most of my research coming from newspaper articles, radio broadcasts, books and experience of my course itself. I also looked to the ‘Idea of a university’ put forward by John Newman in order to gain some perspective on what originally made a university; this allowed me to compare the postmodern ideas of education to a previous account of what a university institution originally represented. Essentially I wanted my research to focus on the major changes that were occurring within university education and I wanted to highlight these for individuals in order for them to note the possible future that may exist within the university system. The change: Within my project in terms of research into the university I am looking to its origins in comparison with today’s situation. This is a broad time spectrum hence obviously within this time scale I will be focussing more on the modern and contrasting it back to make the changes apparent. I also want to bring in the postmodern and consider the future of university education which will tie in specifically with Lyotard and my considerations over the possibility of computerised learning. Philosophical concepts: Within my project I want to tie in 3 key thinkers with regards to the focus of my project. Initially I will bring in the more general thinkers, Kant and Mill. Kant who will emphasise the importance of learning essentially because we are rational beings and it can be seen as a benefit to educate because it allows man to become ‘man.’ We have a duty to be educated within the world and to use this to continue to act rationally and essentially make good actions to display goodness in society. Hence my ideas on Kant will tie in with the more traditional methods of teaching which emphasis moral training. Then I will bring in Mill that will focus on the utility principle and claim education is always correct and beneficial regardless of its methods, if it benefits society and this is clearly apparent when we consider the needs of the labour market and the emphasis on low unemployment. Finally I will bring Lyotard and his ideas on the inhuman and tie them in closely with the changing teaching methods of education specifically to computer learning or Open University degrees where everything is done via a computer. Personal change/ development: I feel I have through my project developed a wide variation of skills especially my organisation and research skills; this project has ensured that I work to deadlines and collect sufficient information to ensure I produce a good end product. I have been allowed to investigate something interesting to me that I otherwise would not have had the time to look to in depth. It has taught me about the institution of which I am part of and has given me insight into something particularly relevant to myself. I can use my findings in the future to explain myself and my degree in greater detail than before undergoing this project.
Project Outline: In our daily lives we experience a huge amount of artistic representation in the things we see and do. This art can take any form, be it adverts, architecture or sculptures; but on the whole it goes unnoticed by the observer. This project is looking to uncover hidden meanings behind these artworks to explain their origins and placement in the urban environment whilst focusing on the implications to the observer. Methods and Sources: Architecture, Advertisements, Film, Street Art, Photography, Sculptures,Television Etc. The Ideas: What is the purpose of art? – Modernity vs. Postmodernity; do they exist?; Why do people create art? – Existentialism in art and the principles of Sartre; What is good art? – Aesthetic qualities from Kant and Hegel.
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.
Aims and Objectives • To being by establishing and exploring the shift towards Capitalism and more importantly, how and why it came about. • To show, through the work of Deleuze and Guattari, how MySpace is a product of Capitalism. • To illustrate how and why society has changed with the production of MySpace. Overview of Territory: MySpace is a social networking website which consists primarily of an interactive, user-submitted network of friends. The site consists of personal profiles with photos, music, videos, and blogs, attracting a billion page views every day. The company consists of over 106 million accounts and gains over 230,000 new registrations a day. MySpace is currently the fifth most popular English speaking website in the world, while 82% of online visits to social networking websites are made to MySpace. Key Change: The redistribution of labour with the move to the city saw a new emerging middle class with the bourgeois controlling the factories and their profit. The old hierarchy and values of the feudal system are replaced by money which operates as the universal source and bearer of all value. The emerging economic system of a world where money is the centre of social organisation is Capitalism. Capitalism creates desire in a fundamentally unpredictable way in a society where fortunes are made and lost. Through the use of marketing and advertising, Capitalism is able to unleash desire and channel it towards our fixation with money itself in a society structured around the capacity to earn. Philosophical Concepts To Be Explored • MySpace as a rhizome • Pre-personal desires • The processes of deterritorialization and reterritorialization • The major and minor movements • Identity. Sources: The Key source for my investigation will be Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus. In addition to this, I will refer to Capitalism and Schizophrenia.
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: My initial study took place in Saint Walburga’s Catholic Primary School, in Saltaire, West Yorkshire. I spent time within the school and particular classrooms collating information and observing the interactions between students and teachers. Aims: I aim to consider the relationships between students and teachers within the education system. I will look at the notion of dependency within this relationship and consider whether the teacher and/or student are dependent on the other. Also key to my study is the question of freedom in education and whether either student or teacher holds the most freedom. I will look to the paradox of teaching and learning and how this need not prevent teaching or learning, provided that both teacher and student willingly risk a power relationship of mastery and dependence. Philosophers and Sources: The majority of my study uses Hegel’s lord and bondsman dialectic, as found within in his Phenomenology of Spirit. However I wish to undertake an exploration of the master/slave relation beyond the Phenomenology of Spirit through the ideas of Educational Theorist Nigel Tubbs.
How has the representation of women in art changed since modern times? In what ways is Lucas’ art demonstrative of wider changes regarding the role of gender in identity and the position of women in society? – the shift from ‘natural’ to prescribed gender roles – Lucas subverting traditional roles / images of women – comparison with Goya’s ‘Maja’ paintings (from early modernity) – Beck’s theory of self identity in the postmodern age – Gidden’s writings on gender identity in late modernity – Harvey’s description of postmodern art (is art the best medium in which to initiate change in attitudes or is it merely reflective of this?)
The philosophical basis of this project will be focused predominantly on the works of Bataille and Sade including Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom and Bataille’s Eroticism. This project aims to investigate eroticism and taboo in terms of the sexually grotesque in order to explore the place of erotic transgression in past and present society. I will do this by elaborating on key themes such as death, sexual perversion and cruelty. Chuck Palahniuk’s Guts represents a modern comparison to Sade’s text, using Bataille’s reflections from Eroticism I will conclude by assessing the significance and purpose of taboos within our society today.
I have chosen the subject for several reasons. Apart from being able to investigate the journey of the development of democratic ideas in Europe, I had a chance to review the history of my own country and therefore present its difficult and passionate strife for the things that the Western part of Europe has taken for granted for so long. The picture below represents the unity and devotion that were the main accelerators in achieving what are now 3 proud independent democratic countries. It is a picture of the events of 1989 August, when people of all 3 Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) gathered together and joined hands across the 3 nations ( 650 km, more than 400 miles) in order to demonstrate their opposition to Soviet rule. Somewhere in that live fence stood myself, a five year old, expressing my right to be free. Philosophical Concept: I investigate the ways freedom can be manifested in a society. My main sources are Mill’s “On Liberty” and Rousseau’s “Social Contract” that represent the discussion between collectiveness and individuality that is crucial in defining the principles of any form of government, especially democratic.
I am beginning my personal project by studying the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling as my territory. More Specifically my territory is the first book by Rowling; Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I will consider some of the facts within the novel such as its characters, the plotline and how both of these aspects of the novel fit into my main focus of the Harry Potter books i.e. the concept of good versus evil and indeed whether or not humans are free to choose to follow good or evil. As I mentioned my concept that I have chosen to study is are humans free to follow good or evil. As a philosophical framework for this concept I will compare the Christian theological position of St. Augustine and Pelagius with the work of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. As far as St. Augustine and Pelagius are concerned I will explore aspects such as the human will, human nature, freedom, free will, original sin, predestination, and the grace of God. With the above issues I will consider where St. Augustine and Pelagius agree on these points and where they differ. From this position I will compare the Christian attitude to Nietzsche’s attitude to whether humans are free to follow good or evil. I will consider aspects of his philosophy such as God is dead, free will as an illusion, there being no such thing as morality and good versus evil, the significance of power defining how successful a person is, the will to power, and Nietzsche’s argument against authority. Having gone through my philosophical framework I will compare Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to a parallel territory. For this I have chosen Homer’s The Odyssey. I will compare how stories were told in ancient Greece to how stories are told now. I will also compare why the Stories were told in both territories and for what purpose the stories were told. I will ask how has story telling changes and why? What implications that has on the respective societies? Finally I will consider how the change to stories, their content and the way they are told affect us today in the way we live our lives.
Territory: Current debate about religion in modern British society regarding the rise in faith schools (a third of all new ‘City Academies’ will be in the control of Evangelical Christians or Christian organisations) and what this means in regards to curriculum, equal opportunities and tolerance towards those of other faiths or none. I wish to examine what form religion should take in a British child’s education. Thinkers: Richard Dawkins in chapter 8 ‘What’s wrong with religion? Why be so hostile?’ and chapter 9 ‘Childhood, abuse and the escape from religion’ from his highly controversial book ‘The God Delusion’. Andrew Wright in ‘Religious Education in the Secondary School’. Also secular, religious and government reports and media. Central Themes: – Are Faith Schools ‘fair’? Is it right to discriminate against a child by refusing them entry to a local school on what is essentially the basis of their parents religion? – Do Faith Schools provide an ethos of tolerance and understanding or do they exaggerate current cultural and religious divides? – Should religious theories be taught in schools alongside science, e.g. Intelligent Design and Evolution? – Should religion be ‘public’ or ‘private’? – Does it matter? A study showed that only 12% of school leavers from a Catholic school saw themselves as being Catholic and many rejected most of the doctrinal teachings. – Where is the state/religion divide in our society?
My project will focus on the impact of capitalism on education in modern society focusing mainly on the work of Jean-Francois Lyotard. Through his work I look at Lyotard’s attempt to describe the state of knowledge and the problem of its legitimation in developed western societies. • Over the last few hundred year’s education has changed dramatically, especially within the developed world. Gone is the idea that reason alone is a sufficient guide to action. In fact the idea that rational thinking provides us with a universal guide has become increasingly problematic during post-modernity. • With the rise of capitalism as the dominant socio-economic force within the modern world, knowledge has become a commodity which can be bought and sold. For Lyotard, knowledge is now the principal force of production. This commercialisation of knowledge, according to Lyotard could raise serious questions about the nature of ethics and the very relationship between governments and large multinational companies. • My essay will judge the role of what Lyotard calls ‘performativity’ in education and the capitalist system that requires constant re-evaluation in order to generate optimal output. • Using up-to-date education statistics and recent newspaper and TV articles I will attempt to show how education is not simply about educating people. It is instead a means to produce a workforce to meet the demands of capitalism. However that very capitalist system has now infiltrated schools, with the rise of privately funded academies, and new emphasis on league tables and performance related pay. I will discuss how this has impacted on education, positively or negatively? • What impact has this also had on the individual freedom, happiness and identity? Is our culture of working exhaustive hours in order to consume and the desire to consume installed in us through education? Main Sources: Jean Francois Lyotard – The Postmodern Condition: A report on Knowledge and Just Education, Jacques Derrida – Derrida and Education, Jurgen Habermas – The Legitimation Crisis