Category: 2010

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2010 Abstracts Stage 3

An Analysis of Nietzsche’s Notions of Culture, Self-Formation and Exploring Whether Such Notions, When Compared with Foucault’s Philosophy, Are Relevant in Contemporary Society

– Nietzsche’s notions of culture

– Nietzsche’s formation of the self

– Foucault’s aesthetics of existence

– Foucault’s advancement and caring for the “self”

– Ethical advancement and transition

This project will determine whether the ideas of both Nietzsche and Foucault can be translated in to today’s contemporary 21st Century world. The lightning pace of technological and cultural advancement present in today’s society can be viewed as an ethical minefield, and therefore I question whether the two philosopher’s concepts of culture and ethical transition can help 21st Century society in any way shape or form.

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2010 Abstracts Stage 3

The Psychological Costs of Capitalism: an Exploration into How We Are Being Emotionally Snookered by the Demands of 21st Century Living

In our society we are getting richer and richer and simultaneously less and less happy. Within my stage three project I want to explore how in modern life capitalism and the consumer culture has corrupted our values and as a result people are increasingly driven by an obsessive desire to define themselves by their earnings, possessions, appearance and celebrity. I want to show how this is responsible for the ever rising rates of depression and anxiety in England and America…

Heidegger’s analysis of boredom suggests that our lives lack personal meaning, and where there is a lack of personal meaning, capitalism creates all sorts of diversions and substitutes, mostly in the form of consumption. Through the work of Heidegger, I will reveal how our fundamental needs as beings are not being met. This endless pursuit of unfulfillable desires has created a profoundly impoverished emotional culture, subsequently we are no longer living authentic lives.

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2010 Abstracts Stage 2

How Has the Power of Mass Communication Changed over Recent Years and What Influence and Control Does It Have over Society?

A study of the ways in which society has changed as the advancement of mass communication has occurred.

Can we think for ourselves today or is autonomy impossible in this world of unlimited influence?

History of Modernity

• Modernity
• Crisis of modernity
• Post­modernity

Aim: To discus whether we have the ability to be autonomous in society today or are we are too broadly influenced by mass communication.

Territory: various forms of advertising particularly focusing on online advertising today

Philosophical concepts: Marxist ideas of the prevention of uprising, Guy Ernest Debord ‘The Society of the Spectacle’, Jean Baudrillard “The Ecstasy of Communication”

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2010 Abstracts Stage 2

Is Cooking an Art According to Kant’s Aesthetic?

My project is an investigation into gastronomy. My aim is to investigate whether cooking is regarded as an art or a craft or even maybe both. My territory is looking at two famous British chef’s Heston Blumenthal and Jamie Oliver. My philosophical concept is going to be using Kant’s aesthetic judgement from his third critique.

According to Kant art cannot be part of an aesthetic judgement, however there is a sense of ambiguity when it comes to the ideas behind Blumenthal’s molecular gastronomy. What is the difference between the two chefs? Why can one make it more acceptable for gastronomy to become close to an aesthetic experience?

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2010 Abstracts Stage 2

How Deceived Are We by Our Own Mind?

The aim of my project is to explore the tricks (problems) the mind plays on us and how a technique can overcome that problem. I would use Freud to explain the problem of the mind and use a Derren Brown technique which could overcome that problem. I will also show how they both share some similar views in certain areas. So do you know how deceived you are by your own mind?

Here are a few areas I will explore.
• I will explain Freud’s theory on forgetting ‘Proper Names’. I will then suggest a technique by Derren Brown which could overcome this. In this case, a technique called ‘Remembering Names’.
• ‘Forgetting Names and Sequence of Words’ by Freud can be related to the ‘Linking System’ by Derren Brown. This technique allows you to move onto the next word without any worries.
• A view which Freud and Derren Brown share is on superstition and the supernatural. They both disapprove of it. Derren Brown’s controversial programme, the Séance showed his rejection of the supernatural through psychological experiments which shows the illusions of it.

I shall use Freud’s book Psychopathology of Everyday Life to explore the problems of the mind. For Derren Brown, I shall use his book, Tricks of the Mind, and include his programmes as well, such as Trick of the Mind, Trick or Treat, and the Séance.

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2010 Abstracts Stage 3

Property Magazine: the Realities of the Market

Many would acknowledge, that in some form, the contemporary financial landscape is separated from what we would consider ‘reality’. The money which is exchanged within in the financial markets seems to have no grounding outside the markets in which it is exchanged. This edition looks at the problem and enquires to what extent this is a problem.

Capitalism. Can capitalism and the markets that work within be justified on moral grounds? A Property Week special report puts aside our intuitive moral assumptions and looks in greater depth at the concept of capitalism and the ethical dilemmas that arise out of this system.

Hyperreality. By commencing deregulation in the global financial institutions, have the governments of Thatcher and Reagan of the 1980s created a new economic domain of hyperreality? This edition looks at whether responsibility can be placed back into the financial markets.

Questioning the economic realities of the market with particular reference to the commercial property market