Category: 2017

Categories
2017 Abstracts Stage 2

Can one be a wolf in sheep’s clothing?

Object/Territory: How should we understand the concept of ‘psychopathy’ in relation to political theory and how we should we ought to treat other individuals?

Sources: Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, Sigmund Freud and Georg Hegel provide powerful theories that can be applied to the idea of psychopathic individuals.

Project outline: The distinction of ‘criminal psychopath’ and ‘white-collar psychopath’ is crucial for my investigation because the contrast between the two opens up a kaleidoscope of questions about psychopathy. The violent explicit nature of criminal psychopaths and the charming and charismatic character of white-collar psychopaths highlight the disparity of individuals that can be considered psychopaths. Hobbes’ egotistical humanity and Smith’s doctrine of altruism provide interesting material to apply to the elusive behaviour of psychopaths.

Categories
2017 Abstracts Stage 2

Safety in numbers: Understanding the popularity of the internet’s, ‘Alternative Light’.

The Alternative light in this context, is specifically that of, ‘Anti-Social Justice’ YouTube channels.

In my project I set out to understand three main things:

How these anonymous, internet based, political movements come about. About other real-world movements such as Occupy wall street
Is there any Philosophical foundation, or key figures, in founding this movement? (I define it as a movement due to its large growth both in viewership, and online political presence). And how does this compare to the foundations of other more extreme movements.
In the case where there is no foundation of these kinds, how does the world view remain so homogenous, and are there any issues in the foundation of everyone’s belief system?

Along the way I employed primarily the Philosophy of Nick Land, as he is most heavily associated with the movement, and helped in highlighting the significance of analyzing the alt-light specifically. I mapped the progression of these channels from their atheistic, anti-creationist origins, and using the philosophy’s, including that of Land and Nietzsche, showed the significance of this genesis, in the progression of the movement.

Categories
2017 Abstracts Stage 2

Do the topics of feminism and speciesism need to be discussed as one sphere of ethics in order to be rendered valid?

Territory- ecofeminism is a branch of political philosophy which suggests that the oppression of women and animals is intrinsically linked, to the extent that women shall never be free until animals are also freed of oppression. This study focuses on a text by ecofeminist philosopher Andrée Collard called Rape of the Wild in order to conduct an axiological critique of the views widely held today in regard to the topics of feminism and speciesism. The territory of ecofeminism is hugely significant to modern day Earth as many issues surrounding both the treatment of women and animals are evident within the 21st century.

Concepts- in order to evaluate and examine the concepts held by Collard and the ecofeminist movement this study focused on ideas from other highly esteemed philosophers such as Kant, de Beauvoir and Aristotle. Concepts such as Aristotle’s Great Chain of Being and de Beauvoir’s idea of the ‘Other’ are useful when applied to the views held by Collard in order to determine how significant the link is between women and animals and how this relationship should be approached in terms of actions and beliefs held within modern day society.

Categories
2017 Abstracts Stage 2

Finding Peace in a Frantic World: A Critique of Mindfulness using David Foster Wallace’s talk ‘This is Water’

Project Aims
To argue Foster Wallace’s popular talk This is Water highlights Mindfulness as an ideology.

How?
Foster Wallace highlights how Mindfulness key aspect of its thought believes in a Kantian autonomous/individualistic/ a-historical subject transcendental subject.

Implicates argument within the social context – Mindfulness is an antidote to stressful neo-liberal conditions

Economically and ideologically productive system of thought – 3.72 trillion dollar industry

Ideologically repressive – It blames you for your mental health problems!

Could Mindfulness be self destructive?

Categories
2017 Abstracts Stage 3

Artistic Appropriation: Do you Own what you Create?

Plagiarism is wrong. Says who? Why should we obey this? Does Plagiarism stifle creativity? Is plagiarism a force of coercion and obedience?

Categories
2017 Abstracts Stage 2

Rachmaninoff: Nationalism and “Russianness”

Territory: Russian Late-Romantic Music
Object: Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-Sharp Minor
Method: Interpretative and Axiological
Aim: I will be using Frolova-Walker’s musicology and Adorno’s musical philsophy to dissect Rachmaninoff’s Prelude and discuss whether it can be understood as a piece of Russian nationalist music.

Categories
2017 Abstracts Stage 3

Sexuality in the modern era is a social construct

Michael Foucault
– The repressive hypothesis
– Changes in sexual practices over time
– Mode of power within society

Theodore Adorno
– Enlightenment
– Culture Industry
-Standardisation of sexual categories

Do sexual categories define individuals?
Has sexuality always existed?
How does sexuality function within society?

Categories
2017 Abstracts Stage 2

Student Suicide: A philosophical investigation into whether attitudes towards ‘Suicide’ have changed over time?

Aims:
My project will examine whether contemporary society’s attitude towards ‘Suicide’ have changed over time?
Are we living in the past?
Are we scared to talk about mental health?

Territory/Object:
My territory is ‘Student suicide’
My object is the BBC Three documentary ‘Student Suicide: Real Stories’.
The documentary looks at how three students took their lives at University; but from the perspective of their loved ones.
Many students do not tell anyone, as they feel “ashamed”.

Philosophers:
This project will focus on the philosophical concepts; Suicide and Morality.
Durkheim’s On Suicide investigates whether social factors affect suicide rates.
Hume’s essay ‘Of Suicide’ illustrates his views against the traditional viewpoint of suicide.
Kant’s The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals dictates his views against suicide.