Over the course of my project I will be answering one of the most relevant and controversial questions of the 21st century. This question is a personal one as I hope to follow a career in the direction of environmental business and sustainability.
The aim is if ethics in our lives have positive or negative consequences. I will be discussing the environmental work of modern ethical philosophers such as Peter Singer and Thom Brooks whose work starts to lay out if there is a way of stopping environmental change if ethics are used in our lives.
I will be using Singer’s utilitarian approach and Brook’s political philosophy to truly discover the ways in which we can or if we can prevent worsening the environmental change problem.
I have chosen these particular philosophers as they single out the facts and problems with environmental change in both an ethical and moral perspective. They equally have two individual philosophies and ethical solutions which gives the project two very different sides to contrast.
Singer’s utilitarian and consequentialist theories and workings plays a valuable part in linking Bentham and Mill’s older utilitarian works. Brook’s political and activist philosophy gives the statistical analysis of the damage of environmental change and this aids in his conclusion, that basing ethics in our lives will slow the damage that environmental change has on the planet.
I have chosen an interpretive approach to my methodology with the analysis of both Singer’s ‘Practical Ethics’ and Brook’s ‘Climate Change Ethics for an Endangered World’. These books have a number of comparisons with other philosophers and their theories which gives many different angles to display support for my view that ethics in our lives has a positive effect on environmental change.
These ethical solutions and theories I have applied to what I believe are the core ethical dilemmas which environmental change either negatively affects or that contribute to these negative effects. The areas I have chosen are the effects on the animal species and the plant species, and also the affects that businesses and governments have on contributing to environmental change in the past and present.
Category: 2021
Object/Territory – The concept of Law, how Natural Law Theory and Legal Positivism have shaped the English Legal System
Aim – Through a historical account I aim to provide a historical account of both Natural Law Theory and Legal Positivism in order to assess the impact that they have had on shaping the modern English Legal System
Main Sources – Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Austin, H. L. A Hart
In this essay I shall explore the very concept of law and morality as I look at the very concept of law, morality and how law is applied in order to argue that Natural Law Theory and Legal Positivism are the main driving forces behind the formation of a distinct English Legal System.
The concept of death is one that philosophers have looked into since the ancient Greeks. Similarly to other topics, such as God, the soul and the universe, death and the afterlife is one that we will never fully understand. Both religious and non-religious ideas have formed relating to what different groups and thinkers believe happen after death, and this also intrudes on discussions relating to who we really are- whether we are only our body, only our mind, or a mixture of both. Certainly in the 21st Century, not only do we have the many writings of previous thinker’s opinions on death and the afterlife, but with medical advancements, we also have the experiences of some who have died and been resuscitated- many of whom speak about the overwhelming feeling of peace, welcomeness, support and even recall images of their past, calming settings and a bright light. However, there are previous philosophers, for instance Epicurus, who we will see later, doesn’t believe that death is something that we experience, thus we cannot ever truly know what happens after we die. Freud builds on this with his idea, asserting that humanity cannot imagine not existing as a thinking thing, therefore will fantasise attending their own funeral, which could also explain the experiences of those who have passed on and been resuscitated. Essentially, there is a suggestion that their beliefs about death could have an impact on what they believe they experience in the afterlife.
In this essay, I will discuss non-religious and religious views about the afterlife, as well as arguments for the possibility of reincarnation, from a range of different philosophical thinkers. I will explore this deeper through employing secondary sources that critically analyse these arguments and review how valid these arguments may be.
The issue of income inequality is becoming increasing prevalent within today’s society, currently the world’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people, and nowhere on earth is this situation more problematic than America.
Within my project I investigate American society and the socio-economic practices it has adopted over the last 200 years. I used the books The Theory of The Leisure Class, The Affluent Society, and What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, as together they create a timeline of how this western society’s economic and social practices have evolved. This allowed me to unpack some of the key practices which have directly impacted the American wealth gap. Such as: Conspicuous Consumption, Mass-Production, Aggressive Advertising and Commodification
Furthermore, the practices highlighted within my chosen texts allowed me to use the theories of Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, and John Rawls to investigate the exploitative aspects inherent to them. I used , Marx’s The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital and other collected works, along with Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man as well as Rawls’ Justice as Fairness: A Restatement and A Theory of Justice to find out how these thinkers would find these practices exploitative.
Ultimately, I attempt to display how exploitation is a common a characteristic to all socio-economic practices which have impacted the American wealth gap over the last 200 years.
My Object is Covid-19 mental health, as I believe that mental health has not had enough importance throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. I highlight this pressing issue using psychological studies that show the link between Lockdown and mental health.
Project Aim:
To use my philosophical concepts to offer solutions at mitigating the effects of Covid-19 mental health, I shall not be suggesting that the physical effects of the virus should be disregarded.
Within my project, I use two philosophical concepts – Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism and Ayn Rand’s rational egoism.
Sartre’s existentialism focuses on our own individual freedom as he claims that we do not have a general human essence to conform to. Sartre also has insights into why we experience anxiety which include factors such as abandonment and responsibility, all feelings exaggerated within a lockdown.
Ayn Rand’s rational egoism denies selfishness as an evil motive, and instead, Rand promotes placing oneself first in order to gain a clear conscience to make rationally informed decisions. Our integrity and values will ensure that making selfish decisions will not lead to immoral acts, and therefore we should be making more selfish decisions.
What is the most morally acceptable and workable solution, regarding the method of imprisonment as a means of punishment?
Although all forms of art have changed massively in the 21st century under the influence of digital technology, it is the forms of art that contained the aura in the 20th century that have changed the most as the aura that was once there, is no longer.
This project aims to analyze the concepts of state capitalism, totalitarianism, authoritarianism, anarchism, and the idolization of revolutionary figures through a Marxist lens. It takes into consideration both the theoretical and practical sides of revolutionary history provided by theoreticians such as Marx, Engels and Parenti and leaders such as Lenin, Castro, Mao and Xi.
Doing so, with a heightened focus on communist nations and communities, it is intended to be a response to the BBC’s, and the general British Media’s, own claims about Marxism.
In discussing the true intentions of the media in regard to its portrayal of Marxism, I intend to highlight the obvious, and subtle, shortcomings of the British media. This project will focus on Marxism due to its decisive nature and extensive history, which allows ample opportunity for analysis and evaluation of journalistic sources.
An ethical consideration for those implicated in the participation actions leading to mass casualty events. Referencing primarily the philosophy of; Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche. The historical events and individuals involved feature predominantly in the 2nd World War.
looking at the question, ‘Has the covid-19 pandemic enhanced poverty in England or has it simply exposed the poverty that already existed in our society?’ with reference to Mbembe’s Necro politcs, The State of Exception, and Nixon’s idea of Slow Violence.
Object: QAnon is an online group consisting of a web of conspiracy theory, with the main premise being that there is a cabal of paedophilic, Satan-worshiping elites known as the ‘deep state’ controlling society from the shadows. The group began when an anonymous user named ‘Q’ started posting cryptic messages (‘Q drops’) on the online messaging board ‘4Chan’.
Territory: A psychoanalytic interpretation through the works of Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek
Aims and Key Concepts:
• Birth of the Internet and the Death of the Author
I aim to investigate the impact the internet has had on conspiratorial thinking. What will also be made apparent is the fact that ‘Q drops’ present the implications of what Barthes calls “the death of the author”.
• ‘Q drops’ as a Text bound to jouissance
Through Barthes and Lacan, it will be shown that framing the ‘Q drops’ as a Text allows us to see how they are bound to the Lacanian term jouissance: a term linked to the ‘death-drive’ that is beyond the pleasure principle.
• QAnon: The Ultimate Hysteric Discourse?
With the help of Lacanian psychoanalysis, it is evident that the hysteric discourse is at play for particular QAnon members. Moreover, there will be an exploration of how the discourse of the hysteric causes cynical distancing to hegemonic master signifiers, leading to what Žižek defines as the “demise of symbolic efficiency.”
• The Paranoic Fantasy of the ‘Deep State’
Within QAnon, it is evident that there is a combination of perversion, psychosis and neurosis. I will attempt to show how the psychotic – the paranoid subject – formulates the belief in an ‘Other of the Other’ (the ‘deep state’), and this will be done with the aid of Slavoj Žižek.
Sources:
• Roland Barthes, Image-Music-Text (1977)
– The Pleasure of the Text (1975)
• Jacques Lacan, The Other Side of Psychoanalysis: Seminar XVII (1991)
• Slavoj Žižek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology (1999)
– ‘The Matrix, or, the Two Sides of Perversion’ (2006)
In this project, I explore the contrasting legal systems, common law and civil code and compare them to my two principal philosophers:
– Jean-François Lyotard
– Plato
Additional philosophers I studied:
– Immanuel Kant
– Ludwig Wittgenstein
– Aristotle
– Socrates
The questions I focused on:
• Can we have a politics with or without a true essence of justice?
• Can we judge based on opinion, or based on prior criteria?
• Do legal systems work within situational context or universal formulas?
• What are the philosophical attributes embedded within legal systems?
I essentially wanted to establish the central aspects of the legal systems I am studying regarding how they view judgement. This was examined by determining whether judgement is based on the conformity of statutes and legislations or based on precedent. I determine that the civil law system’s rigid structure gives judges limited say in the outcome of cases as they abide by the law’s statutes. On the other hand, the common law works on precedent, using past cases to determine the conclusion of a case. Additionally, I compared the philosophical attributes of these two legal systems to the two philosophers I studied. I resolved that the common law generally related to Lyotard’s situational school of philosophy; judgement is based case-by-case without regard to prior criteria. Furthermore, Plato’s true essence of justice claims a universalism of judgement which coincides with the civil law system. Concluding, I argue the superiority of Lyotard’s philosophy and the common law system over the contrasting school of philosophy and legal system.
This research paper highlights the need for more transparency, open-source initiatives and regulatory bodies surrounding the big data economy. It will help individuals understand what is at stake each time they choose to give up parts of their personal information to companies who offer ‘free’ services.
For this project I chose to explore that way that societies attitudes towards gender have shifted in the past 100 years. Through analysis of the work of Judith Butler and Simone de Beauvoir, I created an argument based upon the notion that we are defined above all else by our gender.
In order to bring my argument into the modern day, I looked into the Vogue December 2020 cover and article featuring Harry Styles and the subsequent backlash that it received.
Furthermore, I explored the territory of masculinity and femininity, referencing things such as the Mars and Venus symbols for gender and their meanings.
Eventually, I came to the conclusion that gender whilst prevalent in modern society, has taken us as far as it can.
Does drug prohibition provide safety within society, or does it merely conceal our freedom, and the freedom of low-income and minority communities to protect the middle-classes?
This project focuses on a Foucauldian framework to analyse the power dynamics between the systems that are supposed to protect us, and addicts’ abilities to control their own forms of therapies. It also analyses the freedom of addicts themselves, and whether the therapies currently in place helps these people to break out of their situations and take control over their own lives, or whether it just slots them into a position that conforms with societal norms at current.
I also analyse different future options for therapies for low-income and minority communities breaking from their drug addiction with psychedelic therapies and psychoactive substances.
The aim of the essay is fundamentally an attempt to breakdown the lives of addicted people and the ways in which we can continue to support them and provide them with the freedom that as humans, we deserve.
Both Buddhism and Nietzsche’s philosophy point in the direction of nothingness. Nietzsche studied Buddhism at a young age due to his training as a classical philologist and it most likely accompanied him throughout his life as one of the cornerstones to his thought alongside his great educator Schopenhauer. Buddhism as a philosophy lacks breadth and depth, unlike Nietzsche who is a far-reaching philosopher writing on many topics in a variety of ways. It is an articulation of the application of emptiness and becoming onto all things in the universe – subtle in its poetic method of reducing many things’ Being to empty becoming. Buddhism is direct yet allusive in its brevity, a feat somewhat lacking in Nietzsche’s numerous aphorisms: there is so much character and enthusiasm in Nietzsche’s many articulations of nothingness and his many affirmations of life, forcing the discussion at hand to demand that portions be ignored, to allow other parts to make sense. So that Nietzsche may compliment Buddhism and Buddhism may compliment Nietzsche, the discussion will dissect Nietzsche’s most pure nihilisms from his array of articulations and applications of nihilism, in order to be able to compare their likeness to one another. The discussion will likewise only have eyes for Madhyamaka interpretations of the Buddha’s doctrine through Nagarjuna. Importantly, Nietzsche and the Buddha will be discussed within the milieu of their contextual origin, which will poke at the purpose of their philosophy: the Buddha’s extinction through nirvana demanded by his Indian peers (post-Brahmanical annihilation), and Nietzsche’s edified affirmations of life, attempting to provide the facilities for all to see ‘it’ for what ‘it’ is, in Europe upon God’s death. This discourse is a deliberately polemical approach to nihilism for the sake of being able to discuss Nietzsche’s selected philosophy and Buddhism mutually, improving ones ability to see where the two agree and disagree at the cost of excessive hyperbole.
I will be exploring the relationship between consumerism and identity. I will ask if people are free to create an identity and control the way in which they express themselves under the social order of consumerism. I will argue that rather than being emancipatory, consumerism instead imposes restrictions on people in ways that will be explored in this essay. The main philosophical ideas used to engage with this thesis will be drawn from works of Jean Baudrillard. I will primarily be drawing from Baudrillard’s The Consumer Society and will later incorporate some ideas from his Simulacra and Simulation. Baudrillard’s philosophical analysis of consumerism provokes much thought about identity, and the freedom that we possess to manipulate this identity. These ideas will be fundamental to my argument.
The recent and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown a clear display of the attitudes and values some of society withhold in response to the restrictions and guidelines put in place to protect the larger community. While there is constant conflict between opinions on these restrictions, one thing that the debate almost always comes back to is the question of freedom and freewill, and whether enforced mandates are a violation of this or a commitment to the greater good regardless of sacrifice. Current events present this question; however, this discussion is not new and has been debated throughout history by many philosophers, but speakers Karl Popper and Fredrich Nietzsche present particularly appealing arguments that can be applied to both the conversation regarding the lack of freewill in this modern pandemic and in the past with reference to morality and religion. Furthermore, the debate of the validity of the proof behind the reasoning for the COVID-19 restrictions is constantly argued, often from two uncompromising parties, one that sides heavily with the scientifically backed restrictions and the other who completely disagrees with the evidence and its validity. The heavily discussed philosophical concepts of rationalism, empiricism and relativism can be applied to this argument to analyse each viewpoint and provide an insight on how philosophers like Popper and Nietzsche would approach the argument based on their philosophical beliefs and views of the above concepts. With this project being heavily based on the differing viewpoints of the community during the pandemic and linking this to different philosophical concepts based in several different fields: rationality, focusing on the subject’s personal beliefs; empiricism, focusing on scientific, verifiable truth; and relativism, focusing on the subjects moral and religious beliefs.
An evaluation on women’s position in the transition to capitalism, the function of capitalism, and 21st century capitalism through the works of key Italian Marxist Feminist thinkers. This project will analyse how Italian feminists have critiqued and developed Marx to develop a new theory on capitalism which focuses specifically on women’s exploitation. Analysis of Italian Marxist feminist theory will demonstrate how and why they understand capitalism to inherently entail women’s exploitation.
The so-called ‘cathartic’ elements of art, especially music, have fascinated me in some way for a long time. The strong emotions that can be aroused in the presence of an artwork, or while one is listening to certain music, are very often difficult to comprehend and put into words – such feelings can be said to ‘elude common vocabulary’ (Gabrielsson, 2010, p. 548). Especially since by nature our individual experiences are so subjective, the cathartic or therapeutic nature of art can also be very difficult to make sense of and thus communicate to others, perhaps even yourself. However, there have been and continue to be more sociological and medical articles being published investigating the idea of art therapy, which seem to be gaining traction as sound cases arguing in favour of art therapy. In light of all of this, what this article aims to accomplish is split up into two parts: firstly, I will provide a thorough philosophical foundation for understanding the very idea of artistic catharsis, which will entail a deep and critical exploration into Aristotle’s concept of catharsis and the debates surrounding it; and secondly, once this has been done to a satisfactory level, I aim to transition into a more social and psychological approach by considering the current ways in which art therapy and catharsis are viewed today. This latter half will pay specific attention to the effects of music on various individuals and groups, taking into account the different factors at play that may impact how those individuals or groups experience music, and even several other art forms.