On the back of Britain’s anti-racism movement, arguably civil disobedience is becoming an ever more prominent feature in the protester’s arsenal for raising awareness regarding their social and political agendas. Naturally the project concerns itself with understanding and assessing whether civil disobedience is a necessary attribute in bringing about governance and increasing the potential for change. The project will focus upon the subsequent acts of civil disobedience associated with the Black Lives Matter movement (‘BLM’); the vandalism and the tearing down of the Edward Colston statue (Bristol) and the vandalism of the Sir Winston Churchill statue (Westminster). However, the significance of the project’s enquiry lies within questioning the treatment of these statues and thus the nuances of the discussion are embedded within the statues themselves. These will be analysed through conceptual exploration of property, representation, and jurisprudence.
Whilst recognising that there are some points of comparison between the statues and their treatment, much of the project will target their differences and aim to reach an understanding through wider analysis of civil disobedience itself. Arguably, culminating in an analysis of Colston’s role within the Bristol community versus the role of Churchill within the national community. Consequently, the project will recognise that it is not a simple task of addressing whether the man set in stone was ‘bad’ or ‘good,’ but much rather a more complex exploration of memorialisation and representation.
Category: 2022
A Study into Human Nature: To What Extent Can you Change your Own Personality?
The aim of this project is to explore the unresolved issues within the prison system that do not necessarily get thought about every day. My project will discuss those issues such as race, women’s sexual assault, gangs and inhumanity within supermax institutions.
The key philosophers will include Michele Foucault, Angela Y.Davis and Lisa Guenther.
This paper attempts to show how the object of prayer is linked to knowledge, as knowledge from a theological standpoint finds its root in God, and prayer from an Islamic perspective is seen as a direct communion with God. I will look at this from a cosmological aspect, with regard to the idea of man being created in the image of God and the Adamic potential of man. I will also look at the different levels of knowledge and what knowledge is for both Qadi Abu Bakr Ibn’ Arabi and Abu Hamid Al Ghazali. Ghazali emphasizes the concept of the heart being a vessel of knowledge and uses light as a metaphor for knowledge, I will try to outline how to attain a state where knowledge is possible by means of the heart, as well as showing from a cosmological perspective that the function of humans is to be in constant remembrance of God, thus constant prayer, through the idea of the divine names of God.
My project dissertation focuses of a life-denying reading of Christianity. I argue, using a historical background provided by John Robertson, that early Christianity grew from the exploitation of the weak and continues to feed off inequality to this day.
Readings of Nietzsche’s primary literature details the values cultivated by Christian morality, those of ressentiment and the ascetic ideal, arguing that they stunt human being’s natural drive for the fullest possible life and negates our instincts for pleasure, growth, and development. Secondary reading provided by Deleuze helps rework Nietzsche’s argument, providing an understanding Nietzsche’s famous theory will to power, which I then consider in relation to the life-denying power of Christianity. Brain Leiter also tackles Nietzsche’s ideas of a higher man, allowing for a more critical reading which I explore and build on.
The life-denying values which prompted Christianity’s growth into a worldwide religion are perhaps best criticised in Nietzsche’s works, and I will argue that as Christianity has expanded, these values that have permeated the political and social space, must be understood and challenged.
My project focused on sustainability, environmental consciousness, and responsibility; all thing’s most western societies don’t seem to have a grip on. I wanted to explore why some communities, specifically indigenous groups, seemed to be able to act much more respectfully towards the environment than most other populations. This was an important topic for me as the climate crisis is something my generation has grown up with. It has been something most of us hear about almost every day, and yet the society I live in values so many things above the environment, despite the amount we rely on it. The environment is a current and important topic at the moment, so not only is it something that I am passionate about, but there is also an abundance of resources and information, giving me a lot of perspectives, and elements to the debate to look at.
In my essay I looked at sustainability and environmental consciousness in the context of two different societies. The first being Aboriginal Australians, as the representation of a tribal mindset; the second being non-indigenous Australia, as the representation of a mindset, of a more industrial and economically developed society. Before I looked into these two ways of life in detail, I discussed some of the current theories and debates regarding the climate crisis and society’s reaction to it. The main thinkers and activists I considered were Peter Singer, John Broome, René Descartes, Núria Almiron, Marta Tafalla, and Greta Thunberg. This gave me a good impression of what has been said already, on topics similar to my own, a lot of which I heavily agreed with, such as Thunberg’s chapter, ‘We are not all in the same boat’. Agreeing also with Broome’s responses to those denying contributing to the climate crisis. I wanted to combine a lot of what these thinkers had been saying, I aspired to directly compare the differences in ecological thought and action of these two different realities and see what mindsets, if any, would be to blame for our lack of action and denialist behaviour.
I started by directly comparing the two ways of living in four very simple aspects of life: Diet, Clothing, Beliefs and Practices. This allowed me to see, quite linearly, the differences between the two, both in environmental impact and also in views regarding nature. I unsurprisingly found that due to the Australian Aboriginals habits such as only eating locally sourced food, making their own clothes without excess, their environmental impact is almost none. They work within the “circle of life” acting as an element in the food chain rather than as a disruption to it. This way of life brings to light how out of touch and excessive most of us living in “developed” civilizations are. With eating packaged, intensively farmed meat every day, to shopping online and buying more clothes made in sweatshops across the globe. It became clear, that what allowed us to act like this is the values appreciated by the societies we live in, consumerism and individualism. This is completely different to that of the Australian Aboriginals; their whole lifestyle is rooted in their religious philosophical belief system, the “dreaming”, which has connected them to all other species and the land that surrounds them. This doesn’t force them to treat the land with respect, it motivates them to treat it with respect because they genuinely care and appreciate the nature that has helped them grow and survive. This is what I believe our more economically, industrialised societies are missing, a respect for nature imbedded in genuine ecological awareness and experience. My essay aimed solely to create and enforce a dialogue between the indigenous, and non-indigenous communities and bring light to an underappreciated, unutilized perspective.
My project explored how responsibility should be attributed to individuals in the face of large-scale atrocities.
In my project, I researched Hannah Arendt a German-born holocaust survivor and political philosopher who explored her idea of the ‘banality of evil’ and applied it to the case of Adolf Eichman a Nazi leader whose role was the transportation of political prisoners to the concentration camps.
The banality of evil is described by Arendt as this unique inability in her writings ‘Thinking and moral considerations’ where Arendt used this term to portray how normal people were able to commit evil acts challenging the traditional notion that inherently evil people commit evil crimes. Arendt holds great importance on intention due to this inability to think but still believes responsibility should be attributed to those who commit the act regardless of the intention behind the action. Other secondary sources on the banality of evil were used to fully put forward the argument this project provides, although an intention for action in the face of large-scale atrocities does hold importance responsibility should nevertheless be attributed to the individual who committed the act.
In the project, the Windrush scandal was used to portray how this banality of evil is present in all societies.
the project uses Kant’s categorical imperatives to provide other alternative ways of attributing responsibility to an individual in the face of large-scale atrocities.
The project uses Hans Jonas ‘The Imperative of Responsibility to assess the large-scale atrocity which is the deterioration of the natural world to prove how we must create new ethical imperatives to combat this unprecedented acceleration of industry and technology and how we all have a responsibility to do this.
Ultimately these sources are used in the project to argue that intention in an action holds great importance but it does not take away the responsibility which should be attributed to the individual who commits the act in a large-scale atrocity
An investigation into the effects of non-creative and creative precarious work on identity formation in post modern society, looking at these two kinds of work and how they can be seen to corrode or consolidate people’s views of themselves, through an analysis of the work of Bauman, Taylor, Sennett, Virno, and Marx.
The stratification of the Ancient Athenian City State was acknowledged by citizens and slaves alike. The use of slaves to enable greater action was a prominent feature of the city state, allowing for civic life and peer to peer interaction. This stratification has been perpetuated into modern society but under the guise of a working class. Capitalism itself, an adopted slave morality and degrees of power all contribute to the maintenance of an almost four hundred year old capitalist system. This system has adapted and evolved alongside the times. Today, we see yet another evolution of capitalism with the rise of the digital revolution. This paper highlights the need for a constant examination of values based on the sort of life which society can currently provide. Suggesting that the etymological definition of labour is applying to less and less people and this should provide us with optimism for a future which relearns the value of leisure.
Aesthetic production is an innovative and important part of humanity that holds value. Using psychedelic drugs can increase human potential and possibilities in aesthetic production but outdated moral views on drug use are holding us back. Psychedelic drug use should not be dismissed as a means to facilitate creativity. The hermeneutic-interpretative approach is appropriate to develop this claim due to analysing Friedrich Nietzsche and George Bataille’s primary texts and secondary interpretations of them to formulate an argument. I shall critique the norms and axiology of contemporary culture to assess the moral views on drugs because it is an endeavour into what is worthwhile. This methodological approach is favourable over a historical contrastive method because this project is interested in the concepts of transgression and enhancing creativity not in changing attitudes towards drugs over time. For clarification psychedelic drugs can be defined as a group of substances that can change or enhance thought processes, sensory perceptions and energy levels. They are known informally as hallucinogenic drugs and are used recreationally to heighten one’s state of awareness and induce mind-altering experiences. The most common psychedelic drugs used are Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD/ Acid), Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), Mescaline and Psilocybin (magic mushrooms), these will be referred to in abbreviated form. All of which are naturally occurring substances found in specific plant species, fungi or mould.
It is crucial to certify that aesthetics is a fundamentally important element of existence that is worth enhancing. Aesthetics attends to the nature of beauty, artistic experimentation and an extensive list of art forms that embody free creative human expression. Different modes of being and doing manifest themselves in aesthetic creation along with diverse ways of thinking that encompass emotion. Art is a precious component of human existence, and the process of aesthetic experience should have room to transcend and realize itself beyond the sphere of human understanding, if we can enhance it further, we ought to.
This project explores the persistent hold of history on the present, with
Murakami’s The Wind-up Bird Chronicle being used as an example of this phenomenon. The hold of the Second World War in the novel is shown to have a significant effect on the present for the characters, as it has for Japan as a nation. Philosophical ideas are taken from Hegel, Nietzsche, Derrida and Fisher. Through Hegel, a philosophy of history is discussed, with the progression of history as a result of spirit realising its freedom. Both Nietzsche’s Apollolian and Dionysian states are explored, as well as his concept of the eternal return. Derrida’s notion of hauntology is used to show how the past can haunt the present, with Fisher being used to further explore this, with our inability to retain memories of the present leading us to hold onto historical memories. The symbol of the wind-up bird itself is used to show how the hold of history is depicted by Murakami, with the wind-up bird signalling the machinery of history, yet also being a role for those who must wind the springs of time. This project explores how individuals, like those in the novel, could respond to this hold of history, with the individual choice of embracing history, and its prophecy-like role, or succumbing to fatalist doom.
This Essay is an examination of the ideological duality of Animal Crossing. This is a popular video game created by Nintendo, which has had several instalments over the last 20 years. The game involves the player moving to a new town, full of anthropomorphic animal characters. There are many clearly capitalist aspects at play within the game, with the necessity to get into debt, and or the pressure to consume is quite apparent if one wants to progress. However, it is clear that the game does not conform to the usual principles seen within capitalism and exhibits distinct ideological ambiguity through the processes involved within this game, like not charging interest on debt, but also through the intentions of the programmers regarding how one plays this, through measures to slow completion and general gameplay.
The use of pain, violence and suffering is a huge pattern in the performance artwork of Marina Abramović. She pushes herself to physical and mental extremes, creating shocking self-sacrificial performances. Despite this, she is one of the most renowned artists in the world, and audiences of thousands gather to see her perform. This project will investigate the reasons for this great appeal of violence and aim to demonstrate that there is a more profound experience occurring during the observation of Abramović’s suffering. The particular philosophers I am using to investigate this are Georges Bataille, with major works Theory of Religion and Erotism: Death and Sensuality. Also Julia Kristeva, with her work Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection.
I will use Marx’s concept of alienation to understand experience of workers within the service industry. Ultimately this dissertation will find that Marx’s concept of alienation still applies to work today.
This paper argues that China’s social credit system (CSCS) has serious philosophical consequences for Chinese citizens on the principles of power, freedom and individuality. The CSCS is a system by which individuals’ actions are monitored and consequently rewarded or punished against what the Chinese state deems to be either “trustworthy” or “untrustworthy” actions. Through the medium of the CSCS, the state has the power to dictate the truth about the rightness or wrongness of action. This paper holds that Foucault’s conception of power and, specifically, his notion that power and knowledge are intertwined, is paramount to understanding the relationship that the state and society share in China. To be precise, this relationship is one in which the state, through its power, controls and manages truth (about action). This paper does however argue that Foucault’s notion that power operates vertically (from top-down and bottom-up) is not representative of the political framework of China. As regards the principles of freedom and individuality, J. S. Mill’s philosophy on liberty and freedom is considered in context with the CSCS. This paper shows that under the CSCS, there can be no possibility, or at least a greatly limited possibility, for any individual freedom and, by extension, individuality. Mill argues that individual freedom is essential for well-functioning liberal states, and as such his arguments are central to the philosophical enquiry into the CSCS.
Currently psychedelics are undergoing a revitalisation in medical and metaphysical research. The question pressing now is how and if these substances, which produce experiences of alterity and perceptual disruptions, can be integrated into normal society. To explain this, this work has explored ideas of perception outlined by Kant, the mystical ideas of Watts and Leary before finally critiquing and evaluating how psychedelics on a cultural and counter-cultural level relate to society. From this research, the conclusion is drawn that psychedelics are not as easily compatible with normal society as a simple attempt to make them medically acceptable. This is due to their deeply rooted political, historical and still current rejection of normalizing society in favour of individual empowerment away from institutional control.
This project is on the historical progression of Superman the DC Comics character and how messianic themes have been built into his character. Superman is an 85 year old comic book superhero and has changed drastically since his original inception. If one looks into this progression, one can see from the very outset throughout the 20th into the 21st century, Superman has been portrayed as a messiah, and concepts of messianism and divinity are also what has drawn audiences across the world to the Man of Tomorrow. Using thinkers such as Thomas Carlyle, Friedrich Nietzsche and Ernst Bloch, I will demonstrate these ideas.
Climate change has, and will continue to have, a huge effect on all of our lives. It is an inescapable fact that we will all have to live with the effects of ever changing global climates and so the way in which we decide to react to this is extremely important. Simone De Beauvoir’s existentialist thought in her book, the Ethics of Ambiguity, outlines the importance of willing the freedom of others in order to be truly free ourselves. Therefore, her book provided the perfect stepping stone for exploring the role individual and collective freedom plays in helping to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
An exploration of the experience of reading as an embodied cognitive technology. Descartes’ Meditations will be used as an example of a text which uses this cognitive technology to its philosophical advantage.
This project explores the purpose of education with specific regard to the demands of employability on a student and their ability to flourish in higher education. The project discusses the importance of employability within the current education system, providing examples of the skills taught in universities that aid students vocationally. Drawing from philosopher Jean- François Lyotard, it is explained how he suggested that the meaning of knowledge had shifted in postmodernism. Due to economic and social change, higher education became increasingly commodified and there was an emphasis on skills and performativity in universities. The project subsequently explores the importance of personal flourishment in higher education, focusing on John Dewey and Aristotle. Understanding higher education in terms of flourishment creates an environment that supports students in becoming happy, successful and well-rounded individuals at university and beyond. First hand research was conducted, in the form of interviews, to help distinguish a middle ground. It is concluded that the demands of employability and personal flourishment in higher education are essential for individuals to become sustainably employable. This middle ground suggests that a need for both employability and flourishment is crucial in a student’s life to help them, and consequently society, reach their full potential in the 21st century.