This project aims to investigate the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the development of the identities of university students, looking at the impact that the removal of social influences has had on identity formation during such a critical time of personal growth. Using the philosophies of Charles Taylor and Friedrich Nietzsche to support my investigation, I will look at whether Taylor’s quote ‘one cannot be a self on one’s own’ (Taylor, 1989, pg.36) is shown to be true as a result of lockdowns and subsequent isolation, or whether COVID-19 provided students with a chance to embrace Nietzsche’s heroic individualism and create a stronger sense of self.
Category: 2022
Third Time’s a Charm: Reconciling Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence and Freud’s Repetition Compulsion in the Context of Nonlinear Time Within Film.
OBJECT: Time loops, nonlinear time and repetition
CONCEPTS: Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence of the same
CONTEXT: Ethical (using eternal recurrence as a thought experiment), Psychoanalysis.
In this project I am looking to apply the Nietzschean approach to ressentiment (of amor fati!) to Freud’s repetition compulsion as a means of working through trauma. Through this I will be looking to reconcile aspects of Freud and Nietzsche’s writing through a framework of film, taking inspiration from the way in which Nietzsche uses metaphor to present eternal recurrence and linking this to representation within the scene of transference. I will be owing the popularity of nonlinear time within fiction to this repetition compulsion and ultimately, the death drive, hoping to unravel elements of the ethical within repetition compulsion.
This project aims to construct an impartial exploration into the historical era known as the Enlightenment. Also regarded as the ‘Age of Reason’ or ‘Age of Light’, the Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement which was largely based in Europe. Despite much speculation surrounding the commencement of such period in history; with some philosophers claiming it began in the seventeenth century and others in the eighteenth century, the project at hand considers the notion that humanity are in an epoch of postmodernity and that the Enlightenment is still ongoing. In spite of the uncertainty surrounding the origins of the Enlightenment, it is definite that there are conflicting opinions as to whether the movement was positive. Not merely regarded as a period in time, but also as a set of values, the Enlightenment encompasses a normative horizon whereby individuals were urged to question their morality.
Predominantly characterised with the overthrowing of religious dogma and tradition, the Enlightenment enabled individuals to come “face-to-face with the profound questions of man’s history and destiny” (Porter 2001, 14). Such questions were those that the Bible could not readily answer which allowed for the moral authority of the church to be thrown into dispute (ibid). The discredit of religious dogma and metaphysics was facilitated through the augmented importance and consequential reliance upon empirical science and reason. This major intellectual upheaval revealed a shift in how individuals perceived the everyday world due to the movement presenting a momentous challenge to old, traditional ideas so to expose them to the light of rationality in order to discover if they were valuable. Upon the discount of previously accepted authorities and wisdom, everything began to be viewed differently, permitting basic presumptions of ideas to be questioned. As a result of the re-examination of truth and tradition, religion and metaphysical explanations of the world and its happenings became disadvantaged in comparison to scientific procedure and the relevance of fact. The Enlightenment aimed to demystify the world from metaphysics with the use of science, reason and knowledge by removing sovereignty from ecclesiastic institutions, so to put it back into mankind.
In attempting to answer the overarching question of the project, ‘can progress be achieved through reason?’, the French philosophes proved crucial in demonstrating radical changes in political and social dynamics. Their goal to rely on human reason and rationalism in order to create a better society hints at a sense of progress. Concerned with how people of different social classes should relate to one another and what the relationship of ordinary people should be to their government, thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu recognised the importance of liberty and basic rights of life which prior to the Enlightenment were not considered proper outside of the Church. To understand the philosophes appropriately, the precursors to the Enlightenment, namely Isaac Newton and John Locke, retain great importance.
Advocating religious toleration as influenced by Locke and making clear the link between “the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century with its seventeenth century origins” (Cobban 1963, 119) Voltaire is arguably the foremost figure in answering the question of this project. Voltaire, as well as Frederick Nietzsche, seen the Enlightenment as the ‘Age of Criticism’ and utilised the movement to scrutinise Christian values and demonstrate that the sovereignty of the church and state is not as powerful as it once was. Providing individuals with an opportunity to question traditional thought with the interrogation of the Christian religion, both thinkers sought to mentally liberate man with approximations of the truth. This was employed with the hope to enable mankind to morally progress beyond the realms of Original Sin and the teachings in the B
Piercing a hole through the foundation of mathematics, Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem resides outside the scope of consistency, provability, and solvability. A mathematical manifestation of self-referential paradoxes, the doctrine shattered the possibility of sustaining a complete system within mathematics, as Gödel utilised arithmetic itself to convey that there will always be axiomatic statements within mathematics that cannot be proved with certainty. However, in pursuit of clarity, can the philosophical attribution of morality and analytics be utilised to elevate an understanding of the paradoxical theorem? With both enterprises positing an abstract delineation of how truth and falsity are classified, the anomalous nature of the Incompleteness Theorem perhaps necessitates similar ascription. Whilst it is essential to note that the profundity of mathematical inquiry eradicates the possibility of the paradox being ‘solved’, the attribution of philosophy can perhaps offer avenues of illuminating novel aspects of the theorem. In doing so, the findings can be strung away from pessimism and towards mere curiosity. Mathematics may be defined by its incompleteness, but can philosophy offer an elevated insight that transcends an understanding beyond the mathematical enterprise?
My object is video games and my territory is philosophical aestheticism. The methodology I used was close textual analysis of primary and secondary texts across a wide range of mediums. I wanted to examine the parallels between contemporary games and early-to-mid 20th century avant-garde movements and analyse how gaming’s dynamic attributes could help them become more fully realised. To begin, I analysed the immersive sim genre to explore how consumers could become producers, and how this shift fits with Paris and Munich Dada’s goal of reducing egotism in art (as conceived by Jean Arp and Hans Richter). Then, I looked at how technological advancements and limitations could aid in the creation of both unpredictable realities and imaginative surrealities, respectively, as conceived by Yves Bonnefoy, John Cage, and Andre Breton. Finally, I touched on how experimentation within the medium subverted audience expectations and genre conventions to create a transgressive experience that breaks down the player’s self-contained character, as proposed by Georges Bataille and Paul Hegarty. I concluded by reaffirming the incredible potential within gaming to transform the nature of art through its unique toolset in a manner hitherto unimagined, owing to their symbiotic relationship with environmental factors such as technology and player input.
SURROGACY – THE PROBLEM OF WOMEN’S SELF-OBJECTIFICATION
This essay looks at philosophical principles that re-conceive spatial orientation. This is done in response to urban spaces and architecture in modern capitalist society, and the many ways in which these spaces are conceived negatively and have been appropriated without respect for natural surroundings and the effect these spaces have on our self-identity. This essay will look at the works of Martin Heidegger and Gilles Deleuze. These philosophers were chosen as they offer differing alternative views of our relationship to our environment. Both philosophers, however, are similarly critical of modern capitalist societies and the effects these societies have had on our relationship to space. Specific interest is shown to the concepts of ‘dwelling’ and ‘nomadism’, and actual examples of each concept, and their effect on their environment, are presented and explained.
This project intends to investigate moral responsibility in war especially particularly war crimes and actions of violence. It takes inspiration from the work of Hannah Arendt and her report on the banality of evil. It also looks at the Military Philosophy of Carl Von Clausewitz to understand the influence of military doctrine and the establishment on moral thinking. Finally it will discuss the Phenomenon of Dirty hands and the implications it has for how actions of state impact societies ethics and the burden of personal guilt to provide an interesting take on western military culture and liability.
Anti-natalism is a world-ending set of beliefs. It calls for the extinction of humankind and suggests we no longer procreate via appeals to morality and ethics. The absolutist subject matter evokes a guttaral counterreaction from society so strong that the theory is shunned – why, then, are feminists not more in favour of it?
Feminism is a philosophical theory developed to critique and be active in its opposition to the marginalisation of women. Focusing on oppresions committed by the patriarchy, a social system wherein men are oppressors and women the oppressed, it is innately counter-cultural: today’s ‘mainstream’ is synonymous with ‘whims of the patriarchy’. As the patriarchy is a self-sustaining institution created by birth and life, and most feminists recognise that its indoctrination is inescapable, it draws into question why more feminist theorists do not advocate for anti-natalism. Bringing into existence new vehicles for male supremacy to brainwash should be the first thing feminists oppose – it is not enough just to make female existence bearable and content with oppression.
An investigation into feminist anti-natalism requires a close look into both feminist theory and the traditional bioethics of anti-natalism. Case studies and statistical analysis have been applied to the object of anti-natalism in order to create a holistic, fair exploration of the concepts used to review it.
This project centres around critiquing the preservation and revival of human life through cryonic procedures. Through looking at the object of cryonics within the territory of death and technological revival, this project explores ethical, transhumanist, existentialist and religious issues within cryonics. As a contemporary topic that may become more prevalent in life as science progresses, this project does not aim to dissuade individuals away from a subjective choice of life, rather, offers divergent critiques of cryonics. Through looking at the work of Martin Heidegger, this project discusses how death is an essential predicate of life that ultimately characterises the way that humans live. His existentialism is used to accuse cryonic procedures of diminishing an authentic life. This project then turns to the theologically centred work of John Hick to highlight the importance of life beyond death. Through investigating the conception of a resurrection alongside soul-making, one uses Hick’s theology to deem cryonics as unethical procedure that ultimately dismisses faith. This project offers plausible critiques of cryonics to discuss the limitations of modern science. Although critiques can be interpreted in different ways depending on religious outlook or scientific optimism, this project discusses critiques that are detrimental to the desirability of cryonics.
This essay explores the way in which humanity is ethically and politically responsible for anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. After concluding that traditional ethics is no longer sufficient for dealing with environmental and technological ethical issues, Hans Jonas’ proposes a new ethics for this technological age is in his book The Imperative of Responsibility. He argues that the most important ethical rule humanity must follow is to act so that the effects of our actions are compatible with the permanence of life in order to ensure the future of mankind. I use Jonas’ ethics to argue that humanity’s climate responsibility is inescapable; once this responsibility is established I use Giddens’ book The Politics of Climate Change to suggest that harnessing the power of politics and policy is vital for sufficiently meeting the demands that this climate responsibility places on individuals. This essay concludes that, while individuals are the primary drivers of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, a top-down approach whereby the largest organisations and emitters are targeted through policy to reduce emissions may be the most efficient and impactful way of mitigating climate change and ensuring the future of mankind.
This essay explores the genealogy of the penal system as a paradigm for understanding power dynamics within educational institutions, drawing from the philosophical works of Michel Foucault and Friedrich Nietzsche. Building on Foucault’s theoretical framework, this investigation delves into the structures of power and discipline, including hierarchical observation and normalising judgement, and their pervasive presence within contemporary educational environments. Nietzsche’s insights from ‘On the Uses and Abuses of History for Life’ and ‘On the Genealogy of Morality’ offer an additional lens to critically appraise the formation and enforcement of norms in these settings. Cinematic representations of these concepts, primarily found in Lindsay Anderson’s ‘If….’ and Peter Weir’s ‘Dead Poets Society’, are analysed to provide tangible illustrations of Foucault’s and Nietzsche’s theories within institutionalised education. The essay demonstrates how, akin to the penal system, educational institutions exercise power, regulate behaviour, and manage deviation, resulting in a profound influence on individual formation and societal coherence. By juxtaposing the penal and educational systems, this analysis highlights the urgency of addressing the inherent power imbalances and restrictive norms within educational institutions to promote more equitable learning environments.