I wanted to investigate online surveillance and how it asserts power and reduces autonomy
Category: Abstracts
The project aims to illustrate the normalised academic expectations and pressure placed upon students in the South Korean contemporary society. It is evident that there are historical implications that alluded to the emphasis on academic achievements, as well as obeying parental decisions. To produce an analysis of the effects of academic pressure, the project mainly refers to the Korean Drama ‘Sky Castle.’ The philosophy of Judith Butler and Georges Bataille helps us to obtain a philosophical perspective of the consequences.
Sky Castle provides us with an understanding of the concept of ‘tiger parenting’, whereby a high percentage of South Korean parents are motivated to fulfil their ambition of sending their children to superior universities, making sure they have a successful future in high-ranking jobs, thus having extreme expectations in their education. There is a sense of competition amongst friends and family, further displaying the importance of education and ‘bragging rights.’ The aim of the project is to show the extent to which this academic pressure results in a myriad of negative consequences, involving mental illness and becoming distant from the family.
Furthermore, the project uses the ethical teachings of Confucianism and the tradition of respecting one’s elders as part of the virtues. It leads to the collectivist thinking of the community expecting disciplined youths, who obey their parents. As a result, children have no other option but to listen to their parents, even if it means obeying certain rules that have detrimental effects on their mental health. In this section, we can, further, see how people’s actions are affected by Butler’s notion of radical dependency on the other, which are the collective norms and traditions, as well as the community. Young students have lost their freedom to choose as they are affected by their parents, and the parents are affected by the community. This suggests how these individuals have lost their own subjecthood because of the other. Moving on, Bataille’s concepts intends to display how these collectivist norms, that place an emphasis on the students working to go on producing for the economy, further affecting their individual choice and desires. As the rules limit the behaviour, the students transgress and rebel.
The Hegelian concept of the ‘master and slave’ display this loss of individuality and control, making the children the slaves that the parents rely on, fulfil their own ambitions and be recognised as successful parents with successful children. One’s conformity to such pressure will lead to a life that is non-satisfactory, thus the young students will struggle to obtain happiness for the sake of academic achievement placed in their heads. It can, consequently, lead to the students trying to escape through rebellion or suicide if the priority of academia is more emphasised than the needs of the student.
The project shows the significance of others in our lives and how much they have an effect on our behaviour and mindset. In a sense, our individual subjecthood may be lost but we still try to regain it by making our own decisions, even if it is the result of other people. We try to regain our freedom and that is important, otherwise, there will be various mental health problems as the feelings of having no control have detrimental effects.
This paper intends to question the extent to which brutalist architecture produces negative environments through their adverse psychological impact on those who inhabit them. Equally, it will explore how such environments can be overcome. The object these aims will centre around is J.G. Ballard’s novel High-Rise, a dystopian narrative that critiques the modernist tower block, by providing a hyperbolic account of the potential ramifications it can have on the human mind. This paper intends to question the extent to which brutalist architecture produces negative environments through their adverse psychological impact on those who inhabit them. Equally, it will explore how such environments can be overcome. The object these aims will centre around is J.G. Ballard’s novel High-Rise, a dystopian narrative that critiques the modernist tower block, by providing a hyperbolic account of the potential ramifications it can have on the human mind.The consideration of how negative environments can be overcome will draw on the positive elements of Deleuze’s Nietzsche – his concept of the eternal return and the Overman – and Debord’s psychogeography. These concepts are examined to explore the extent which they can be used as remedial to the negative implications of an environment.
This project is founded upon recent published data which portrays an increased trend in the rate of divorce over the last century. The central thesis of the dissertation involves the question: why has the rate of divorce increased over time and should this be at all a concern or reflection of modern-day society?
Contemporary attitudes omit an attitude of divorce being a less scandalous, daunting concept in comparison to earlier decades, however, this project examines whether the marital benefits may indeed be experienced outside of the marital realm.
The dissertation considers contextual societal components with feminist viewpoints to analyse the sexual, reproductive elements of marriage in regard to monogamy and child bearing to then analyse the material, economic elements of marriage within a Marxist perspective.
I include the philosophical theories of Hegel and Kant to examine the ethical elements of marriage as well as the work of John Finnis to consider a more contemporary standpoint.
‘Transphobia and Feminist Existentialism’ is an Exploration of Feminist Transphobic rhetoric’s use of Existentialist language and ideas, using Judith Butler’s ‘Gender Trouble.’
In Gender Trouble, Butler theorised that Gender is constructed, rather than natural and therefore performed. Biological sex is also analysed to be a construct, emerging from ideas of gender. Feminist Transphobic rhetoric, or ‘Gender Critical’ or ‘TERF’ ideology puts forward that gender is oppressive to the female sex, and should be abandoned, leaving only biological sex. Butler’s ‘Gender Trouble’ is used to demonstrate why this is impossible.
The examination of these ideas will unfold in the following way: first examing the emergence of these Feminist Transphobic ideas, then an analysis of the Feminist Transphobic rhetoric. Next will follow an explanation of Butler’s ‘Gender Trouble’. This basic examination will allow an exploration of Butler’s perfomativity theory, applied to a critique of ‘Gender Critical’ ideas, including updating ‘Gender Trouble’ with current understandings of Gender variance, and providing an analysis and criticism of Feminist Transphobia with this updated understanding of ‘Gender Trouble.’ This updated understanding of ‘Gender Trouble’ will reveal how gender in the modern era can progress and expand in a way that allows emancipation from harmful stereotypes surrounding gender.
Project objectives and aims:
• To critically analyse the debate between rationalists and empiricists in accordance with the origin of knowledge, morality and evil, with reference to innate ideas and knowledge acquired through experience.
• Establish which arguments presented by the scholars prove most convincing as to whether a person is inherently evil or if this is learnt from experience of a person’s upbringing.
• Generate a deeper understanding into the concepts and notions that surround mankind’s nature.
What I hope to receive from the dissertation:
• I hope to develop my research and analysis skills by using a variety of sources from scholars that range from early Greek philosophy, to the enlightenment era and contemporary twenty- first century thinkers.
Plagiarism is wrong. Says who? Why should we obey this? Does Plagiarism stifle creativity? Is plagiarism a force of coercion and obedience?
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.
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?
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.
In this project I investigate why the present institutions and discourse of cosmopolitics frustrate rather than facilitate peace and resolution.
Through improperly structuring reasoning and creating subjectivity, the current cosmopolitic fails to provide the required conditions for the prevention of and intervention in genocide.
Through an examination of Kant’s cosmopolitanism and current cosmopolitical theories, demonstrated with the use of 3 case studies of Rwanda, Kosovo, and Myanmar I intend to highlight the fundamental contradiction at the heart of cosmopolitanism. Systems are either too universal and empty, ignoring important cultural fabric, or too particular and local, resulting in inaction.
As a result of these failures, intervention becomes an expression of ideology, not humanitarian interest.
Object: The art criticism of works in Louise Bourgeois’ Cells series
Territory: Contemporary art criticism
Concepts: Subjectivity, intention, Freudian psychoanalysis, the artist and their relation to works of art, authority of criticism
Philosophy: Nietzsche, Foucault, Wimsatt and Beardsley, Bal.
In my project, the work of Louise Bourgeois in her Cells series is utilised as a case study to explore wider issues in art criticism and how works of art are interpreted in relation to the artist. An examination of the reception of Louise Bourgeois’ work shows largely the same approach in psychoanalysing Louise Bourgeois and relating this back to her work and perceived intended meaning. Conversely, the position in the project argues that such a reading of her work, as well as that of other artists and authors, carries problems related to the importance of artistic intention, the public sphere of a work of art compared to the private sphere of the artist, as well as to what extent such readings are not only valid, but in the case of Louise Bourgeois count as genuine criticism rather than uncritically accepting her own statements.
Philosophy from the course included use of material from modules PHI2002 and PHI2006.
Between Emancipation and Control: A Critical Discussion of Social Media in Postmodern Society
Is social media the key to emancipation, or the handcuffs prohibiting liberation? This project started from the object of social media and the claim that, as society has become highly mechanised, it is a further perpetuation of control and the very medium, which keeps individual behaviour in accordance with what is deemed socially acceptable. This project aimed to investigate this claim, using the case of Cambridge Analytica, to reach a conclusion to the overriding question: CAN SOCIAL MEDIA EMANCIPATE?
Money + Love
Can artists make a statement about consumer culture without falling into it themselves?
Territory: Arcade Fire’s album Everything Now
Object: Consumer Culture
Philosophy: Adorno’s The Culture Industry
Why does Genocide outside the WEST remain unnoticed?
My aim is to uncover reasons why genocide is still a modern age problem. I will be looking in particular at the Rwanda genocide and the ongoing persecution of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. To investigate this, I will be taking a historical and political viewpoint to explore the value systems promoted within society that allow us to ignore this blatant bloodshed, which are purely based upon location and affiliation. The sources used include books, articles and scholarly certified media pieces in order to help uncover the reasons why there still remains an issue within the modern world with genocide.
I will argue that we still live in this post enlightenment era, using Kant and Hegel to describe how empty legislation and abstract laws do not meet action in the real world. I will also link the influence of Capitalism, using Adorno’s Culture Theory to help exemplify how harmful ideologies and passivity is promoted in today’s society. I will be drawing upon philosophical concepts such as moral distance, dehumanization, autonomy and recognition. Ultimately, my claim will be that this narrative of ‘the other’ is largely at play within the media. Similarly, that this passive stance occurs in the face of this, due to the powerlessness individuals feel within the system of the state.
Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment
Participants were assigned either the role of guard or prisoner in a prion simulation designed to investigate the behavioural and psychological effects of prison life. From that moment they were treated according to their role and the study commenced. Rebellion, excessive punishment and a mass escape plot.
The findings showed that the guards and prisoners conformed wholly to their assigned role to the point where role and reality were blurred. The participants had lost all sense of reality . Why did this happen? Does it say something about an inherent human nature to conform?
Hannah Arendt and the Banality of Evil: Arendt claims that evil can occur when someone simply follows orders to the point that they no longer have their own thought process. They become a cog in a well oiled machine. She basis this theory on the trial of the Nazi, Adolf Eichmann, who she claims was not an inherently evil man but someone who “simply followed orders”. What does this mean for moral culpability? Does this change our understanding of human nature?
Concept: Hegemony, dialogue, critical thinking
Object: The work of Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire
The aim of this investigation is to argue that there exists a hegemony within education, specifically English literature. This hegemony prevents the reading of texts such as An Inspector Calls in a critical, working class dialogue.
To argue this, this investigation will examine; what is hegemony? How does it function? Where is it in education? And how can we stop it?
This investigation will argue that for a critical education system, we must adopt the work of Paulo Freire and begin the process of genuine dialogue with students when undertaking a reading.
An investigation into the ways that technology is used as a method of creating insecurities with the self, leading to cosmetic surgery and the sustainability of capitalism.
My aim of this investigation is to explore the effects of technological apps such as Snapchat and Instagram on self-esteem and confidence. Also to investigate how far there is a link between beautifying apps and the cosmetic surgery industry, in a 21st century society where the conception of beauty is given great importance.
In this investigation, I conduct a survey to understand the effects of technology. I ask questions regarding frequency of usage, confidence levels after usage and pressure in society surrounding beauty.
Philosophical Concept 1: Adorno and the Culture Industry
Philosophical Concept 2: Freud and ‘Civilisation and its Discontents’
With the internet and social media reforming the realm of reporting news, those that have routinely ignored developing nations are demanded to atone for biased newscasts, thus the project intends to bridge this gap and to further interrogate to what extent there exists a journalistic void, seeking out the cause and how to resolve it.
Methodology: The project concerns two cities, both of which had experienced an act of terror in connection to the Islamic State (IS). This project deploys qualitative research in the discourse of an interpretive methodological approach.
Objects:
Manchester – The first object of terror befell on the 22nd of May 2017, in Manchester’s Arena. The incident occurred at an Ariana Grande concert.
Istanbul – The second object denoting an act of terror was the automatic weapons fired and suicide bombings that occurred in Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, on the 28th of June 2016.
Territory/object → Social media in relation to social media and related to ‘Nosedive’ – an object of contemporary society
Philosophers → Michel Foucault, Arthur Schopenhauer
Overview → I will be exploring why so many of us feel compelled to manipulate our identities online and the issues surrounding the ease and ability to do so with little restrictions. I consider what philosophers of different centuries may have said on such matters. I aim to support and prove my claim that until we change the values of the social system that we are a part of, we will not be able to overcome the negative impacts that social media provides.