The right to Freedom of Expression Integrity & Ethics in Journalism
Michel Foucault on Confinement and Parrhesia | John Stuart Mill on Freedom of Expression
Territory The object of study for this project is the human right to freedom of expression, with a particular focus on discussing the extent that this right should be exercised – particularly within the Journalism sector. Establishing the value of freedom of expression will assist in evaluating how important this right is to contemporary society.
Modern examples of defending oneself by using the principle of freedom of expression will assist in understanding the relevance of freedom of expression within the modern day. Philosophical Concepts The first concept applied to this territory is John Stuart Mill’s discussion of the necessity of the right to freedom of expression: this project looks at both his reasons for freedom of expression and why he postulates this argument.
The second concept is Michel Foucault’s historical philosophy. Foucault’s work in Fearless Speech will discuss the Greek expression, parrhesia, which translates as a verbal activity designating one to tell the truth despite the risk of differing from the majority and risking danger.
This project will also discuss Foucault’s Madness and Civilisation in order to consider how society can treat those who express themselves in forms that differ to those in traditional society. This concept will lead the project to ask whether we truly do have true freedom of expression.
Category: Stage 2
Philosophers used
Kant – Will use Kant’s philosophy to explain why the behaviour of the National Football League (NFL) was immoral
Hobbes – Will examine the actions of the NFL in relation to Hobbes’ view on Power
Adorno – Will use Adorno’s philosophy to analyse the role of mass culture in the concussion scandal
Territory – The National Football leagues denial of the dangers of concussion, and their attempts to cover up the work of Dr Omalu – The danger that this put all American Footballers in – The Lawsuit the NFL faced because of their mishandling of the situation
The “State” should be understood not only as the apparatus of government, but also the “private” apparatus of “hegemony” or civil society.
Territory: Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks Concepts: The subaltern, cultural hegemony, integral state, war of position. Object: The Channel 4 Documentary Benefits Street.
In my project, I have used Gramsci’s philosophical concepts to critically examine the media’s domination over perceptions of the unemployed, with particular reference to Channel 4’s Benefits Street. The concepts will give an idea of how incoherent ideologies are formed and maintained and what, if anything, can we do to reject these ideologies.
A considered look into the social transition from ‘madness’ to ‘mental illness’ and the possible connotations of our choice to embrace such medicalization within the Western World, inspired by a reading of Susanna Kaysen’s memoir Girl, Interrupted.
Concepts: Foucault Madness and Civilisation, Szasz The Myth of Mental Illness, Potter The Authenticity Hoax, Davies Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good, Kaysen Girl, Interrupted.
Aspects considered: Within this project I intend to discuss and analyse the value of medicalization, and will thus discuss how it came to power and why we choose to maintain it. Through Foucault I will challenge the concept that we have always been ‘mentally ill’ rather than mad, wise or even Dionysian.
In discussing this topic further I will touch on the technological era’s impact on medicalization, and thus the glamorisation of ‘mental illness’ within YouTube and Facebook culture. I will also aim to discuss and challenge the pharmaceutical nature of ‘therapy’ which is so widely experienced and commonly accepted.
Project Aims:
•To distinguish the moral issues within the life story of Jordan Belfort and explore whether the initial presumption that he is solely to blame for such actions is completely accurate.
•Can philosophers such as Nietzsche explain such actions through their own reasoning and logic about how people operate?
•Can a true objective answer be found for such moral dilemmas or is it too subjective to conclude with one judgement?
•Assessing the overlooked factors that aren’t so apparent when first understanding Belfort’s past.
Philosophy:
•Apollonian vs. Dionysian: Nietzsche’s division between the two realms of approaching the world. A good combination of both will help you lead a sustained lifestyle, whereas if you fall too deep into either you risk becoming ‘too boring’ or ‘out of control’. Throughout the study of Belfort’s life this concept is very applicable because he certainly experiences the description of both realms and consequentially allows the Dionysian to be the downfall of his reign.
•Cultural Relativism and how it can help people to understand the differences between certain environments and how such external influences play a vital role when making such moral judgements.
•Immanuel Kant’s absolute laws on ethics. On principles such as: “Do not use people as a means to an end” he would not condone Belfort’s actions.
•Friedrich Nietzsche’s study into Epistemology and how the process of receiving and using knowledge infringes our own free will.
Concept: the concept I decided to explore within this project is that of life goals. I chose to look into this area as it is a notion that affects all of us within our modern day lives. It is an interesting concept as it is extremely dynamic in nature, however within the project I look closely at the idea of wealth in regards to life goals and how this contrasts with philosophical thought.
Territories: the main two philosophers I used for my territories were Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. I chose them because each offer a lot of work and thought indicating on how they believe one should shape their life. Nietzsche is very interested in educating man that he must overcome himself and religion in order to reach his full potential. I have explored the idea that man needs to overthrow his dependency on money in the same way that Nietzsche declared that man needed to overthrow relying on God and religion. The main aspect of Kierkegaard’s work that I used was that of the three spheres of existence to which I applied in how each sphere would shape our life goals.
Research methods: I used a range of research methods within this project in the aim of producing an interesting and in depth project. These range from the use of surveys, internet sources, books and my own personal thought.
Examples of questions I explore within this project: Why should one really want to leave the aesthetic sphere as it arguably is the sphere of existence which provides most pleasure. Is an aim into entering the religious sphere really applicable in our ever growing society. Is man capable of overcoming oneself? How should people choose to shape their lives?
This project aims to explore the disparity between a fully-functioning international model of Hegemonic Stability and the reluctance to intervene in a country so belonging on the ash heap of history as North Korea.
By the end of this project I hope to have fully elucidated the current geopolitical state of affairs with regards to the censoring of information traffic and the contemporary misuse of a benevolent world leadership. In order to fully construct or reject the argument for intervention in the Korean Peninsula, I shall be referring to Hobbes ‘, Hegel’s Sittlichkeit and the State and Kant’s Perpetual Peace Essays.
Furthermore, in order to fully understand the political weight of such allegations, the Bush administrations’ actions in 2002 will be critically assessed, in light of present day hindsight.
Objectives: To investigate the degree to which the law is both economically and ethically constituted – To compare and contrast Ancient Mesopotamian law with our own.
Territory: Modern EU law – The Code of Hammurabi (1754 BC) – Ancient Babylon – The Code of Ur-Nammu (2100 BC) – Ancient Sumer ‘ The German Ideology ’ – Marx ‘ Elements of the Philosophy of Right ’ – Hegel
Structure: I will begin by first describing both the Code of Hammurabi and the Code of UrNammu, subsequently contrasting them with Modern law. After this, Marx will be used to argue that the law is economically routed, whilst Hegel to state that it is ethical and has progressed over time. Finally there will be an analysis of the changes made in modern day law, to exhibit the shift away from the financial ‘burdens’ of ethics, in the era of late Capitalism.
“Political Economy regards the proletarian … like a horse, he must receive enough to enable him to work. It does not consider him, during the time when he is not working, as a human being.” – Karl Marx, 1844
Project aims:
To explore different areas of the media (such as advertising, TV and films) to assess the level of sexual objectification that people will view on a daily basis.
Explore the inequalities that women still face in modern society and assess whether the situation is improving or growing worse.
Assess rape statistics – especially in respect to how many rapes occur and how many are reported – to see if sexual objectification could have removed the female voice to the point of silencing them completely.
Finally discuss if the situation can be resolved and potentially how this could be done.
Philosophers:
Catherine MacKinnon,
“Pornography makes women into objects … Objects do not speak.”
Jean Baudrillard,
“In the ‘eroticized’ body, it is the social function of exchange which predominates.”
Simone de Beauvoir,
“The division of the sexes is a biological fact, not an event in human history.”
Immanuel Kant,
“The human being… exists as an end in itself, not merely as a means to be used by this or that will”
Thomas Hobbes,
“The Desires, and other Passions of man, are in themselves no Sin.”
My objective in this essay is two part. Firstly I aim to produce a well-rounded account of the differing approaches to defining personhood, assess their shortcomings and highlight the relationship between personhood and rights. The second part of the essay will be an application of this notion of personhood and the subsequent theory of rights to the sphere of medical ethics, using abortion to demonstrate the important role the notion of personhood plays in medical ethical issues as well as highlighting its limitations.
FIRST I will establish the context of personhood by assessing first the Religious approaches to personhood. Next the Philosophical approach, using the philosophies of Aquinas, Descartes and Locke on personhood. And last the approach of science. All will be viewed in the context of history and how definitions change across history and across culture.
Secondly I will emphasise the undeniable link between concepts of Personhood and the effects it has on human rights. And use Peter Singer to demonstrate issues with a hierarchy of rights.
Lastly I will apply notions of personhood, and the subsequent theory of rights, to the abortion debate in order to demonstrate the impact of personhood in medical ethics. I will then use the works of Judith Thompson and discussions on social influences to highlight the extent of the role that personhood actually plays in medical ethical issues.
Aims:
Can we connect first basis principles to a legitimate claim to ownership?
To discuss what it means to ‘own’ a media file by an investigation into the artist’s labour and personality
If ‘file-sharing’ isn’t stealing off the original artist, who is it stealing off?
Do record labels successfully represent the artist’s intentions?
Project Outline
Distinguishing Features of Stealing and Copying
Which claim to property is most effective: Locke’s labour-mixing or Hegel’s embodiment of personality
The only claim to private property that is effective is Nozick’s entitlement to capital
Philosophers & Key Texts Used:
John Locke: Second Treatise of Government (1689)
Natural Right to Property
‘Labour-mixing argument’
Robert Nozick: Anarchy, State & Utopia (1974)
Entitlement Theory
David Hume: A Treatise Concerning Human Nature (1738)
Artificiality of Property
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Philosophy of Right (1820)
Embodiment of Personality
Karl Marx: The German Ideology (1845)
Critique of Capitalist values
Aim: To investigate whether claims to property can legitimise territorial expansion.
Case study: Throughout the essay I will focus upon he colonisation of America, with the aim of concluding whether the desire for land, held by the colonial power, could be used to legitimise the events that took place.
Philosophers: Locke, Nozick, Hobbes, Hegel, Radin, Grotius
Objectives:
– To investigate the concept of property amongst native Americans.
– To assess whether the European powers had any legitimate claim to the land.
– Can the colonial power’s desire for property ever legitimise the events that took place?
In this essay I intend to ask if the early development of Christianity was harmful to modern feminism. Are the ideas that were found in the Nag Hammadi library and the Gnostic Gospels more empowering to women than those in the Canon? Looking at the work of Elaine Pagels and Jane Schaberg I will be looking into the early history of the Church and its development in the Roman Empire, comparing Orthodox ideas to those of the Gnostics before looking into modern religious and secular issues for feminism discussing if the Gnostics had more progressive beliefs for women.
My project examines the justifiability of the State of Israel’s discriminatory treatment of Arab Palestinians and Israelis, which constitutes the ‘Crime of Apartheid’ under international law, in light of the conventional justification that such measures are necessary in order to maintain the freedom and security of Israel’s Jewish population. After outlining the mechanisms of Israeli apartheid, I will demonstrate that, whilst they are unjust from the perspective of both Kantian ethics and Millian liberalism, traditional utilitarianism considers them morally permissible, and thus, as some later liberals, such as John Rawls, recognized, does not provide a suitable foundation for a liberal political philosophy. I will argue that, whilst Israeli apartheid is undoubtedly unjust, and whilst many of the mechanisms of which it is constituted have no conceivable security function, putting an end to all aspects of Israeli apartheid ultimately requires a solution to the larger Arab-Israeli conflict. Finally, I will briefly explain why I consider a two-state solution to be the only viable means of resolving this conflict, and outline two conditions, from Kant’s Perpetual Peace, that could facilitate the actualization of such a solution.
An application of Virtue ethics to education, and through this, an understanding that UK education should be about the flourishing and development of character over and above the passing of exams
The use of Nigel Tubbs and Thomas Arnold to support my thesis
My objective of this essay:
• Through the study of Anthony Seldon’s eight aptitudes, Aristotle’s Virtue ethics, and interviews of teachers in UK education, I wish to grasp an understanding of how virtue should be practised within education.
“Education in schools, and indeed universities, has become more formulaic as the tyranny of exams has been allowed to become overly dominant.” Anthony Seldon
“I judge that the task of the school in the moral development of the child can and should be of greatest importance.” Émile Durkheim
My objective in this essay is to produce a detailed account on the history of Marijuana within the United States and to distinguish whether or not constant law reform is a result of postmodernity and the concentration of power within a society.
Firstly, I will examine Cannabis throughout the history of The United States and by doing this it will allow me to depict how the ebb and flow of acceptance has come about. Then I will address law reform and correlate it with the workings of Postmodernity in order to show how a concentration of power is able to alter the perception and experience of a social phenomenon. Lastly I will underline how the strategic, critical and rhetorical practices performed by those in power creates a clouded perception of reality.
I investigate the notion that the existence of public schools in the UK is not justified, as they are linked with social immobility – if they are a cause of social immobility, perhaps there are grounds to abolish the public school system.
Is it the right of an individual to own a disproportionate amount of private property? Should that be any different to purchasing a public school education?
I consider the opinions of Nozick, Rawls, Locke and Hegel, as I inspect whether a public school education is a piece of private property.
‘As an “Islamic” movement, it can set the entire region afire, overturn the most unstable regimes, and disturb the most solid. Islam – which is not simply a religion, but an entire way of life, and adherence to a history and a civilisation – has a good chance to become a giant powder keg, at the level of hundreds of millions of men.’ Foucault predicted that the revolution in Iran would not follow the model of other modern revolutions, writing that it was instead organised around a greatly different concept which he called ‘political spirituality’. He acknowledged the huge power of the new discourse of militant Islam for the world, not just Iran. Foucault indicated that the new Islamist movement pointed at a fundamental cultural, political and social break with the modern Western order, such a discourse would amend the ‘global strategic equilibrium’. – Foucault
Despite Drake’s lack of commercial success during his lifetime, he produced music that today is recognised as some of the most influential in its genre.
By providing a look at his life, work and personality, I will try to show that Drake demonstrates qualities of Sartrean authenticity.
The essay will consist of a struggle in which I try to identify ‘positive’ characteristics of authenticity, e.g. “originality”, “disregard for external pressure” etc.
I will go on to adapt an existential approach in order to define authenticity “negatively”, or what authenticity is not.
I will try to pin down what exactly we mean when we say, “this music is authentic” by taking a closer look at Drake’s musical technique. I will contrast his music, which is eloquent and understated, with music that one might consider manufactured or “inauthentic”, such as the Spice Girls’ discography.
It will be shown that, through the enigma of Drake’s lyrics, musical compositions and personality, that existentialism shaped his perspective and possibly lead to his untimely death.
I will conclude, with help from Peterson’s “Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity”, that ‘authenticity’ is illusory; the Spice Girls and Nick Drake have the same authentic value because authenticity is not objective, rather it is a “socially agreed-upon construct”.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a film many find hard to properly understand. I aim to present an account of 2001 that enables easier comprehension of this cinematic feature through philosophical themes.
In 2001: A Space Odyssey Stanley Kubrick exhibits on rapture and the Ubermensch. I will, in my project, present how Kubrick uses colour, sound and cinematography to evoke feelings of rapture.
Focusing on the character Dave Bowman, I reveal how rapture and the overcoming of computers enable humans to delve into the next stage of Ubermensch.
The project contains breakdowns of the most important scenes of the film in relation to the works of Nietzsche. Including mans overcoming of computers, and the transcendence of humanity.