To determine whether or not drum and bass is a legitimate art form I have looked at the publications of four men; two philosophers and two artists.
Schopenhaur – Music is a representation of the will. Good music accurately depicts the will.
Adorno – music is good insofar as it is innovative and revolts against the bourgeoisie culture industry.
Goldie – Don’t think about art just enjoy it!
Wilde – Art Is good insofar as it is beautiful – as simple as that.
Background:
In August 2011, England experienced its ‘most serious bout of civil unrest in a generation’, for most the riots were a clear indication of the deepening problem of broken Britain. The majority of people could not understand and were left deeply bewildered at the shocking behaviour exhibited and total disregard shown for the law, 59% were unemployed and 50% were under 18.
Aims:
– In this project one of my fundamental aims is to assess whether the motives behind the riots were legitimate or as David Cameron described acts of ‘mindless criminality’
– Did the participants wish to change the political system? Were they just fed up of being ignored? Or did people just follow the masses and joined in because everybody else was like a ‘domino effect’
– I will also research the validity of rioting itself and distinguish between violent and non-violent protest and research whether non-violent protest can significantly change a system or is just witnessed and ignored.
Thinkers:
Thomas Hobbes- Concentrates on the individual’s pleasure. However emphasised the importance of a state, as there would be anarchy without one.
John Stuart Mill- Uses Utilitarianism as a foundation (pleasing the majority) Also focused on the individual, pleasure alone motivates us
Thomas Aquinas- Just War theory ‘last resort’, has to be appropriate motives
Emile Durkheim- Sociologist witnessed social disunity. Offered theory of Social Integration.
Objective/Territory – In relation to the experience on an executioner, I wish to map our conventional views of human responsibility and the sanctity of life, and question whether they can exist rationally in our contemporary world. From this, I shall be assessing the role of an executioner and exploring the state of mind required to perform such a difficult and controversial job. In doing so, I shall be questioning how anyone, even in 21st century society, can so willingly take the life of another human being. What are the consequences of such a job?
Sources – To achieve this, I shall be looking at Kant’s Moral Theory, and looking at the concepts of duty and universalisation and asking whether they can be achieved through the experience of an executioner. Moreover, I shall be using Hegel’s philosophy, particularly to his concern with human intention and responsibility and questioning whether an executioner should be solely responsible for the killing of life. Additionally, I shall be exploring the Utilitarian position, which Mill shall be representing, to consider if welfare is achieved in society through the performance of an executioner.
‘Animals obviously cannot have a right of free speech or a right to vote because they lack the relevant capacities. But their right to life and to be free of exploitation is no less fundamental than the corresponding right of humans.’ – Julian H. Franklin
In this project I have looked back through the history of animal rights and the way in which the consideration for them is evidently growing. Will this care for the animals ever grow until their rights become equal to ours? Descartes believed that animals were merely muscular machines, unable to feel pain due to the fact that they were lacking in mind and soul. Bentham began the fight for animal rights in the 1800’s. Today, vivisection continues…
‘Speciesism’ – The argument for putting the rights of humans over those of animals – Peter Singer.
‘How we ought to treat animals depends first of all on the relationship we have with them… There is our relation with pets, who are promoted to honorary membership of the moral community. They are an exception, in a sense a perversion, and a temptation too. There is our relation with animals that we keep for our uses, where we have a clear duty of care but we are not trying to establish quasi-personal relations. Then finally there is our relation with animals in the wild. My argument is that we have duties to animals in all these three areas but they are of a different kind depending on the structure of the relationship.’- Roger Scruton
My project was an examination of Comic Books and Graphic Novels and whether or not they can be used to give us Ethical and Moral Direction in our lives. I focused on the Comic Books Kick Ass by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. and also on V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. I looked at the Ethical Philosophy of John Stuart Mill, looking at his Utilitarian theory from his Book titled Utilitarianism, Immanuel Kant and his theory from Groundwork for the metaphysics of Morals and also Thomas Hobbes’s theory seen in the Leviathan. I also looked at the Aesthetic Theory of Arthur Schopenhauer. I applied the Philosophy to the actions portrayed in the comic books to see if there was any ethical guidance to be taken from the comic books. Also looking at the Comics as works of art to see if there is any element of Aesthetic pleasure to be gained from them.
Laing was a psychoanalyst in the mid sixties who was a revolutionary and controversial character. Within my project I will discuss the impact Laing had on the liberation of the voice of madness in the 60’s. Even though his practices were not well renowned towards the end of his career, at his peak Laing was the ‘pop star’ of the psychological world. His medical practices were considered to be revolutionary in that he took madness out of the asylum and created a home within a city where the mentally insane were housed. His practices were controversial in that he condoned excessive drug use in order to access a ‘higher reality’ and due to the fact that he considered psychotic regression to be a necessary stage within the healing of madness. For example, he allowed one of his patients to smear her walls with her own faeces and to be fed out of a bottle like a baby.
Once I have explained Laing’s position within the history of madness I will focus the rest of my project on Laing’s first book: ‘The Divided Self’. Within, he explains the existential view of madness from the stages of the schizoid condition to schizophrenia and psychosis. I will relate Laing’s discussion of madness to Sartre’s views on Bad Faith and the Other, as expressed within ‘Being and Nothingness.’ This will allow me to have a detailed discussion of Laing’s existentialism of madness as expressed as the loss of the self to the point where the patient can be considered to be existentially dead.
“The self, being transcendent, empty, omnipotent, free in its own way, comes to be anybody in phantasy and nobody in reality.” – R. D. Laing
In this project I shall explore the idea of authenticity in the blues, using both the idiomatic definition of ‘authentic’, and martin Heidegger’s theory of authentic and inauthentic existence
As a case study I shall use the career of Huddie ‘lead belly’ Ledbetter and his working relationship with the folklorists John and Alan Lomax
Are the blues authentic?
Is the life of a bluesman?
Can we appreciate the blues in an authentic way today?
The aim of my project is to examine how impossible standards of beauty are being promoted as the ideal within society.
As a result, thousands of women are resorting to the use of cosmetic surgery to try and emulate this ideal.
Women have been banished to the sphere of Otherness, destined to achieve nothing and receive only that which men have been willing to grant.
Simone de Beauvoir argues that women should be liberated from abstract, restrictive essences, like ‘femininity’, which continue to cement women in their subordinate place.
My aim is to explore the question of whether a child can be born purely evil, or whether they can only be made so by adults. I first compared philosopher’s views on the concept of evil whilst also exploring the issue of the age of criminal responsibility in respect to ethics. My territory was the ethical debates behind the treatment of child offenders and debating whether the age of criminal responsibility is correct.
The object I used is the novel and 2011 film We need to talk about Kevin. It is a novel about the relationship between a successful business woman named Eva and her son Kevin, a 16 year old boy who kills seven fellow students at school. The novel tackles the issue of nature vs nurture, asking whether a child can be predisposed to being ‘evil’ and with the intent to kill, or whether a parent’s shortcomings can shape their child and potentially lead them to evil actions.
I looked at the idea of responsibility, both moral and legal, and whether the age of responsibility is ethically sound or not. The fact that the defence of infancy age differs widely from country to country, from as high as 18 in Columbia, to no defence of age at all in Saudi Arabia. suggests that the law is highly debatable.
I looked primarily at the ethics concepts of Kant and Hobbes, comparing Hobbesian ethics laid down in his Leviathan, and Kant’s deontological ethical views with the Groundwork of the metaphysic of morals. I chose to look at Kantian ethics because of his strong claim that one is only responsible for what is under one’s control. Additionally, Hobbes has strong ethical views on authority, which can be linked with the idea of a parental control and also with the age of legal responsibility. Hobbes and Kant both also hold strong different views on why we obey laws in the first place, along with views on freewill and determinism, which ties in with the nature vs. nurture debate.
The Advertising of Honda – Popular and life-affirming, but is it just a capitalist front designed purely for selling and promoting the spectacle?
Popular and life-affirming, but is it just a capitalist front designed purely for selling and promoting the spectacle?
The Society of the Spectacle (Guy Debord) – claims our society is dominated by the spectacle (TV for e.g.) but is it too cynical?
‘The Power of Dreams’ or ‘the glitter of the spectacle’s distractions’? Through this project, I aim to examine the theory Guy Debord asserts in his The Society of the Spectacle in detail, in order to discuss the relevance of a Debordian analysis with relation to Honda’s advertising.
Aims
– To outline the key philosophical, social and legal theories which are integral to the debate about the legalisation of drugs.
– To consider some of the most salient and persuasive cases for the legalisation of drugs, including:
o Medicinal cannabis use
o Spiritual or religious drug use
– To make recommendations for changes to the extant legal and social policies with regard to certain types of illegal drug use.
“In our societies, the systems of punishment are to be situated in a certain ‘political economy’ of the body […] it is always the body that is at issue – the body and its forces, their utility and docility, their distribution and their submission.” (Foucault)
The War on Drugs
Key Thinkers
– John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
– Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish
Chairman Mao
Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976) is the focal dictator within my project. He ruled over the People’s Republic of China for nearly 30 years and in that time is said to have caused the deaths of 5070 million people. However he is still seen by many of China’s people as one of their great leaders.
His doctrine of Maoism refers to Mao’s belief in the mobilization of the masses, particularly in large-scale political movements. This ideology was projected during the Cultural Revolution whereby Mao retained his position of absolute power after giving it up, due to the downfall of his Great Leap Forward initiative.
Methodology
This project was a brief insight into the systems of government around the world, the main focal point being, of course, Dictatorships. It delves into the concepts of power, justice and equality. I feel that my project contains importance for everyone as it delves into concepts that have had direct or indirect effects on all of us, due to politics and government that has an effect on all of our lives in some respect.
Dictators also have profound effects on people, some positive but mostly negative, and the project will outline what it is that moves individuals into something outside of basic human morals.
Philosophers
I have of course looked at the major works of Machiavelli The Prince as well as Thomas Hobbes and Leviathan. I have discussed that both hold the same ideal – that there should be a single seat of absolute power within a society – but are at differences as to how said single individual should project their power.
I have also looked at the work of John Locke on the notion of freedom in the sense of natural rights, such as property. With reference to John Stuart Mill and his utilitarian view on freedom, as well as justice.
There is also a small view into John Rawls, David Hume and Aristotle on this issue, as they are all philosophers who speak in depth on the topic of a ‘Rule of One’ and the concepts that are addressed in the project.
Aim: To discuss the relevance of the music festival as an arena for transgression and excess, and as an escape from the constraints of society. Using a variety of music festivals from past and present to construct a coherent argument.
Discussion: It is felt that music festivals provide a much needed release from the strains and pressures of society; one is permitted a degree of excess within a shared environment. The use of drugs and alcohol during a festival is representative of the need to cast off one’s inhibitions and to partake in unrestrained celebration. However, the music festival is still influenced by social rules and regulations. It is a temporary letting-loose, and therefore may be regarded as another form of social constraint.
Philosophy: – Freud; Civilisation and its Discontents, Totem and Taboo – Bataille; Inner Experience – Hegel; Elements of the Philosophy of Right, The Phenomenology of Mind
“Long may the expression of free-thinking people reign over this land!” -Michael Eavis
HEGEL’S SITTLICHKEIT:
Using Hegel’s Philosophy of Right and Philosophy of Mind, I have established the theory of Sittlichkeit and the State. The Sittlichkeit is the moral fabric of a society, founded on the historical development of social norms. Within a state, it is the basis of personal and societal morality. If we look at the student experience, it could be seen as part of modern society’s Sittlichkeit, a social norm in itself based around mutual interests and community.
MY OBJECT:
The student experience: excessive drinking, late nights, unhealthy food, promiscuity.
BATAILLE’S NON-PRODUCTIVE EXPENDITURE:
We have urges for sacrifice and ritual not supported by society. Bataille says we must release these need through non-productive expenditure, concerned only with destruction and sacrifice. Bataille’s general economy is this cycle of production and destruction: both equally necessary. Applied to the student lifestyle, excessive behaviours are nothing more than a release of these urges through action for its own sake: non-productive.
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MUSIC FESTIVALS IN RELATION TO: BATAILLE’S NOTION OF FESTIVITY, MICHAEL KELLEY AND MICHAEL SMITH’S A VOYAGE OF GROWTH AND DISCOVERY, AND NIETZCHE’S DUALISTIC COMPONENTS OF ATTIC TRAGEDY.
BATAILLE
Notion of festival: general and restricted economy, non-productive expenditure, taboo and transgression, sacrifice, the sacred and profane, and joy before death…
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVALS
The Burning Man…
A VOYAGE OF GROWTH AND DISCOVERY
Smith and Kelley’s artistic interpretation of carnivalism…
NIETZSCHE
Apollonian and Dionysian: Greek Attic tragedy and Wagner…
My project is an investigation into the housing market and provision in Great Britain and whether its needs alteration and if so what and how. This is done by direct comparison to Danish Housing provision.
I will be looking into the current system in Britain whilst referring to three economic philosophers: Marx, Keynes and Freidman. I will also consider whether our system is satisfactory and just. In addition, I will focus on the positives and negatives of a housing economy compared with Government provision.
I took sources from the people affected by private investment housing: the tenants of the Duke of Devonshire.
In interviewed those in council housing and those who owned privately.
I also looked into Government rental documents and the statistics in the private housing market in the Estate Agent ‘Savills’ review
Philosophy
• Kant’s theory of punishment is based on desert and not about consequences. It insists on retribution. (Kant, Groundwork)
• Utilitarianism appeals to consequences, hence reparation programmes and deterrence. Yet if a severe crime creates greater consequences then it should be carried out regardless of desert. (Mill, Utilitarianism)
Territory
• America demonstrates a penal system of harsh retributive punishment and also harsh utilitarian forms of punishment. (Death penalty, 3 strikes)
• Scandinavia utilitarian in its aims of reparation and prevention
• UK show like America a combination yet is more focussed on probation programmes than America.
Project Aims
– To outline the differences in penal systems in Scandinavia, UK and America
– To demonstrate the effectiveness of various forms of punishment.
– To demonstrate how these countries’ penal systems reflect Kantian retribution and utilitarianism
– To critically compare these approaches
Aims:
– Personal work on an issue that interests me
– An issue that relates to possible career path
– Increase understanding of poverty
– Look into solving poverty
– Seeing whether the systems we live by are moral
– Questioning the status quo of my society
Grounding:
– Economist Paul Collier, author of background book
– Marx, philosopher and sociologist, author of Communist manifesto
Outcome:
Capitalism is the answer to solving poverty, communism is not applicable, nor desired, it cannot come into being without capitalism. In order to alleviate world poverty, capitalist society must embrace the third world into our bosom, aid, investment, trade, military intervention and laws, will elevate the third world out of poverty.
Territory: My aim is to look at modern day writers who focus their studies on the concept of past lives; mainly focusing on Dr Brian Weiss M. D., who claims to have aided over four thousand patients through their mental and physical pains through past life regression. I shall also be comparing the findings from Weiss’ work to beliefs which are rooted in Buddhism and trying to discover whether the work studied by Weiss allows people ‘a gateway to the spiritual peace’ which Buddhism claims we can develop through meditation. I have also looked at writers such as Shakti Gawain who describes the concept of ‘creative visualization’ to help me understand the power of positive thought and will.
Concepts: I shall focus on Nietzsche’s work in ‘The Antichrist,’ where Nietzsche’s negative attitude towards Christianity implies that the religion is stopping people from ‘truly living’ and where he argues that Christianity makes people ‘weak’ as we no longer are willed to do what is right but we merely obey forces with more power than ourselves.
Using Nietzsche and Weiss I shall compare Christianity and Buddhism and find the positives and negatives of each contrasting religion or belief.
“God is Dead”
Stephen Hawking stated in “The Grand Design” (2010) that “philosophy is dead”, and certainly as far as furthering our understanding of the physical nature of the Universe, that job seems much better suited to physicists than Priests and Theologians. However this increasingly empiricist attitude of society has lead to a crisis of values and an onset of nihilism.
It’s my opinion that of all the philosophers I’ve studied Friedrich Nietzsche, despite dying over a Century ago, grasps and provides the most convincing answer to the potentially valueless existence we face today. Nietzsche’s answer isn’t a normative one however but is in need of personal study and analysis by all who seek to learn something from it.
Go Beyond Good and Evil by journeying through time and Space
I’ve chosen to use “Doctor Who” (2005-present) as a way of interpreting and critiquing Nietzsche’s moral philosophy.
I feel I’m justified in this comparison given the immensely positive critical reception of this series which is often praised for being innovative and challenging, recently being described as a show that: “makes your mind work…” by the site www.avtoday.co.uk.
And Crucially the head producers Russell T Davies and Stephen Moffat have not only got a reputation for exploring deep philosophical issues with their dramas in a way that often borders on the unnerving, but both their runs of “Doctor Who” have been characterized by an undeniably existentialist and atheistic edge. Going so far as to pit the protagonist against the devil itself!