Category: Stage 2

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

Sexuality as a commodity: Emancipation or Oppression? An investigation into OnlyFans and its effects on women’s social emancipation.

My aim of this project was to investigate the impacts that the platform OnlyFans has had on the sexual emancipation of women. I did this by providing an analysis of Pier Pablo Pasolini’s work on sexual emancipation and capitalism, thereby applying these concepts to the context of OnlyFans. I discussed the works of Rae Langton and Martha Nussbaum on objectification and pornography and applied these concepts to the concept of OnlyFans.

I discovered through my research and analysis of Pasolini and OnlyFans that OnlyFans can have a detrimental effect on women’s sexual emancipation in a capitalist society as it contributes to consumerism. The concept is that consumerism perpetuates the concept of ‘false tolerance’, introduced by Pasolini in his work Trilogy of Life Rejected. This is the idea that the lower classes and minorities are encouraged to be sexually emancipated, however, it is in fact all a commodity. This means that OnlyFans contributes to consumerism and therefore, does not actually emancipate women, but uses their bodies as a commodity.

In the context of objectification, Langton and Nussbaum provided an understanding that tradition pornography objectifies women and denies them of their autonomy. I concluded that because OnlyFans is done completely autonomously by the women who created the content, OnlyFans does not objectify women to the same severity as traditional pornography. Therefore, suggesting that OnlyFans is a healthier and safer alternative for women to traditional pornographic material.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

20th century models of emancipatory education: the case of Waldorf schools

How do Waldorf schools compare to other educational philosophies? – Hollie Donnithorne
This project is centred around multiple differing educational philosophies, and will analyse how they compare to that of Rudolf Steiner and his Waldorf schools in an attempt to see how these schools may affect wider society and the individual. By using Steiner’s texts such as Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, Steiners approach to education will be dissected in order to properly understand the background to Steiner’s educational philosophy. As part of this, the project will seek to properly understand ‘anthroposophy’, Steiner’s spiritual philosophy, and how these beliefs effect his approach to education and its influence on the individual.
Once Steiner’s approach is fully understood, the aim of the project becomes understanding it in comparison to other schools of thought within the philosophy of education. By using primary texts such as John Dewey’s Democracy and Education, the project seeks to understand other dominant education philosophies of the 20th century not only to give context to Steiner’s ideas, but also to understand how Waldorf schools differ from other thinkers and how this is thought to affect the individual child and the wider society. As well as looking at other 20th century thinkers, the project will compare Steiner’s thoughts to that of philosophers such as Plato by looking at The Republic and seeing how Plato sets out a drastically different educational philosophy from that of Steiner. By looking at this, the project is able to weigh up both schools of thought and dive into how they individually may have an impact on the child and wider society.
The project also makes use of thinkers such as Karl Marx and his thoughts about how education currently works in line with capitalism in order to uphold class structures as well as maintain a lack of class consciousness. By analysing and applying Marx’s thoughts to Waldorf schools the project is better able to understand them within the context of capitalism. The project is then able to analyse Waldorf education in many different contexts and therefore better understand how they function as part of a larger society.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

Understanding Love

The aim of my research was to provide a rounded explanation of the different forms that ‘love’ can be seen within. I explored my search for love into three perspectives; eros, philia, and agape. While looking at Eros, I provide a more detailed account of what romantic love is really considered to be, mainly defined by Plato in his Symposium. I then explored love within traditional monogamous relationships and the less traditional idea of ‘open relationships’ which two philosophers, Simone De Beaviour and Sartre were a part of. I then continued on to explore Philia. This outlines the love one feels within a friendship. While investigating the idea of friendship, I researched what Aristotles considers to be the three types of friendships, a friendship of utility, a friendship of pleasure and a perfect friendship. While doing this I looked at the similarities and differences between Eros and Philia. Finally, I spoke about Agape, which refers to the paternal love to and from God, as well as the love for humanity as a whole. This led me to question whether our ‘love’ for our religious leader is the same kind of love we experience in our physical relationships and friendships and whether Agape is something that we depend on more or less than a relationship or friendship.
I ask myself what links all three components? My hypothesis is that self love is what links all three. I argued that without self love, one would struggle to give and receive love from others. As mentioned by De Beavouir in relation to Ero’s, people are often brought together by “their weakness rather than in their strength”. From this, I take that they lack self love so look to those around them in order to feel loved. Within philia, it is said that “The wish to be friends can come about quickly, but friendship cannot”, meaning that we are quick to desire the love from a friend, sometimes before making a genuine friendship. I believe we would not be so quick to form meaningless friendships if we were content with our own company, content with the self love we have. Within Agape, the relationship is not measured by physical contact or quality time but through the belief that God’s love transcends anything physical. This draws a parallel with self love, as again it is, for lack of a better word, an “intangible” relationship but still remains very important. I believe one who has a strong sense of self love, would find it easier to give love as passionately and as selflessly as God does, to forgive and love those that have wronged them.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

Women, the Muse and the Surrealists: how the Surrealist movement systematically compelled women to assume the role of the muse

This project explores the object of the muse through the territory of feminist philosophy and the context of the Surrealist movement and its founder André Breton. I explore how the movement worked systematically to exclude women from the role of artist, allowing them only to be part of the movement only as muses, which are characterised by Breton as child-like and hysterical. I use the works of Catherine Malabou and Luce Irigaray to explore how this erasure can be looked at from a feminist philosophical point of view and later use the work of Simone de Beauvoir to suggest how women could possibly escape this erasure through transcendence. Leonora Carrington is used as emblematic of this escape in her autobiographical Surrealist novel The House of Fear: Notes from Down Below (1989) and I suggest that the only possible way for the female Surrealists to be seen as artists and not muses by the movement is by partaking in this journey Down Below and becoming new in this journey. Despite any progression in feminism since the Surrealist movement I argue that the place of women as muse remains largely unchanged and the systematic erasure and discrediting of women from art only continues as it had in the Surrealist movement.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

At what point does a serial killer’s moral and ethical point of view change? And is this influenced by their sociology and psychology?

In general, over the past decade, there has been an increase in documentaries about serial murderers to the point where websites are suggesting the top ten to watch. This intrigued me to the point where I wanted to investigate further; I wanted to look at the point time when their morality and ethical viewpoint changed from what would be considered to be an average person to their infamous persona of the killer and assess this investigation through a philosophical point of view. The typical serial murderer is seen to be an intelligent white man from a middle-class background. Still, I wanted to know if I could prove otherwise by looking at people from poorer backgrounds, those of different ethnicities and differing genders. This was achieved by utilising the arguments of Aristotle. How people become virtuous, Luther and Erasmus on the debate of free will to determine whether these people acted of their own volition, and finally, Freud and his concepts of Trauma, Repression and Dream to see whether these influence the people in question too, or if they are born evil. Ultimately, I conclude that all of the areas discussed combined may cause the serial murderer, but trauma and the lack of virtuous people in their lives contribute more than the others. Equally, this has opened more questions regarding these people’s level of responsibility.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

Should Humans Continue to Procreate?

Anti-natalism and value creation: should humans continue to procreate?

It is not worth being brought into existence if one can potentially experience
any form of suffering. The philosopher David Benatar argues that whilst life can
consist of pleasures it also always consists of some form of suffering (making
living harmful for people and the world). “while existence brings pains as well
as pleasures, non-existence is a lack of pains and pleasures. While pain is bad,
absence of pain and pleasure is not bad, so it is always worse to be than not to
be” (Brake and Millum, 2021). It means that even if life consists of 99%
pleasure and 1% suffering then it still would have been better to have never
been.
As controversial and counterintuitive it may seem to desire to stop humanity
from bringing more people into the world, it also does not violate the moral
law to live. Kant conveys strong beliefs surrounding the idea of suicide but
never conveys it in a way that would take future generations into
consideration. Implying that as long as the individual had not yet come into
existence then one does not go against basic moral rights. It is not our duty to
consider the life of potential future generations, but it is our duty to live our
lives once we have been born (Philosophynow.org, 2019).
The arguments put forward by anti-natalists challenges common beliefs in
relation to procreation and examines the roots of where various normative
views stem from and whether they are adequate justifications for procreation.

Benatar, D. (2013). Better never to have been : the harm of coming into existence. Oxford, England:
Clarendon Press
Philosophynow.org. (2019). Philosophy Now. [online] Available at:
https://philosophynow.org/issues/61/Kant_On_Suicide.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

Life affirmation and life denial: Nietzsche on Christianity.

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.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

Desire and Consumption: an Investigation of Consumerism via Pasolini, Tiqqun, Deleuze, and Guattari

We’ve had Athenian civilisation, we’ve had the Renaissance, and now our civilisation centres round the arse.
-Jean-Luc Godard, Pierrot le Fou

Since World War II, capitalist society has experienced a proliferation of consumer goods and items so vast that, according to Jean Baudrillard, they have come to take on the nature of flora and fauna. Our streets are lined with shops and restaurants, while our houses are filled with various nonessential items. For some, almost every moment in waking existence is related to consumption. For others, consumption is a type of leisure, a break from a life spent in an office doing paperwork. But how did we end up in this endless cycle of consumption? Why is consumption a lifestyle for so many people? How could such a large societal change be enacted in such a short space of time?

Judging by how quickly capitalist society has accepted and embraced consumerism, it would seem as though humans have an endless capacity to consume, and that consumer capitalism frees us to pursue this natural end. However, I will argue in this essay that consumerism is an oppressive identity and force that makes us desire its oppression. I will do so by opening the discussion of a consumer identity through Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 film Pierrot le Fou. Following this opening, I will use Pier Paolo Pasolini’s critique of consumerism to show how consumerism acts as a force of social homogenisation, and also apply this critique to Pierrot le Fou. Then I will use the concept of the Young-Girl from Tiqqun’s book Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl to show how the consumerism as a form of social control has developed from the 1960s, and how it has created an identity that engenders more consumption, and therefore a degree of self-oppression. Finally, I will use Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s book Anti-Oedipus to show how the social and the political directly produce subjects and how desire comes to desire consumption, even if this leads to its own oppression.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

The Appeal of Violence and Suffering in Marina Abramović’s Performance Art

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.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

Is it worthwhile to use drugs for aesthetic production?

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.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

How responsible can one be for one’s actions in the face of scale-atrocities

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

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

The Ethics of Ambiguity and climate change: the role our freedom plays when dealing with anthropogenic changing global climates.

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.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

Are women a priority in medical care? A theoretical analysis of endometriosis and the menopause

My project is based on the question ‘Are women a priority in medical care? A theoretical analysis of endometriosis and the menopause.’ This question therefore looks at women’s general treatment as well as the specified problems their sex goes through and how the medical system impacts their life as it perpetuates the patriarchal norms in society. The dominant philosophy integrated through this work is the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir and her concept of the woman as the other as she highlights women as a second to men and thereby put as a lesser priority which is a common theme when discussing how the medical system treats women. The first section discusses Beauvoir and the relation to women’s medical care as well as thinkers such as bell hooks, Judith Butler who analyse the problem of intersectionality for women who have other struggles than just being a woman such as women of colour and transgender women who both face problems white cisgendered women face. In the second section ‘women as the body’ I discuss how women’s body is significant due to their reproductive ability. Here discusses how those who suffer with endometriosis are only cared for in the case of fertility rather than for pain. In the section of the ‘aging woman’ Beauvoir’s concept of the third sex is discussed as it explains women’s break away from her reproductive system and into a sex that is no longer considered ‘woman’.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

The Idealogical Duality of Animal Crossing

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.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

With particular reference to Francis Bacon’s use of red in his Three Studies for a Crucifixion, do the existentialists give a more satisfying account of the effects of colour than earlier thinkers?

With particular reference to Francis Bacon’s use of red in his Three Studies for a Crucifixion, do the existentialists give a more satisfying account of the effects of colour than earlier thinkers?

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

How did the Covid-19 Pandemic affect the population?

My paper will explore the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global population, with a focus on its effects on the UK. During the pandemic, there were multiple lockdowns, inflicted by the government, that changed the way we lived drastically. Research shows the rise in levels of stress, anxiety and, depression with an overall decrease in the population’s mental health. My research aims to explore the social and psychological impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the population. The philosophical concepts that will be used, will provide a baseline and foundation into why the expected freedom and typical normalities of day-to-day life, that were taken away from us during the pandemic, were so important in our human understanding and human agency. Incorporating evidence from personal correspondence, statistics, alongside Philosophical concepts, this research will demonstrate that there has been a drastic social change in society. I will be arguing two theses in this essay that I believe to be extremely important to consider and explore. Firstly, the regulations during the pandemic have distorted social relations and affected our human understanding about ourselves and the society we live in. Additionally, we have not yet returned to the same place we were in as a society before the pandemic hit. These claims are particularly clear throughout the research involved within this essay.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

Plural Expression: Exploring the place of music in ethics and politics through the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Maurice Blanchot

The purpose of my project is to engage with the question ‘is there an ethical relation in art?’ as posed by Emmanuel Levinas in Reality and its Shadow. My aim is twofold, first to demonstrate my belief, using Levinas’ ethico-phenomenological framework, that in the performance of improvised music, at least between bandmates, we find an ethical relation consistent with the one that Levinas outlines in his work. Thus, finding Reality and its Shadow to be inconsistent with Levinas’ system.
My second aim is to expand on this inconsistency to critique Levinas’ system more broadly, outside of his framework and using Maurice Blanchot’s notion of community to do so – the aim of this is to further the case for the ethics, or at least ethical potential, of art as well as a more positive role of art within a community. To do this requires making apparent, what I see as, the shortcomings of and stifling nature of Levinas’ ethical theory.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

Can Phenomenology Provide a Valid Account of the Runner’s High?

This project will explore the object of the runner’s high within the territory of Phenomenology, in particular, the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty in The Phenomenology of perception and the work of Martin Heidegger in Being and Time. The runner’s high is generally understood as acute and positive mood changes that occur with running and jogging over long distances, that can be explained by the scientific endorphin hypothesis. However, this project aims to show that this is limited as it does not provide an account of our actual human experience of the runner’s high. It draws on literature and blogs that describe the author’s personal experience of the runners high in order to analyse this phenomenon as it actually appears to us. The application of phenomenology is significant in proving an account of this as it includes the way things are experienced by humans and treats this phenomenon as real and significant. To an extent, this project argues that Phenomenology can provide a valid account of the runner’s high as the application of Heidegger’s work partially provides an explanation of key factors in our experiences of the runner’s high. However, the application of Merleau-Ponty’s work provides a more sufficient account.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

WHERE SHOULD WE STOP OBEYING THE LAW? The Colston Statue and the Limits of Obedience: Revisiting John Locke and John Rawls on Civil Disobedience

This project examines where one should draw the line between obeying and disobeying the law, specifically focusing on the Colston statue controversy in Bristol, UK. It investigates the role of civil disobedience in the removal of the statue. The legitimacy of the actions taken by the Colston Four are considered, who were charged with criminal damage and brought to trial for their role in the statue’s removal. The perspectives of political philosophers John Locke and John Rawls on civil disobedience are utilised, with a view towards how their theories might relate to the Colston statue case.
It also considers the legal framework governing civil disobedience in the UK, examining the Colston Four’s legal defence and the judge’s ruling that they could not rely on a human rights defence. It questions whether the current legal system adequately protects individuals’ rights to civil disobedience and whether greater protections should exist. Ultimately, I argue that the Colston Four’s actions were justified as a form of civil disobedience aimed at rectifying a historical wrong and that the law should allow for greater latitude in cases of civil disobedience where the individual’s actions are aimed at challenging injustice and promoting equality.

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2022 Abstracts Stage 2

A Discussion of the Psychic Mechanisms Within Cinematic Catharsis

The emotional release that is often felt by spectators when observing cinema is an interesting focus in the context for Freud’s catharsis, as early cinema was still developing as an art form when he wrote his various works. He extensively discussed the psychic mechanisms at play during dreams, fantasy and even when telling jokes yet applying his theories of repression and the unconscious to cinema specifically has produced insight into the unique experience of being a spectator to cinema.

This dissertation explores the role of catharsis in cinema, focusing on the 2016 television series ‘Fleabag’ and analysing the psychic mechanisms at play during such catharsis. My object therefore is Cinema and Fleabag and the territory is catharsis.
Cinema is referenced through a variety of secondary sources and Fleabag is referenced through Phoebe Waller- Bridge’s original scripts- The Scriptures (2020).
Aristotelian Catharsis is reference through his Poetics (1995) which influenced Freudian catharsis as demonstrated in Breuer and Freud’s Studies in Hysteria (2004) which describe a therapeutic technique which harnesses the process of catharsis to treat neurotic patients. Finally, I discuss the feminine experience of catharsis with reference to the popular culture term dissociative feminism, relating it to Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (2011).

By the above primary thinkers, my project demonstrates that the process of cinematic catharsis is purgative because it facilitates a processing of unconscious conflict, even if we are unaware of it.