Category: Stage 3

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

The End of an Era? Modern Culture in an Age of Apathy

Project Aims: To investigate the evolution of apathy  and the changing attitudes toward it over time –  from the Stoics to modern culture. Has an era  ended? Was the era of positivity towards apathy  correct, or modernity’s negative opinion?  What  does it mean to be individual today? 

Object: Apathy 

Concepts: Politics, Social development, the Culture  Industry, the Last Man, the Other. 
 
Change/contrast:  historical contrast between  the Stoics, the Christian  theologians and modern society  

Thinkers: Adorno, Nietzsche, Levinas 
Adorno – the Culture Industry as a cause 
Nietzsche – overcoming the Last Man 
Levinas – Do we need to focus upon something ‘Other’ than  ourselves to overcome our apathetic age?  

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

The 2007-2009 Financial Crisis: Enlightenment Reason in the Financial Markets

Project Territory, Object and Aims: “We are in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.” This is the opening statement from economist George Soros found in ‘The New Paradigm for Financial Markets’. Due to the importance of this event I decided to study the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis within the Territory of Economics with the aim of diagnosing its causes. The object contains many smaller fields which have contributed to its emergence such as the growth and collapse of the United States housing bubble and the collapse of Mortgage lenders and related businesses. House prices and the value of the FTSE 100 are depicted below. Quantitative Economic versus Qualitative Hermeneutical Analysis: I discovered the causes of the crisis by collecting quantitative economic data to understand the preceding events. Initial analysis led me to the conclusion that the financial crisis was caused by poor lending policies of mortgages that could not be repaid. To contrast this research and fully engage with my object I then collected Qualitative evidence from economist George Soros and philosophical data from my chosen field of Critical theory. Specifically I used the works of Theodor Adorno and Jürgen Habermas regarding types of reason born in the Enlightenment era. After collecting this research I was led to a deeper, more fundamental finding stating that: the financial crisis was in fact caused by the use of Instrumental and Subject Centred Reason within the financial markets leading to the use of Identity Thinking. With the actual philosophical causes of the crisis identified I then investigated Adorno and Habermas’ solutions to those types of derogatory reason. These solutions are: Communicative Action and Negative Dialectics. I then applied these as a solution to the financial crisis itself.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Nature vs Nurture

Overall aim- to prove that humans do have a distinct nature which sets us apart as individuals and that we are more than living organisms that respond to social needs. • To prove this I am using my experience of America – to study how I adapted to a new culture to see whether I totally adapted or whether there is part of me that remained the same. • We cannot deny our want and need to adapt to environments and cultures but humans still have an innate nature that defines us as individuals and remains the same all our life. • Our human nature is responsible for HOW we respond to cultures and our upbringing. We are not born a blank slate. PHILOSOPHY. • I liken my ideas to Descartes and his idea of dualism where the mind and body are distinct from each other. • Mencius believed that there are 4 positions of human nature that we are born with but develop throughout our life, o 1. Mind of commiseration o 2. Mind of shame o 3. Mind of respect o 4. Mind of right/wrong • Lao Tzu believed that we should strive to be an ‘uncarved block.’ So we should go back to the basis of our human nature and we should not be affected by anything external to ourselves. • I am using these two philosophers to suggest unlike them I do not believe we are wholly independent from society and I think that Lao Tzu’s ‘uncarved block’ is unrealistic. We could never deny the influences that our society/upbringing has on us. • But like them I believe we have an innate human nature which is responsible for how we respond to our surroundings and is individual to each person.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Leaders or Victims, a Fickle World of Fashion

Karl Marx: Here, fashion is nothing but ideological apparatus utilised by the capitalist system in order to manipulate the working class. I have linked these ideas with the collapse of the designer brand ‘Thomas Burberry’ whereby the infamous pattern was adopted by the lower class ‘chav’ and a decline in stature equated with a decline in sales. Deleuze and Guattari: I have drawn on the notion of ‘minor politics’ and art as a ‘becoming’. In a more positive sense, the punk sensation of designer Vivienne Westwood has, as an art form, generated a revolutionary community culture. There exists an issue that fashion is a trivial subject. I intend to challenge this misconception and show how this phenomenon can directly affect our society. I have further deconstructed the ideas of these thinkers and introduced the work of Hans-georg Gadamer, as offering an alternative approach and a distinction between fashion and taste.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Carrying the Burden: what Motivates People to Help Others?

Object: Surrogacy. Territory: Human Motivations. Why do surrogates bear children for other women? Is it due to the desire to help childless couples, or is it for financial compensation? Is this an important distinction?  
Philosophical Theories: 
• Mill’s Utilitarianism: Is human motivation important if  the greatest good for the greatest number is achieved?   
• Kant Theory of Moral Motivation: One must act  according to duty. One should not be acting for reward  or merit.   
• MacIntyre’s Dependent Rational Animals: It is not possible to differentiate between altruistic and  egotistical acts. The family bond is greater than any  other motivation. 
Conclusion:  It is not possible to provide a  theory to explain all human  motivation. Every human is different and therefore every motivation must be viewed independently.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

The Class System: is it Evident at Newcastle University?

Do we still live in a society that is dominated by issues of class? • If so why do certain sectors of society refuse to discuss it and others believe that it no longer exists? • Why do we force social issues, in the desperate hope not to show a class divide? Aim: These were some of the questions I wanted to try and tackle this year. With the ever increasing topic of class being raised, I decided to question Newcastle students on their perspectives. Whether they felt that Universities were a key part of society’s social engineering, or whether they believed that there was a social divide at the University. Philosophers: Focusing on the work of Karl Marx and Theodor Adorno to illustrate the concept of capitalism, and whether we still live in a bourgeoisie and proletariat state.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

‘Mountains of the Mind’. Leisure, Thrill and the Nature of Human Existence

Object/Territory: I chose to study the sport of mountaineering with reference to the historical development and change in attitude towards it. I essentially wanted to provide a philosophical explanation behind the reason people take part in such a high risk sport.

Philosophers and Concepts: Immanuel Kant and Burke- The Theory of the Sublime Jean- Paul Sartre- Existential Freedom and Authentic Existence. Vertigo Theory. Martin Heidegger- Dasein, Being-towards-death.

By using the above philosophical concepts I intend to explain what makes mountaineering so appealing to the human mind and how these attitudes have changed over the course of time. I will take into account the history of the sport and the changing attitudes that have resulted in the change from a leisure activity to one that seeks a deeper, more satisfying thrill factor concerning human endurance. Ultimately I want to demonstrate that mountaineering provides fundamental experiences that are vital to the human condition and to our sense of self-understanding.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

An Ethical Study into the Importance of the Autonomy of the Individual within Russian Society, before, during and after Communist Rule through a Dialogue with Aleksandr Solzhenitisyn’s “Cancer Ward”

Main Aim: In this project I aim to explore the changes in Russian politics and ideology from the Tsarist autocracy through to the information revolution that ultimately brought to an end the oppressive Communist regime affected by Josef Stalin. With respect to these changes I will look at how important the concept of the autonomy of the individual is in maintaining an ethical and moral way of life and how the autonomy and subsequent freedom of the individual was affected throughout these socio‐political changes. The use of Solzhenitsyn’s ‘Cancer Ward’ is particularly useful firstly because of the personal nature of his experience; he was arrested and put into forced labour for eight years before being confined to internal exile following criticism of Stalin in a personal letter. With regards to this, the semi‐autobiographical nature of the book allows a fictional insight into the workings of the Soviet State post Stalin with the authenticity of personal experience. Secondly, it provides a detailed insight into how the government treated individuals but also of how individuals treated each other while under the morally dubious Stalinist state. Philosophy: Kant – A major contributor to contemporary ethical thought the works of Kant had a significant effect on how the individual was thought of to be able to work out and make their own ethical decisions. It will be important to see how the autonomy of the individual changes under the communist and totalitarian Stalinist state. Marx/Hegel – the concepts of alienation and the abolition of private property from these two thinkers created the original structure around which Lenin’s communism would be built. Their thoughts on both subjects will require explanation. Sartre – His post war work meant his name became synonymous with existentialism, the absolute freedom with which we make our decisions contrasted harshly with the reality of Russia during the mid 20th Century where people often declined to make the correct ethical choice, or were altered to act in a way unbefitting a moral human being. His later writings reflect a more measured approach to the effects of one’s situation and I will explore his subsequent change in direction. Personal Considerations: This project has allowed me to explore an area of personal interest (Russian literature) combined with the aspects of philosophy I find most interesting. I have also been able to understand the link between society and philosophy more thoroughly and regarding this the importance that the individual plays in how he treats his fellow man, no matter how powerful or oppressive the government is.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Dying in Denial: the Industrialisation of Death in Contemporary Society

For my stage three project I have decided to explore the industrialisation of death in our current society. My examination begins with a look at the gradual change in the perception of death, from the classical age to the modern day. By taking a genealogical approach to this historical change I am able to identify the specific reasons for these changes and reflect upon what significance these changes have on the perceived meaning of death. Beginning with the role in which death played in the Classical Age, I examined how death was once understood as a harsh reality of life to which everyone was made aware through events such as the bubonic plague and the limitations in medical knowledge. After which I explored the gradual development of anatomical pathology in the modern age and the effect that demography, pathology and sociology had and currently have on how death is now approached. In particular I looked at the importance that has been placed on defining death in terms of its physiological cause and the implication that this definition has on each of the specific areas of study I have mentioned. By understanding the changes that have occurred between these two points of history, I highlight the key issues that are involved in the industrialisation of death and what exactly this means in relation to our individual approach to death and our common understanding.

Following this I introduced the philosophical theory of Martin Heidegger and his explanation of death in relation to his phenomenological task to uncover true meaning in ‘Being and Time’. By setting out a brief explanation of how Heidegger attempts to understand the meaning of being in general through human experience, I examine the significance that death has in making possible the discovery of true meaning. From this I moved onto Heidegger’s later work, ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ and his thought on the role of technology in the pursuit of understanding being and the distinction he makes between authentic and inauthentic perception. It is at this point where I applied the issues I raised, in the study of my concept, to Heideggerian theory and translate what effect the industrialisation of death has had on the authenticity of understanding the true meaning of death in the modern day. In conclusion I offered a personal insight to my opinion on the impact that contemporary society has had on our perceived meaning of death and what significance this has to our eventual confrontation with death.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

A Foucauldian Investigation into Conceptions and Opinions of Tattooing held by the British General Society in the Present Day

My Stage three project is a Foucauldian investigation into tattooing in England  in the present day. I have based my research around Foucault’s theories of  power, history and governmentality. 

I have also investigated psychological and social theories that relate to the Foucauldian ideas of power and governmentality. 

From working through my investigation, I decided that I should make history the greatest aspect of my analysis, and that allowed me an insight into collective notions in what I termed the “general society” and this  has made up the main body of my work. 

I have also investigated how the view of the tattooed community has changed, as well as investigating where negative opinions held by the societies at each point in history originated from. 

I have discovered through my investigation that negative attitudes towards tattooing stem from the orthodox Judeo-Christian belief that the Body is the property of God, and that to scar or tattoo it is a sin against God. Tattooed Jews are still not allowed the same burial rites as non‐tattooed Jews.  

This project represents a new understanding of tattooing as a genealogical  entity, as much has been written about the social, psychological and  anthropological impact of allowing tattooing in civilised society.  

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

Hearing without Knowing: Music, Recording and Differance

This project began with Bill Drummond’s poster, Notice. For Drummond, the digitization and instant access to music through the internet has rendered recorded music a dead art form. To try and understand Drummond’s perception, I have chosen to examine three moments where technology had altered musical production and dissemination: – (1) The birth of notation. (2) The advent of file-sharing software such as Napster. (3) The rise of house music and ecstasy culture where DJs perform using recorded music. Throughout, I have used Deleuze and Guatarri’s A Thousand Plateaus as a conceptual tool-kit. Drawing on their notion of the rhizome, faciality, the refrain, becoming-imperceptible and micro-politics I have attempted to understand both these three movements and develop an approach to music itself. In order to cast some light on Drummond’s perception of recorded music as a single, irrelevant genre, I have turned to Adorno’s conception of the culture industry. Through Derrida’s Dissemination, I have attempted to show that the dichotomy between recording and performance cannot be sustained and that the musical experience returns the listener to the play of differance.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

The Threat of 21st Century Global Terror: are Terrorist Organisations Psychotic [Freud]?

Territory: Terror and the Suicide Bomber.
Terrorism is not a new weapon but in the 21st Century we have seen it used to devastating effect. A 21st Century phenomenon is the suicide bomber, the human bomb willing to sacrifice their own life for terrors cause. The suicide bomber is an utterly baffling weapon 9 times out of 10 it is unable to be defused and its explosive force can cause widespread damage to infrastructure, troops and civilians. For counter terror organisations around the world the suicide bomber presents the ultimate nightmare and risk to the civilian population. It is a bomb combined with human thought and human emotion, a bomb that shouldn’t exist.

Concept: Freudian Psychosis.
The aim of my project is to engage with the terrorist’s mind-set, in particular the suicide bombers with respect to Freudian psychology. The simple answer is to declare terrorism and its follower’s psychotic thought, but could this assumption merely be just a Western attitude?

Secondary Concept: Levinas’s Autrui.
For further discussion I will also engage the terrorist with Autrui [the Other] to discuss if the suicide bomber truly understands the people it destroys as Autrui.

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2009 Abstracts Stage 3

The Prevention of the two Possible Outcomes for Society

Territory: My project this year is a follow on from my project last year and so my territory has remained the same. My territory is society itself, but particularly the problems of society and the two possible futures for society those being either; the civilised state of nature where everyone is out to get everyone in order to increase their standing in society, this is seen in things such as the culture of legal action. The other scenario is a totalitarian state where the government take absolute control to prevent a collapse in the civilised state of nature or full anarchy, but it can also be seen happening through such things as political correctness and the nanny culture. Aim: My aim for my project is to find a way to prevent these two scenarios from occurring but also to find a way to tackle some of today’s societies problems. I plan to do this by looking for the root of the problem and then tackle the problem from the root up. I believe that the root is society’s obsession with liberty and equality with liberty being the more problematic of the two. To tackle the problem I shall be using theories from Social Contract thinkers such as Hobbes and Hegel to thinkers such as Levinas and their view on meaning. Overall I want to try and make a system where there is liberty and equality, but it is not an obsession rather a balance between liberty, equality, order and meaning to ensure a society where we can grow as moral human beings with the most pleasant life possible without having to resort to extremes to do so.

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2008 Abstracts Stage 3

Anxiety and the Loss of Meaning

Outline: I aim to explore the concept of anxiety, loss of meaning and absurdity of life as presented within “Existentialist” narrative. In evoking these ideas from specific novels I will analyse them more precisely with relation to Martin Heidegger’s concept of anxiety. Territory: In particular I will be studying Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea, Albert Camus’ The Outsider, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, and Leo Tolstoy’s A Confession. In examining these texts I hope to explore how the idea of loss of meaning is presented and focus particularly upon the individual’s coming to terms with the absurdity of life. Philosophical Material: The philosopher that I have chosen to focus on is Martin Heidegger and particularly his concept of anxiety within his work What is Metaphysics? Here Heidegger produces an account which indicates how the individual is able to think about and question their own existence and how, through the state of anxiety, they are able to reflect upon “the nothing” that appears on their horizon of thought. As well as analysing What is Metaphysics? I shall also use Heidegger’s Being and Time, On the Essence of Truth and The Origin of the Work of Art to indicate the significant role that this concept of anxiety plays within his greater philosophy. Where Heidegger builds upon a philosophy considering the individual I shall also look at the work of Emmanuel Levinas, who concentrates on a more social philosophy, in order to bring contrast to Heidegger’s thought. In his struggle to come to terms with a finite existence Leo Tolstoy was torn between suicide and religion. The struggle of the individual’s existence is the concept that lies at the heart of my project.

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2008 Abstracts Stage 3

To what extent does the consumer society we live in today affect our self identity?

Territory: The territory I have considered in this project in order to understand the changing nature of identity is that of advertising in contemporary society. I have explored the history of advertising, the psychology of advertising and some advertising techniques that are used by companies to persuade. Concepts: The key concepts I have engaged with in this project are: – Loss of agency -Fragile nature of identity -Identity given by society -Identity in flux. Key questions I have engaged with are: -How is our identity formed in modern society? -How has it changed over time? -What are the influential factors on identity? -How do advertising agencies target individuals? -What methods do they use?

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2008 Abstracts Stage 3

Advertising: A Tool of Capitalist Manipulation?

This project is an investigation into the discourse of advertising in our contemporary late capitalist society. This study shall attempt to assess the role advertising plays in manipulation of the masses and its relation to mass media in capitalist society. My aim is to assess whether advertising is a central tool of deception in the commodity driven culture of capitalism Advertising has changed dramatically since the time of the industrial revolution. The division of labour and the beginning of mass production due to the industrialisation that has created far more of a ‘need’ to advertise and stay one step ahead of competitors. This I would stipulate is due to the onslaught of late capitalism, globalisation and commodity infatuation of the consumer. Ongoing advancement in technology has created an environment in modern society by which there are more and more means of mass broadcasting. The industrial revolution was the catalyst for this. The use of advertising has metamorphosed from a simple presentation of information on a product to the public in a manner to inform of use and content of a product; to an ambience creating, aesthetic tool merged with mass media creating a barrage on the senses. Branding and heritage of brand has outplayed use, image out mustering purpose The end product of Advertising’s growth through the mass media is its immanence in society, and its ability to shape the ideas and behaviour, as well as formation of self of the individual.

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2008 Abstracts Stage 3

Graffiti Art and the Truth of Being

Territory: Graffiti. Object: Graffiti Art. Graffiti as an art movement and global phenomenon, originates in the early 1970’s in New York City. The unique dynamics of the city gave rises to an artistic battleground of expression in a cultural climate of alienation and class divide. As the youth at the heart of American capitalism struggled to gain recognition, the graffiti subculture was born. Using unconventional mediums and the alternative canvas of the urban landscape, graffiti, enveloped the city, the nation and eventually the entire world. Philosophical Concept: Heidegger- The Origin of the work of art. Heidegger’s intent is always to bring us closer to the understanding of Being. Art in its origin, is art; the happening of truth of a people’s historical existence. Great artworks in the current tradition of aesthetics are ripped away from their essential truth when classed as objects to be judged and experienced in pleasure, losing their authenticity and ability to ‘set-up’ a world and ‘set-forth’ the earth. Graffiti’s philosophical relevance: The Truth of Being. Graffiti writing rose out of a particular ‘world’, a horizon of disclosure dominated by capitalist alienation. The struggle of the youths in New York City was a battle of resistance to authority and conformity that led to an artistic battle of expression. In graffiti’s expression, the ‘world’ of the American culture is opened up, the ‘earth’ rips through this ‘world’ in the form of undefined and sublime images of the New York subway trains, taking us out of our everyday world and reminding us of other existing realities. We forget the mysteriousness of truth in its dual essence of aletheia, and the works of the original underground graffiti movement disclose this struggle of world and earth; the truth of Being. It is this struggle that graffiti writers sought to sustain in their works, therefore, graffiti did not originate from art but rather from the truth of a people’s historical existence; the historical truth of being.

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2008 Abstracts Stage 3

Yves Klein – the Painting of a Future Anticipated in the Present

Yves Klein produced over one thousand “works” during the seven year period he devoted to painting. Although he is most commonly associated with his monochrome canvases (leading the patenting of his own International Klein Blue; IKB), Klein’s work is not abstract but conceptual. However prolific, his production was not the end goal of his efforts, but rather only an “interval” in his spiritual accomplishment; the quest for pure sensibility; the quest for the void. Klein fought all his creative life the “French defect” (as his role model Eugene Delacroix first spoke in his journals) the obsession with line, compositional prison bars of our own contrivance that delineate and concretize existence, drawing boundaries for our emotional and spiritual life. His works are a final and fatal wounding for painting-the impossibility of painting thereafter. This project is an attempt to chart the aesthetic progression of his painting towards the immaterial and the revelation of the artistic project situated in the quotidian. A pictorial quest for ecstatic and immediately communicable emotion; the painting of a future anticipated in the present.

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2008 Abstracts Stage 3

The Narrative and Injustice of the Working Class in Britain

In this project I examine the working class in Britain and compare the conditions that they have to work in the time of Marx and now. My main objective here is to show that the working class exist as a class and a narrative, and to disprove Lyotard’s famous claim that we no longer through narratives. I intend also to show that capitalism is unfair and that it is not a system that the working classes can benefit from. I provide a solution and conclude that through Vattimo’s philosophy of pluralism, and Lyotard’s theory of language games, capitalism can be destabilised, which would therefore help the working class. Habermas is briefly explored with reference to his claim that ‘modernity is dominant but dead’. In this sense modernity can be compared to the values of the working classes today, as research shows their values to be dormant in the postmodern society. Research for this project involved concentrating on the ‘White Season’ this spring which the BBC2 produced. The ‘White Season’ aired programmes about the working class today, and how times have changed. There is also an array of class reports and books that I focus on as well, and to explore my territory of class conditions in Marx’s era, I looked at in depth The Conditions of the Working Class in England (1993) by Engels. To apply philosophical concepts to my project in order to prove influence, I looked at Vattimo’s The Transparent Society (1992), and Nihilism and Emancipation (2004), Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition (2005), and The Communist Manifesto (1973) by Marx and Engels, amongst others. I feel that my project is of wider importance because I am exploring the effects that the capitalist system has on the class system, and this is a factor that can affect everyone. On completion of this project, my knowledge of the working class and the philosophical concepts I applied to it is greater, and more accurate than before.

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2008 Abstracts Stage 3

Architecture

THE HOME Taking architecture as the territory, the object I have chosen is the home. ⇒ Everyone has a different idea of home – not necessarily always a building. ⇒ Factors such as politics, society and culture affect where and how we live. ⇒ How free are we to live as we choose? DWELLING ⇒ How does the way we dwell shape our characters as individuals? ⇒ Levinas’ notion of the Other – dependant upon being welcomed into a dwelling place. ⇒ Adorno feels capitalism subsumes art, limiting it to only the bourgeoisie whilst reifying all others. ⇒ Mass-produced homes = hundreds of people living the same? HEIDEGGER ⇒ Effects of technology, or techne: bringing-forth truth, unconcealment ⇒ Identity: for us to develop ‘Being-one’s-Self’ we need truth as a basis. ⇒ To be true to ourselves we must live authentically, but instead most of the time we are trapped in the inauthenticity of the ‘they’.