Objectives: The main objectives for this project are to address the nature of children’s rights and whether anyone has rights over children. This shall be done by looking at different types of family structures, particularly those involving adoption and in-vitro fertilisation. The initial territory for this project is the Novel My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult (picture to the left). In which the main character Anna was genetically created in order to keep her sister, whom has leukaemia, alive. It follows the ongoing struggle Anna has with her parents and her conscience as she files for medical emancipation from her sister, which will allow her to be free of ever having to donate to her sister again. Concepts: I shall be looking at the ethical implications of adoption and IVF for children, the notion of children as property which extends to the exchange of children as commodities and finally whether children can or do actually belong to anyone. Sources: • Jones, P. (1994) Rights THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD. • Locke, J. (1976) The Second Treatise of Government. Fletcher & Son Ltd. • Knox (1952) Hegel’s Philosophy Of Right. Oxford University Press. • Winston, R. (2006) A Child Against All Odds. Transworld Publishers.
Category: Stage 3
How has the representation of women in art changed since modern times? In what ways is Lucas’ art demonstrative of wider changes regarding the role of gender in identity and the position of women in society? – the shift from ‘natural’ to prescribed gender roles – Lucas subverting traditional roles / images of women – comparison with Goya’s ‘Maja’ paintings (from early modernity) – Beck’s theory of self identity in the postmodern age – Gidden’s writings on gender identity in late modernity – Harvey’s description of postmodern art (is art the best medium in which to initiate change in attitudes or is it merely reflective of this?)
Aim: Explore how the issue of abortion has relation to free will and how in turn, society relates to this ethical issue. I want to analyse how an ethical situation can affect the relations between families and society with relation to the novel, ‘The Abortionist’s Daughter’. Territory: The compelling novel, ‘The Abortionist’s Daughter.’ Within which the ethical position of abortion is key. Philosophy: Freud- Unfreedom and unhappiness within society. I will see how people can feel like their freedom as an individual is corrupted through society and its rules and regulation and set values and morals. Mill- Utilitarian view of abortion with relation to the effect on the individual within society. Hobbes- Murder and the social contract will be included to understand how society and the women within it could be restrained by this view. Christian philosophy Augustine- This will highlight how there has been a change in attitude since the time of Augustine and this may be through the fact that religion is now not as paramount to people’s lives within Christianity therefore people may not have such a strong belief on abortion either way. Key Concepts • Freedom/ freewill • Society and its rule over your choice • The nature of personhood/ right to life • The question of religion and ethical questions • Moral and legal policy
Territory: Current debate about religion in modern British society regarding the rise in faith schools (a third of all new ‘City Academies’ will be in the control of Evangelical Christians or Christian organisations) and what this means in regards to curriculum, equal opportunities and tolerance towards those of other faiths or none. I wish to examine what form religion should take in a British child’s education. Thinkers: Richard Dawkins in chapter 8 ‘What’s wrong with religion? Why be so hostile?’ and chapter 9 ‘Childhood, abuse and the escape from religion’ from his highly controversial book ‘The God Delusion’. Andrew Wright in ‘Religious Education in the Secondary School’. Also secular, religious and government reports and media. Central Themes: – Are Faith Schools ‘fair’? Is it right to discriminate against a child by refusing them entry to a local school on what is essentially the basis of their parents religion? – Do Faith Schools provide an ethos of tolerance and understanding or do they exaggerate current cultural and religious divides? – Should religious theories be taught in schools alongside science, e.g. Intelligent Design and Evolution? – Should religion be ‘public’ or ‘private’? – Does it matter? A study showed that only 12% of school leavers from a Catholic school saw themselves as being Catholic and many rejected most of the doctrinal teachings. – Where is the state/religion divide in our society?
I will be investigating the anti-globalisation movement in America known as the Patriots, looking more specifically at their aggressive militia groups. These libertarians seek to build communities that are not governed by the ‘corrupt Federal Government’, communities which promote the Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms so that one day they may fight the “Jewish gangsters’ New World Order” and it’s United Nations’ police force. In response to this I will be look at Derrida’s idea of ‘Community’, of ‘Hospitality’ and ‘Democracy’. Idea’s which revolve around a respect for the ‘Other,’ not aggression and hate. In addition to this I will look towards Žižek’s notion of racism as fantasy, as a respect for the ‘Other.’ For Žižek the state is the only buffer between a conflict of fantasies and must be in place to stop an all out war from happening between different ‘ethnic others.’
My project will focus on the impact of capitalism on education in modern society focusing mainly on the work of Jean-Francois Lyotard. Through his work I look at Lyotard’s attempt to describe the state of knowledge and the problem of its legitimation in developed western societies. • Over the last few hundred year’s education has changed dramatically, especially within the developed world. Gone is the idea that reason alone is a sufficient guide to action. In fact the idea that rational thinking provides us with a universal guide has become increasingly problematic during post-modernity. • With the rise of capitalism as the dominant socio-economic force within the modern world, knowledge has become a commodity which can be bought and sold. For Lyotard, knowledge is now the principal force of production. This commercialisation of knowledge, according to Lyotard could raise serious questions about the nature of ethics and the very relationship between governments and large multinational companies. • My essay will judge the role of what Lyotard calls ‘performativity’ in education and the capitalist system that requires constant re-evaluation in order to generate optimal output. • Using up-to-date education statistics and recent newspaper and TV articles I will attempt to show how education is not simply about educating people. It is instead a means to produce a workforce to meet the demands of capitalism. However that very capitalist system has now infiltrated schools, with the rise of privately funded academies, and new emphasis on league tables and performance related pay. I will discuss how this has impacted on education, positively or negatively? • What impact has this also had on the individual freedom, happiness and identity? Is our culture of working exhaustive hours in order to consume and the desire to consume installed in us through education? Main Sources: Jean Francois Lyotard – The Postmodern Condition: A report on Knowledge and Just Education, Jacques Derrida – Derrida and Education, Jurgen Habermas – The Legitimation Crisis
Territory – Relationships, marriage and the family unit. Empirical Research – Government stats, art and literature. Philosophers – Kant, Hegel, Giddens. Concepts – Kant saw marriage a sexual contract, Hegel as an amalgamation of love and law, Giddens as unnecessary in the postmodern. My argument – Many see the emancipation of women and the sexual liberation of the sixties as causing chaos and the breakdown of the family. I will argue that harking back to nostalgic phantasms is a poor reflection of true reality and that one must ride with the times and embrace the pure relationship based on choice, freedom and intimacy.
TERRITORY: Banksy is an infamous stencil graffiti artist, using the urban scenery for his canvas, painting on everything from walls, over the top of other art and even animals. Banksy’s work, from the walls of London Zoo to the Segregation Wall of Palestine, evokes strong reactions in the minds of those who look upon it. This is arguably one of his many aims, evoking reaction and controversy, awakening the often numb souls of the urban jungle. The city streets of the world can be transformed, his work acting as a catalyst within the minds of creativity; attempting to corrupt the already corrupted world of corporation, government, advertising and capitalism. Deleuze and Guattari, the War Machine. In this study, I will evoke what the a war machine essentially is, and what it actually encompasses with a close reading of A Thousand Plateaus, which I will use as my primary reading source. I will consider Banksy as a war machine, and throughout the study will relate the characteristics of the war machine to Banksy’s thought and art. In developing this I will explore what I believe the war machine has created, and whether these movements are useful, or perhaps more appropriately whether they are beneficial, to modern society. Furthermore, I will also argue as to whether one, or whether the war machine, can maintain a level of creativity within our society, which as it evolves appears to be suffocating the creative flows with the engulfing arms of capitalism, systems of government, and society itself. One question that I believe is crucial to ask is can a war machine truly exist? Are all attempts at creativity inevitably condemned to fail and become part of the system that they originally rejected? It is these, amongst other questions that will form the structure of Weapons of Mass Creation.
How is nature represented and how is this important to our attitudes towards it? My project aims to explore this question in the hope that one reading it will be able to assess each representation and its implications and in turn assess the way nature is represented today. It is clear that attitudes have a long way to go even in our current climate but why and how are they to change? This project will look at different representations to assess this. From the Romantics with Kant and Coleridge’s notion of nature as the sublime, to the postmodern viewpoint of Heidegger and his theory of technology, to the current attitude we find ourselves today with contemporary philosophers such as Michele Serres. Hopefully attitudes will change to ensure a secure future for nature and this project aims to assess what this attitude may be.
The Cyborg Concept: The first section of my project sets out a definition of the cyborg as a cybernetic organism: the symbiotic combination of human and machine. From this definition I explore the idea that we now live in a cyborg society where the combination of human and machine has become the norm. The Cyborg Concept in Science Fiction: The second section of my project involves a discussion of the depiction of cyborgs in science fiction and the fears/hopes involved in the narratives. Since Haraway and Baudrillard have agreed that the line between science fiction and reality is illusory it is apparent that these issues are important today. Cyborg Acceptance/Cyborg Resistance: The third section of my project explores arguments for dissolving the boundaries between human and machine and for protecting these boundaries. The main sources of reference are Donna Haraway’s ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ and Jean-Francois Lyotard’s ‘The Inhuman’. Heidegger and Technology: In the final section I discuss Heidegger’s claim in ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ that technology is so imbedded in our time that we cannot accept or resist it. We use technology but technology uses us too: it is our way of seeing the world yet it determines us. Vattimo says that the subject is weakened by technology and a weak subject is essential if we are to deny metaphysics.
David Mancuso, born October 1944, threw the first Loft party “Love Saves the Day” on Valentine’s Day 1970. It practically established what we now know as DJ / club culture through its reinvention of dance culture. My project aims to apply elements of the conceptual machinery developed by Deleuze and Guattari, in their collaborative project of ‘Capitalism and Schizophrenia’, to the history of The Loft and to dance / club culture in general. The possibilities within Capitalism (but also the limitations) outlined by Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy will be explored within this context. The main areas of investigation are the political status, in Deleuze and Guattari’s schemata, of The Loft (its visitors and David Mancuso included) and the actual individual experience of nightclubbing and dancing, as it might be understood in terms of the model of thought which they develop. The compatibility of David Mancuso’s intentions (“Love is the message”) with this theory will also be explored.
Climate change has become the issue that defines our age. It makes man’s detrimental relationship with his environment undeniable. The planet is warming up and is becoming uninhabitable for large parts of its population, and assuming that the science is correct, our activities are to blame. Territory: Climate change. Thinkers: Kant, Heidegger, Adorno. Aim: The aim of my project was to try and understand the development of man’s relation to nature, from mystical nature through to instrumental nature, in the hope of figuring out where we might have gone wrong, and what we can do about it.
Outline: The project will analyse extensively the philosophical theory of French philosopher, Michel Foucault and will demonstrate how his theories can be applied to performance in sport. Aim: To argue that philosophy, and in particular that of Michel Foucault, plays a significant role in performance in sport. Method: The following aspects of both Michel Foucault’s philosophy and the role they play within sport will be used to support my argument: – Discipline: Disciplinary power is spawned from and spawns in turn a whole series of techniques and knowledges of the body. Discipline, both of the self and with respect to hierarchy, is crucial in sport – Knowledge: Elements formed in a regular manner by discursive practice and which are indispensable to the constitution of a science can be called ‘knowledge’; vital in the world of sport – Power: Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society. Like discipline, respect must be paid to this concept for success to be achieved – The Self: Interaction between the self and others, the technologies of individual domination and technologies of the self. Understanding the self and other individuals will heighten performance in sport – Discourse: Essentially referring to statements, the rules by which they are governed and their subsequent circulation and exclusion – ‘Mind Games’: How the words a coach uses can influence the performance of not only his own team, but also other coaches, players and sporting authorities; strongly linked to Foucault’s notion of Discourse – Performance: How all the above themes ultimately influence sporting performance. Sources include: Foucault, Sport and Exercise – Pirkko Markula & Richard Pringle, Michel Foucault – Sara Mills and Discipline and Punish – Michel Foucault. Information collated from the internet, magazines, newspapers and television will also be used to illustrate my project
Topic: In this project I am going to be looking at what triggers people to get to the stage where they feel the only way out is to put an end to their life. Aims: The aim of this project is to get a balanced view of how and why people reach the point where they believe that the only way forward is to bring about their own death. I shall attempt to do this by looking a very diverse set of sources in order to show that there can never be a reason that can be applied to all cases. I have chosen to look at the work of Peter Singer, Jonathon Glover and the Christian perspective on the value of life in order to discuss whether it can ever be morally acceptable to bring about your own death. I am also going to look at a range of plays mostly Greek tragedy in order to see how this topic is dealt with. Questions I shall address: Can putting an end to your own life ever be morally acceptable? Are there situations where this could be regarded as acceptable and situations where it certainly could not? Do we have an obligation to preserve life? How do people continue with their life after a failed suicide attempt? Will you always be affected by the decision you made to try and take your life? Key Sources: Peter Singer ‘Practical Ethics’, David. H.Rosen ‘A follow up study of persons who survived jumping from the Golden Gate and San Francisco- Oakland Bay Bridges’, Sophocles ‘Oedipus’ ‘Antigone’, Euripides ‘Electra’, Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘Football Season is over’ (Suicide Note), Henrik Ibsen ‘Hedda Gabler’
In my project I will be examining how the Bush Administration has been influenced by the work of Leo Strauss and how this has affected their rule, both in relation to the use of civil religion in America and their foreign policy. Following the War on Terror, many scholars and journalists have been quick to announce that the Bush Administration has been infiltrated by ‘Straussians’ who are using Straus’s work to support their use of Noble Lies. However, it is necessary to assess whether these politicians are distorting the meaning of Straus’s work in order to support their own agendas. To support the main arguments in my project, I will be looking at a variety of works by Strauss and the documentary “The Power of Nightmares” by Adam Curtis. Some of the concepts being explored include; Civil religion, War, and Myths/Noble Lies.
My Aims: • To research the advertising sector in relation to its effects upon the public and their perception of themselves. • To study and investigate certain philosophical concepts, both obvious and obscure, which can be connected with such research. • To contact individual advertising companies, both profit and not-for-profit, in order to ascertain any differences in their agendas. • To briefly survey the public as to their thoughts on the subject, a questionnaire was circulated among different groups of society. • Through study of philosophical concepts I hope to be able to develop my argument. • To briefly investigate whether we do indeed live in a culture of consumerism and its connections with advertising. • I hope to be able to conclude that advertising and the new consumerism leaves the individual in a state of confusion and identity uncertainty, with a particular focus on youth. Sources: I shall be focusing on one key thinker; Charles Taylor and his work: “Philosophical Arguments and Papers”. However, I shall also be focusing in a more general sense upon other individual works; • David Wiggins; “Sameness and Substance”. • Richard Sennett; “The Culture of the New Capitalism” and “The Corrosion of Character”. • Anthony Giddens; “Modernity and Self-Identity”. I shall also be using internet resources, research data, and contact with advertising companies and questionnaires to aid my project conclusion.
In this project I hope to explore our contemporary urban experience and the postmodern condition, with regards to its arguably revolutionary potential. Is ours truly a time when ‘other worlds’ and ‘other voices’ are able to find expression within society? Has postmodernity witnessed the end of meta-narratives as Lyotard would have us believe, making way for a multiplicity of truths, or is postmodernity the grandest narrative of all? I will be tackling such questions by reflecting upon the Tate Modern Art Gallery, which I believe in many respects is representative of postmodernity and by striking up some kind of dialogue between itself and those world views which have lead to its arrival. I have named it ‘A View from the Bridge’ after the Arthur Miller play, for I appreciate that what I will be attempting to argue is merely expressive of one perspective. There are various ways in which one could understand postmodernity and its consequences and mine is merely one, although I will at intervals offer other options for perception, other ‘views’ so to speak. My thesis will thus unfold as though it were literally my journey to the Tate Modern. For I begin at St. Paul’s Cathedral, which is arguably representative of the Christian world view of the Middle Ages, I then proceed to the Millennium Bridge which functions as the Enlightenment did, ‘bridging the divide’ so to speak between antiquity and Modernity, or Postmodernity even, and then I reach the gallery, which is the embodiment of our contemporary social experience.
Objective: My main objective in researching and writing this project is to understand as far as I can how the fluid thing which we can generalise by terming ‘self-identity’ is shaped by the idea of impending death. My objective is not to make the claim that death, or our awareness of its implications to our ‘being’ is the only factor or even the most important factor in shaping our identity; but rather to explore what parts of our identity are affected by this impending doom and in what way. Further, I mean to do this by means of an example, that being my territory which is the site where the twin towers once stood: Ground zero. I aim to use this territory as almost a platform from which to show mortality’s affects. What I mean in saying this, is that our understanding of what Ground zero represents because of its links with the concept of terrorism and thus with the concept of death, through our exposure to the events surrounding it in the media, has had an affect upon the way in which many people relate to the world around us; thus altering, or shaping to a certain extent the manner in which we form our identities. Concepts: The concepts which hold the most importance for this investigation are the concepts of a) Death, b) self-identity and c) human awareness. In looking at the concept of death we must somehow determine what death actually is. What does death really mean for a living entity, does it have boundaries as a term, and to what extent is it truly definable within the limits of language? In looking at self-identity we are looking at the essence of what makes a person who they are, how it is that they identify with themselves and with their surroundings by a method of differentiation and association. In examining this concept we must also note that identity is not as might be misconstrued, a fixed thing, but rather a fluid process of becoming or being. My third main concept is that of human awareness which is implicitly linked with the fluid concept of self-identity. I must undertake an examination of the idea of awareness in order to understand where the connection between death and identity takes place. This is the faculty, if you will, which allows the conception of impending death to affect the continuing process of forming self-identity. Sources: For this project I shall be using diverse sources which spread through a range of different Disciplines i.e. Social-anthropology, evolutionary-biology, sociology and of course Philosophy. I shall refer to older philosophical ideas of death and its effects, however the texts which are most central to my investigation are: Heidegger: Being and Time, and Blanchot: The Death Sentence
Territory- My territory is Western Society moving from the time of Ancient Greek philosophers through to postmodernist philosophers. Objectives- I asked myself a series of questions, these were as follows 1 “What is the golden rule of ethics and why is it so important?” 2 “Where does our ideas of morality and the idea of reciprocity come from?” 3 “Does the golden rule still apply?” 4 “Is there really a moral framework of ethical conduct prevalent within our society?” 5 “With the changes that can be seen within our society, can a moral framework based upon an ancient idea of reciprocity continue to work?” My aim in answering these questions was to use the works of Aristotle, Kant and Lyotard to chart a change in the ideas of ethics through time.
Brief Overview of The Catcher in the Rye
The novel is narrated Holden Caulfield, who reveals that he is undergoing treatment for a mental breakdown. He has been informed that he is to be expelled from school at the end of the current semester. Following a distressing evening, Holden decides to return to Manhattan a few days early but instead of going home he chooses rather to book into a hotel. The novel is comprised of the events that take place in the few days between booking into the hotel and his return home. Holden narrates his encounters with various people, both strangers and acquaintances.
Alienation as proof of the presence of the ‘other’
Holden describes himself as trapped on “the other side” of life but it soon becomes clear that his alienation is, at least in part, self-inflicted and that he deliberately employs it as a means of protection. He is continually overwhelmed by his interactions with other people. He is constantly confronted by that which is unfamiliar and ‘other’ to himself. Though his alienation acts as a guard against that which he sees as ‘other’ it is also that which is the source of his pain and anxiety.
Holden’s inautheticity
Throughout the novel Holden expresses his unwillingness to accept change. He is constantly overwhelmed by complexity and wants everything to be eternally fixed. He does not understand everything about his surroundings which is a source of anxiety for him yet he refuses to acknowledge this anxiety. For Heidegger it is through anxiety that we are able to become authentic, however, Holden refuses to acknowledge his anxiety and as such remains in a state of inauthenticity. The apparent “phoniness” of the adult world comes to represent inauthentic living in Holden’s mind, adults seem to be driven by what one ought to do in a particular situation. In Heidegger’s words, the actions of adults are determined by what the anonymous ‘they’ consider to be appropriate. Childhood on the other hand, for Holden, represents an authentic living. As a result Holden is reluctant to enter in adulthood himself. He mistakenly believes that eccentricity is authentic and as such strives to assert his socalled uniqueness, this is represented in the red hunting hat. However, it is clear that he is not entirely comfortable with wearing it. As such it becomes a symbol of his inauthenticity rather than his authenticity.
Death
Two instances of death in the novel, the first is the metaphorical death of innocence. The novel is concerned with what seems to be an ongoing dying of innocence which represents that which Holden cannot quite grasp about the adult world. It is a constant opening up of his relationship with the other. Holden’s breakdown too symbolises the struggle of the ego to remain itself over time, his illness, becomes that which separates him from himself. The second instance of death is the death of his brother, Allie, which serves as a reminder of the impossibility of possibility (Blanchot).