This project is a philosophical analysis of the existence of billionaires in today’s economic climate. In today’s society, there is an ever-increasing number of billionaires. Meanwhile, there is also a large number of people living in poverty. Many of the wealthiest people today, such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are considered to be philanthropists due to their many charitable actions. Although it is undeniable that these actions are more significant than those of many other billionaires today, it still seems that this is simply not enough in today’s economic climate. This project will aim to understand if there is an alternative to the way society is structured. Firstly, we must consider whether the human desire to have an excessive amount of wealth is something that is fundamental to human nature, or whether we are conditioned by society to think this way. In order to do this, I will consider Thomas Hobbes’ account of man in the state of nature to understand how man is naturally greedy. I will also consider the Marxist critique of capitalism to understand how society conditions us to believe that we are in a state of scarcity and need to work for new symbols of exchange. After fulfilling this research, I will conclude that it is within our human nature to be greedy animals, wanting an abundance of goods, and the society we live in simply facilitates this need. It will then be important to consider how the goods within society could be distributed in order to account for this inherent greed. I will discuss the ideas of John Rawls and Robert Nozick on distributive justice. I will present the ideas of Rawls which seem to be commendable, however Nozick’s critique of Rawls will show that it would be impossible to remain in a state of equal distribution without sacrificing individual liberty – a higher order good. Overall, the project will highlight that wealth is a central element of society today, and the only way to account for the inequalities we see is to diminish liberty; a conflict which is unresolvable.
Category: Stage 3
The main claim the project makes is that new digital media and the way they are used complexifies the idea of truth in political discourse in a way which undermines liberal assumptions. New media has become a fundamental object within liberal society; however, it has become a main source of the devaluation of facts. The purpose of this project is to explore how modern media have stimulated a debate on the concept of truth and falsehood in the conduct of political life. In order to do this, the project will draw upon the works of Kant, Lyotard, Habermas and Rawls.
The issue of income inequality is becoming increasing prevalent within today’s society, currently the world’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people, and nowhere on earth is this situation more problematic than America.
Within my project I investigate American society and the socio-economic practices it has adopted over the last 200 years. I used the books The Theory of The Leisure Class, The Affluent Society, and What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, as together they create a timeline of how this western society’s economic and social practices have evolved. This allowed me to unpack some of the key practices which have directly impacted the American wealth gap. Such as: Conspicuous Consumption, Mass-Production, Aggressive Advertising and Commodification
Furthermore, the practices highlighted within my chosen texts allowed me to use the theories of Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, and John Rawls to investigate the exploitative aspects inherent to them. I used , Marx’s The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital and other collected works, along with Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man as well as Rawls’ Justice as Fairness: A Restatement and A Theory of Justice to find out how these thinkers would find these practices exploitative.
Ultimately, I attempt to display how exploitation is a common a characteristic to all socio-economic practices which have impacted the American wealth gap over the last 200 years.
The object of this dissertation is artificial intelligence (AI), and in particular it concerns AI risk or AI safety. I argue for the veracity of Bostrom’s orthogonality thesis (2012) – contextualised with reference to Hume’s (2007) is-ought distinction – and instrumental convergence thesis (developed initially by Omohundro (2008) in terms of the “Basic AI Drives”). In combination, what these theses show is that the default outcome of advanced AI (AGI and ASI) is existential catastrophe, and thereby the importance of ensuring that the value systems of advanced artificial agents are human compatible. I consider two main approaches to the value alignment problem – direct specification and value learning – and point out the flaws in each. While this project does not offer its own approach value alignment, the central concern of AI safety, it does emphasise the necessity for AI research to undergo a perspectival shift and focus on the search for one. The AI community should, that is, be concerned foremost with AI safety rather than AI capability.
Abstract:
Capitalism represses the emancipatory force of a work of art regarding both its production and how it is viewed. In transforming artists and artworks into commodities, the authority of artist and work of art are lost. The commercial function of capitalism brings art into the culture industry, in which art became a mere object for exchange.
Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the infamous “Night Stalker”, once stated in an interview that ‘we have all got the power to kill in our hands, but most of us are afraid to use it. Those who aren’t, control life itself’. The first person to conceptualise evil was St Augustine, who believed in the metaphysical concept that evil was a necessary part of the world, for one cannot have good without evil. They both must coexist to create a balanced structure, thus describing evil within humans. The existence of evil is something that most humans view as destruction and nothingness, hence why they dislike the thought that it could reside within them. However, without evil in the world, there would be no conception of reality. If anything, good can only be praised as something which is not evil. Good is not a concept that guarantees happiness or fulfilment, and it is a concept that guarantees a lack of destruction.
This project will focus on the different contemporary theories of evil action regarding the concept of evil to deduce whether Richard Ramirez was justified in his claims about humanity and murder. BBC News claims that ‘over three decades in the late 20th century, there was a rise in serial homicides in North America’, explicitly suggesting that ‘a rise in serial killings [started] in the late 1960s, peaking in the 80s – when there were at least 200 such murderers operating in the United States alone’. This lead several theorists to attempt to offer necessary and sufficient conditions for evil. Some, such as Marcus G. Singer (2002), have focussed on evil as a root of personhood, whilst others, such as Luke Russell (2014), consider evil to be action-based.
The first part of this project will focus on the concept of evil and harmful wrongdoing. This chapter assumes that actions can be evil in themselves or that actions can be considered as ‘wrong’ in themselves. This chapter will then lead to evil and harm where it will be argued that evil must ‘cause or allow significant harm to at least one victim’. This part of the project will be crucial in deciphering whether evil is necessary within a person to cause another individual harm otherwise understood as quasi-deontological ethics. Then will continue into the concept of evil and motivation, which will delve into desire as a motive within a human mind, whether evil is a desire or something innate within us, otherwise known as consequentialist ethics. Evil could belong either to souls or to acts; if the former, there need be no consequences, if the latter, then evil is necessarily consequential. The next part of this chapter will focus on evil and its effect; this chapter focuses on the emotions humans must provide to commit murder and whether emotions must be involved to create evil. This chapter will conclude that evil resides within the soul rather than within the consequences of human action.
Then most importantly, the project will end with a chapter on evil and responsibility, which will focus on how evil resides in the soul using the classic argument of nature versus nurture. This will argue on behalf of ignorance, when people do not understand that what they are doing is wrong or when humans do something wrong by mistake and without intention. Then it will argue on behalf of psychopathy, where humans struggle to feel remorse for their actions which therefore makes it harder for them to act in a way which is socially acceptable. It will argue on behalf of upbringing, as evil could be distilled in childhood and traumatic experiences from a young age. This will be the crucial part of the essay in tying together the conclusion as to whether it has been ‘universally accepted that to perform an evil action an agent must be morally responsible for what she does’ unless that is of a natural event; however, there are other responsibilities for evil actions.
This piece of writing will look at the concepts of sex and gender according to second and third wave feminists before applying these notions to female only spaces and the issues which may arise from these places. The territory of this essay is looking at what issues the transgender community may face and the more specific object being female only spaces and the issues that transgender women may face when attending such places.
The first part of the essay includes typical views of sex and gender that second and third wave feminists had. It will also explore how the views of second wave feminists could be seen as similar to those of today’s critical feminists or trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs). Within this section is the views of third wave feminist Judith Butler on sex and gender. Her distinctions of sex and gender became helpful in understanding more about the transgender community.
The definition of transgender is presented in this essay as an umbrella term which includes many different aspects. It is understood that the recent growth in acceptance for the trans community has emerged from the media as well as politics. While acceptance has increased recently, there is still a minority that do not accept the transgender community. Some organisations have attempted to exclude trans women from female only spaces and attempt to ensure these spaces only welcome biological women.
Throughout the essay it is clear that, based off their views, second wave feminists would not include transgender women in female only spaces perhaps at all or especially if they only self-identity as a woman as opposed to having had surgery or hormone therapy. Third wave feminists, including Judith Butler, would oppose this view and suggest that all transgender women, whether they self-identify as a woman or have undergone surgery, should be welcomed into female only spaces.
Suggested solutions to these issues which ensure both sides are happy include creating spaces where people who are comfortable around transgender women can go, as well as spaces for people who are not. As well as this, the essay explores the idea that education is key to the acceptance of the transgender community today.
Objectives: To establish the extent of influence Social Media has on people’s identity using the philosophical concepts of: Lacan, Goffman, Bauman and McLuhan. Furthermore, to investigate if the anxiety surrounding, what Farman described, as the ‘techxistential crisis’ of the 21st century is rational. And if Social Media can have a positive influence on one’s Identity.
Conclusions: The Black Mirror – Social Media has a pervasive influence over our identity as the ‘mirror stage’ does for Lacan. This is because we spend a lot of time staring into the “black mirror” of the screen in which we use for Social Media. The performance of our identity on Social Media and in real life converge. Social Media’s influence on our identity does not have to be a negative one. Our identity has always been performative and Social Media just offers a new medium in which to explore this. If we learn how to monitor our usage and utilise Social Media positively; social media can be a positive influence for exploring and performing identity
This dissertation shall focus upon the vital topic of authenticity in the modern world and examine and question how and why Autistic individuals such as myself are inhibited from behaving in an authentic manner in a modern neoliberal, capitalist society and how subjects can transcend this in the western world holistically. To do this, one shall explore the associating factors of deemed developmental disorders, health the notion of neurodiversity and neoliberalism practically and philosophically, which has developed significantly in the modern age. The modern-day usage of the term neurodiversity, socially and philosophically, can be applied to supposed “high functioning autism” as not a lifelong, debilitating disability and thus illness, but as a neurological form of diversity in an endless spectrum of diversity within the subjective, multi-faceted human experience.
What are the implications of new global communication networks in sports journalism, and what is their impact on identity within the modern world?
William Roberts-19019345
I aim to discuss the idea of globalisation and new global trends influencing the way we live our lives, with a specific focus on how it influences how we identify ourselves. Using the example of sports and sports journalism, I query whether new global trends will have an impact on the ways in which we identify ourselves
What is journalism when seen in a global context?
I suggest we should see journalism as a social contract exchange. Within a global context I would argue that we become dependent on global networks which influence the social contract mechanism of sports journalism itself.
The link to identity and authentic identity
In this section I dissect identity from the view of Anthony Giddens and Alistair Macintyre, and even further, asking what constitutes an authentic identity.
The Communitarian vs Liberal debate
Elaborating on Giddens and Macintyre, and through the lens of sports journalism, I outline two primary positions in which one can identify themselves. Using Jean Luc Nancy and his ideas that the community is immensely important to the formation of the individual, I compare him to John Rawls and argue individual agency might be important towards forming an individual identity.
Citizenship
I finish the discussion by dissecting new global technologies and identity, suggesting that they impact the way we live as a political subject (We should be seen as more global)
An investigation into the relationship between internet surveillance and panopticism, and how this impacts the identities of internet users.
Case Study – The Golden Shield Project: An in-depth look into China’s strict surveillance system and how it’s panoptic nature impacts Chinese citizens.
Key Theorists
Michel Foucault: Foucault provides a theory of surveillance that explains panopticism and demonstrates how constant surveillance, such as that seen on the internet, can be used as a tool for political power and oppression.
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975)
Zygmunt Bauman: Bauman explains why identity has become such a large issue in late modernity and why an identity is difficult to cultivate in the digital age, relating to internet surveillance and censorship online.
Identity (2004)
The aim of this project is to determine if an approach which is based on trading off negative and positive liberty assess properly whether the lockdown was just or not? Within this project both positive and negative liberty will be measured within each theory. Comparing them whereby the positive sense protects life versus the negative sense in which our liberties are restricted. Both a Utilitarian and Hobbes social contract theory shall lean towards a more epistemologically positive approach to this. Through trying to give objective truths to measure the positive and negative liberties at play. While Badiou and Deleuze’s theory on the event shall offer a sceptical epistemological approach. They give a differing answer from a ‘simplistic’ objective approach. Finally, through Foucault and his biopolitics, we are able to highlight perhaps another force which is in play; power. Where in fact our pursuit for reintroduction of liberty is a paradox which was subsequently never there in the first place.
An investigation into the nature, history, prominence and management of risk on both a personal and professional level. To answer the question of whether humans or computers are more effective risk managers.
This research project sets out to investigate a basis for the possible link between oppression and the sense of community within a working-class society, mainly in Tyneside. Community relations will be observed more specifically within events including the Meadow Well riots, the UK miners’ strike and the aftermath of the closing of shipyards under the power of Margaret Thatcher. Philosophical concepts discussed will be focussed through the political lens of philosophy, with Marx and Rawls. Marx’s work on class oppression and Rawls’ ‘Theory of Justice’ will be explored in relation to the working-class communities in Tyneside. As well as this, identity-focused philosophers, including Taylor, Bauman and Nietzsche are to be discussed and compared with each other, and the object in question.
Object and Territory:
The object I will be examining is banal evil in Hannah Arendt’s book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: a report on the banality of evil.
I will explore banal evil in relation to its relevance to the modern day and the extent of its importance in revolutionising thought on evil
Aim:
How – I am analysing Arendt’s thought on evil to gain an understanding of the characteristics involved in the phenomenon of the banality of evil
Why – I am exploring Arendt’s thought on evil in order to be able to apply it to our contemporary society
Main Thinkers and their works:
Hannah Arendt – Eichmann in Jerusalem: a report on the banality of evil and The Origins of Totalitarianism
Susan Neiman – “Banality Reconsidered”
María Lara – Narrating Evil
Richard Bernstein – “Are Arendt’s Reflections on Evil Still Relevant?”
In the contemporary world, which values accountability and justice, can we hold to esteem the art of individuals who have lived morally reprehensible lives?
Artists and their art are one, inseparable entity. The intentional act of creating art is to put an illusory part of oneself into the world, as in line with the philosophy of Nietzsche.
The feral Dionysian characteristic of artists has long been used to excuse morally reprehensible behaviour. However, due to the changing status of artists from remote, struggling characters into celebrities who are part of an elite world, artists are being held to a much higher standard of morals.
The projects aim is to address the issue of fairness found in the negotiation process between the central government and Greater Manchester local governments. This issue of fairness stemmed from the overcentralised nature of the national government structure. John Rawls’s theory of justice will be used to rethink a fair deliberative position.
The territory of this project is the North-South divide which has been created from the regional inequalities which co-exist in England. Overcentralisation has meant these inequalities are not being addressed and this has created a feeling of unfairness among the North.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issues found in the territory. The chosen object for this project demonstrates this as it explores the negotiations between Greater Manchester local governments and central government over COVID-19 financial support. Greater Manchester had minimal influence in these negotiations and believed this to be an unfair deliberation process and outcome.
So this project will address the issue of fairness with John Rawls theory of justice. It will provide a way to rethink the deliberative position to ensure a fair negotiation process and fair social circumstances under which an agreement can be made.
The object of study for my stage three project is track and trace. In late 2019 the COVID-19 pandemic was reported as an unusual virus. At the beginning of 2020, the virus, now identified as a novel coronavirus began to spread throughout the entire world. Aside from a lockdown and a vaccine that had to be developed, the UK government invested heavily into a contact tracing system called track and trace. The aim of this system would be to trace who had come into contact with those that had testing positive for the virus so they could isolate and quarantine. Despite being heavily funded, track and trace has only a “marginal impact on transition of the virus”. This essay will be investing track and trace and what affected the way it was organised. By understanding it with reference to Deleuzian and Guattarian thought, it will be considered why track and trace was organised the way it was with a historical approaching using quantitative data and then why this meant track and trace was unsuccessful using an axiological approach. The territory in which the object will be considered is from political responses to catastrophes and centralisation.
In order to make this invested, this essay will attempt to give a broad description of Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of state form thought and nomad form thought and the rhizomatic, and then discussing whether it is relevant into track and trace. State form and nomad form thought is the outlining how the state has power not only explicitly through laws but also by giving itself a rational justification for its framework. By considering the war machine, an entity that exists outside the state, Deleuze and Guattari develop nomad thought in order to offer an alternative to state thought, which is used to critique how the UK state organised track and trace. The rhizome is Deleuze and Guattari’s description metaphysics where the world operates as a rhizome, meaning it is fundamentally decentralised. This will be used to critique the fact track and trace was centralised. Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus is used primary to develop these concepts and understood with reference Eugene Holland’s A Thousand Plateaus: a reader. Moreover, the essay uses information from the BBC and The Guardian to understand how track and trace worked and how successful it was. By considering this information, it will be investigated whether Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts are relevant to track and trace, considering how neoliberal policy affected how track and trace was organised, how sources advocated for centralisation in facing the COVID-19 pandemic, and finally whether Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts are relevant.
What can the Philosophy of Zizek tell us about desire and ideology in current culture?
This essay shows key features of Zizek’s philosophy which show how desire influences ideology and how this can be illustrated through examining current culture.
I have used the examples of the musical Hamilton and The Extinction Rebellion protests.
Hamilton is a beautiful piece of culture to analyse using Zizek’s philosophy because it expresses powerful ideologies through music.
Extinction Rebellion is a wonderful organization that is trying to save the world. Zizek’s philosophy when applied to the reaction to XR is excellent in illustrating the powerful nature of ideology.
Ideology is a powerful and irrational force in the world, and nobody realises they are being duped by it, this is what my essay aims to argue.
Exploring Zizek’s philosophy through these pieces of current culture has given me a much greater understanding of the world around me.
Zizek is clearly an influential philosopher and his philosophy has interested me for a while now and it was a joy to learn about his work. His conception of ideology I believe is groundbreaking, I aimed to show this in my essay and I believe I have succeeded.
I wanted to investigate online surveillance and how it asserts power and reduces autonomy