Category: Stage 3

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

‘Virtual Identities Vs. Authentic Selves: A Philosophical Investigation into Whether the Level of Value Society holds for Hyperreal Identities Relates to Baudrillard’s Notion of ‘The Death of the Real’

Virtual Identities Vs. Authentic Selves: A Philosophical Investigation into Whether the Level of Value Society Offers to Hyperreal Identities Relates to Baudrillard’s Notion of ‘The Death of the Real’

This project aims to explore society’s immersion in technology or simulations of reality such as social media, with the idea this hyperreality is used to claim a second identity. This territory will be looked at more closely, by interpreting the value society places on virtual identity offered by the implosion of the new stimulating realm of technological experience such as social media and whether this contributes to losing a sense of authenticity and external reality which will point toward Baudrillard’s notion regarding the death of the real.

-Look at Taylor’s concept of webs of interlocution in ‘sources of the Self’ to show how society is able to learn identity, from being affected by others, in social spaces such as social media.
-Research the extent social media can affect society’s identities supported by a description of ‘Snapchat Dysmorphia’.

-Demonstrate how social media increases communities individuals are able to become a part of in granting a sense of identity.
-Look at Bauman’s concept of liquid modernity emphasising how the task of identity formation is incoherent and difficult in a world of flux.
Use Bauman’s concept cloakroom communities to describe how social media allows swapping of identity comes ease alluding to inauthenticity of virtual identity.

-Baudrillard’s concepts from his publication ‘Simulacra and Simulations’ used to describe simulations of reality and hyperreality of social media.
-Draw on how virtual identity is becoming further from the external reality and are the most real way we perceive people.
-Baudrillard’s Semiological theory will be used to explain why society values virtual identity of signs-value.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

Mahadevi’s Devotion to Siva: Does it End in Fusion for Lacan and Levinas?

This essay explores the possibility of fusion, of becoming one with Siva, as it is expressed in the Vacanas (poems) of a 12th Century Siva devotee: Mahadevi. Considering the writings of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Lacan we can ask what it means to be liberated and to fulfil one’s desires in this way. Critically, we begin this essay with Levinas and discuss his conception of the self; how this self comes to be in relation to the other, and how freedom is to be understood. Following Levinas we investigate the notion of desire for Lacan, which requires a look into the Oedipus complex and the object petit a. In the final section of this essay, we attempt to find the position of Siva in relation to the subject and question whether fusion is finally possible. This will respond to what has been so far discussed in the hope of showing that Siva is not a being but is representative of the subject of my subjectivity – Levinas’ infinitely other – which is only attainable by being a self for the Other.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

Freedom and Formula: a Deweyan analysis of changing learning environments and educational datafication.

My project seeks to chart out an account of Dewey’s philosophy of education, relating to its practical application in the work of Lipman. I then present various current trends in the way that learning environments have changed both over the past few decades with reference to technological development, and in the last year with reference to the coronavirus pandemic. Ultimately, I argue that the main thing preventing a realization of Dewey’s democratic ideal is ‘datafication’, the phenomenon of reducing educational efficacy to quantifiable metrics and abstract information. Due to the insistence of Dewey and Lipman on education as a facilitation of meaningful experience, I hold, datafication makes the manifestation of any true practice of Deweyan pedagogy impossible.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

Is the age of social media marketing creating a warped sense of reality for Generation Z?

This project looks at the question, ‘Is the age of social media marketing creating a warped sense of reality for Generation Z?’. This project explores and applies Baudrillard’s concepts of hyperreality as well as his theory of sign value, to the modern world of social media. As well as looking at areas such as fast fashion marketing and the effect social media can have on both mental health and our perception of reality.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

Assess the impact that Natural Law Theory and Legal Positivism have had on shaping the English Legal System from the 13th Century to Present day

Object/Territory – The concept of Law, how Natural Law Theory and Legal Positivism have shaped the English Legal System
Aim – Through a historical account I aim to provide a historical account of both Natural Law Theory and Legal Positivism in order to assess the impact that they have had on shaping the modern English Legal System
Main Sources – Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Austin, H. L. A Hart

In this essay I shall explore the very concept of law and morality as I look at the very concept of law, morality and how law is applied in order to argue that Natural Law Theory and Legal Positivism are the main driving forces behind the formation of a distinct English Legal System.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

When We Have Shuffled Off This Mortal Coil: A philosophical exploration of posthumous existence in the form of legacy and how this prevails over the dread of death.

Heidegger understands death as the end to existence in the world. But with the presence and pursuit of posthumous legacy, is this accurately represented in modern secular society? This project explores the notion of legacy, investigating the way legacy can be understood as a continuation of existence after death, and establishing posthumous existence as a way of coming to terms with the fear of death. In opposition to Heidegger’s thought, this notion of legacy is explored by analysing the limitations of Heidegger’s notion of existence and the ‘being-towards-death’, and discussing the impact of Western religious beliefs regarding death and posthumous existence. The continuation of existence through posthumous legacy and the way this contradicts Heidegger’s thought by providing an alternative to the acceptance of mortality is supported by analysis of societal customs and traditions surrounding death in the world and the representation of death in literature.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

Totalitarianism and Technocracy: A Jungian and Huxleyan analysis of the Spiritual Problem of Modern Man, the distortion of Myth, and the path to Liberation

Totalitarianism and Technocracy: A Jungian and Huxleyan analysis of the Spiritual Problem of Modern Man, the distortion of Myth, and the path to Liberation

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

Is Rewilding Compatible with Veganism?

Is rewilding compatible with veganism? Rewilding is a conservation effort which can contribute to the efforts of solving climate change. Due to the use of animals in rewilding, it raises questions for ethical vegans and so my territory is animal ethics. Through axiological critique, I intend to consider veganism from a deontological, consequentialist and virtue ethicist point of view and determine which is the best approach for practical matters, using rewilding as my object.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

The Great Awakening of QAnon’s Weltanschauung: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Conspiracy Theory in an Age of ‘Post-truth’

Object: QAnon is an online group consisting of a web of conspiracy theory, with the main premise being that there is a cabal of paedophilic, Satan-worshiping elites known as the ‘deep state’ controlling society from the shadows. The group began when an anonymous user named ‘Q’ started posting cryptic messages (‘Q drops’) on the online messaging board ‘4Chan’.

Territory: A psychoanalytic interpretation through the works of Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek

Aims and Key Concepts:
• Birth of the Internet and the Death of the Author
I aim to investigate the impact the internet has had on conspiratorial thinking. What will also be made apparent is the fact that ‘Q drops’ present the implications of what Barthes calls “the death of the author”.
• ‘Q drops’ as a Text bound to jouissance
Through Barthes and Lacan, it will be shown that framing the ‘Q drops’ as a Text allows us to see how they are bound to the Lacanian term jouissance: a term linked to the ‘death-drive’ that is beyond the pleasure principle.
• QAnon: The Ultimate Hysteric Discourse?
With the help of Lacanian psychoanalysis, it is evident that the hysteric discourse is at play for particular QAnon members. Moreover, there will be an exploration of how the discourse of the hysteric causes cynical distancing to hegemonic master signifiers, leading to what Žižek defines as the “demise of symbolic efficiency.”
• The Paranoic Fantasy of the ‘Deep State’
Within QAnon, it is evident that there is a combination of perversion, psychosis and neurosis. I will attempt to show how the psychotic – the paranoid subject – formulates the belief in an ‘Other of the Other’ (the ‘deep state’), and this will be done with the aid of Slavoj Žižek.

Sources:
• Roland Barthes, Image-Music-Text (1977)
– The Pleasure of the Text (1975)
• Jacques Lacan, The Other Side of Psychoanalysis: Seminar XVII (1991)
• Slavoj Žižek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology (1999)
– ‘The Matrix, or, the Two Sides of Perversion’ (2006)

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

‘The End of History? Really?’ A Philosophical Investigation into Francis Fukuyamas work the End of history and the Last Man. With Reference to Hegel and Oswald Spengler

‘The End of History? Really?’ A Philosophical Investigation into Francis Fukuyamas work the End of history and the Last Man. With Reference to Hegel and Oswald Spengler
The Object of my study is whether Francis Fukuyama’s famous work ‘The end of History and the Last Man’ and the predictions made in it hold true today since the book was published in 1992. My dissertation therefore is centred around the Philosophy of History and which interpretations are the most accurate for describing the way in which history is manifests itself. The other two philosophers I shall look out is Georg Hegel and his dialectical approach to history and Oswald Spengler with his cyclical approach to History. I decided to do my dissertation on this as I believe we live in a very polarising time I was intrigued find out the significance of it on the historical timeline by investigating various view points written on it
Fukuyama in his book makes the bold statement that we have reached the end of history and what he meant by this is specifically is the end of ideology as Western Liberal Democratic traditions have reigned victorious for 100 years and have survived many potential coups by Communism and Fascism alike. Fukuyama states that humanity has reached a harmonisation with liberal democracy and their aren’t any contradictions in human life which cant be solved through its mechanism of government
Fukuyama’s conclusion is based on Nineteenth Century German Philosopher Georg work on the philosophy of History building on his dialectical process as the driving force of history. The ‘dialectical’ process sees that humanity reaching a final state after the Spirit in history which is in a state of conflict, producing a constant thesis and antithesis, finally resolving itself. Fukuyama believed that liberal democracy was the final synthesis from the thesis and antithesis conflict. Through out this section examine how much Fukuyama agreed with Hegel and where he veers off and goes in his own direction. I then Investigate whether liberal democracy still reigns supreme, I observe the fact that it is indeed still the primary mode of government in the western world however faith in it is faltering. This is highlighted by a Politico Survey which demonstrated Millennial’s are the most disillusioned generation ‘living memory’ in regards to faith in democracy.
Once examining Fukuyama, I go back into looking at Hegel in more detail, evaluating the circumstance that potentially humanity hasn’t reached a final ultimate synthesis yet as Fukuyama believes we have rather we are still in a state of dialectic. I look more deeply into Hegel’s idea of History being a manifestation spirit. The purpose of this is to help understand whether we are still in a state of dialectical process or not.
In my dissertation I move on to my final philosopher who looked at history in a completely different lens to Fukuyama and Hegel, German Philosopher Oswald Spengler. Oswald Spengler was one of the most famous and influential philosophers of the 1920’s, Times magazine famously said ‘When Spengler Speaks the whole world listens’. Spengler gained fame for his seminal Work ‘The Decline of the West’ which he considered to be a Copernican moment in the study of philosophy for history. Unlike the other two who viewed history as linear reaching a final point, he viewed history as the rise and fall of self contained cultures, their life span could be split into the 4 seasons. Spring being the rise of the culture, summer being the Apex, Autumn being stagnation and winter being the demise. According to Spengler the west had entered the Winter period and is in a state of decline which leads to it falling into a era of Ceasers aka dictators. This is at odds with Fukuyama’s belief that liberal democracy has won the ideological battle, hence why I included it in my dissertation. I go on to test the validity of Spengler’s prediction analysing the trump presidency as a possible example as well as using

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

Is labour used as punishment in private immigration detention justifiable, or is it slavery?

The private prison industry has expanded into immigration detention in return for money and is using the forced labour of their inmates to return a sizeable profit to their shareholders. Is this a justifiable punishment for illegal immigrants making the crossing into the USA, or does it constitute a form of modern-day slavery? This research will determine that through its investigations into deontology, consequentialism, retributivism and anti-foundationalism that the industry is fundamentally founded on concepts that do not relate to justice and so its form of punishment cannot be justified but must rather be considered a form of slavery.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

‘Carpe Your Crypto Diem’ The Digitalisation of Currency as an Act of Political Liberation

This project aims to establish if cryptocurrencies are liberating, offering more political freedom. It will also consider if they’re a positive development for society. To do this it will answer several questions. Firstly, it will define what cryptocurrencies are and introduce key examples. Then it will consider if cryptocurrencies can be understood as money. By presenting a genealogy of money and following how money has evolved it will demonstrate how our intuitive understanding of money is flawed. Money is a social institution, used to represent credit as Henry Macleod suggests. It will discuss the social ontology of money further, introducing the works of John Austin and John Searle. This will demonstrate that money isn’t something inherently valuable, rather it’s an object with an assigned function that society holds a set of beliefs about. Therefore, digital tokens or cryptocurrencies could function of money. However, they’re lacking the trust money requires to be credible. This project will then question why we don’t trust cryptocurrencies. It will consider why we trust the currencies we use today. Ultimately, governments establish this trust, and they are put in a position to do this via the social contract. Cryptocurrencies have no links to governments and therefore lack this. However, by discussing monetary policy this project will demonstrate how governments take their power and control further, manipulating our spending to reach their own targets. This project will question if this could be the reason why governments vilify cryptocurrencies, are they doing this to maintain their own power? This brings us to our last question; can cryptocurrencies liberate us from this control? It will consider the possibility of establishing a techno-Leviathan. Could placing an automated self-sustaining system as sovereign grant us more freedom. Ultimately, this project will conclude that this would be politically liberating. Cryptocurrencies remove third parties from monetary exchange, limiting their control and granting an individual more freedom.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

Art as Catharsis and as Therapy

The so-called ‘cathartic’ elements of art, especially music, have fascinated me in some way for a long time. The strong emotions that can be aroused in the presence of an artwork, or while one is listening to certain music, are very often difficult to comprehend and put into words – such feelings can be said to ‘elude common vocabulary’ (Gabrielsson, 2010, p. 548). Especially since by nature our individual experiences are so subjective, the cathartic or therapeutic nature of art can also be very difficult to make sense of and thus communicate to others, perhaps even yourself. However, there have been and continue to be more sociological and medical articles being published investigating the idea of art therapy, which seem to be gaining traction as sound cases arguing in favour of art therapy. In light of all of this, what this article aims to accomplish is split up into two parts: firstly, I will provide a thorough philosophical foundation for understanding the very idea of artistic catharsis, which will entail a deep and critical exploration into Aristotle’s concept of catharsis and the debates surrounding it; and secondly, once this has been done to a satisfactory level, I aim to transition into a more social and psychological approach by considering the current ways in which art therapy and catharsis are viewed today. This latter half will pay specific attention to the effects of music on various individuals and groups, taking into account the different factors at play that may impact how those individuals or groups experience music, and even several other art forms.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

Should Approaches Influenced by Transcendental and Existential Phenomenology be Utilised More in Children and Adolescent Psychotherapy?

For my project I am going to be conducting a meta-analysis in order to answer a question very close to my heart, of whether Transcendental and Existential Phenomenology should be utilised more in Children and Adolescent Psychotherapy, a career I plan to train towards post-university. Through the application of Husserl and Heidegger’s phenomenology to psychotherapy, I will be challenging whether or not children and adolescents have the capability to identify a self-responsibility while being wholly dependent on their families, or to consciously comprehend transcendentalism enough to help them cope with mental struggles.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

Credit – Freedom or Control?

Credit will, in all likelihood affect everyone at some point in their lives. Whether it be a student loan, a mortgage, a credit card or buying a car ‘on finance’, the possibilities are vast.

I will look at the ideas of Hegel, who subscribes to the view that it is property is the embodiment of freedom, as well as that it is essential to the development of one’s personality, individuality and Asking whether credit can be seen to enhance one’s access to private property and therefore enhance their freedom.

I will then look at Lazzarato, who explores the debtor creditor relationship arguing that everyone, in the neoliberal age, has become debtors through a process of subjectivation by their creditors. But is this the case?

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

The development of Sadomasochistic understanding through the application of Psychoanalysis

Sadism and masochism coupled together as sadomasochism is a compound term which denotes a pair of opposites, adopted by psychoanalysis. The development of sadism and masochism began from the literary contributions of Sade and Masoch, which later contributed to the psychoanalytical analysis of the relationship in perversion between opposites. This project focuses on psychoanalysis being useful in the developed understanding of sadomasochistic relations, specifically in terms of how, why they are formed and are able to function despite being structurally separate. As a result, psychoanalysis claims a necessary reliance on each other present in sadomasochist relations, despite being the opposite of each other. The common psychoanalytic reading of sadism and masochism will be used, as a challenge to sadism and masochism being defined without being sourced from a process of reversal. In addition, there is focus on role of fantasy and if whether sadism and masochism can exist as a pure example without elements of the other, with perversions always existing as a pair of opposites in a relation of an exchange of power. The objects of sadism and masochism are applied to the territory of psychoanalysis with psychoanalysis providing depth into these concepts as they are of a paradoxical nature. A historical methodology will be used to follow the progression of the understanding of sadism and masochism, as developed over time with psychoanalytical understanding as such provided by Freud, Deleuze and Lacan.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

A Fair Trial of Rawls. The sixth Article of the Human Rights Act of 1998 outlines the right to a fair trial in the United Kingdom. To what extent does Rawlsian theory justify the fairness of the trial process?

A fair trial of Rawls.
The right to a fair trial is a human right held by those living in the UK. Rawlsian theory lays claim to the fairness of the criminal trial and insists upon the ability of such a procedure to produce fair outcomes. This is frank account of the reality of criminal trials in the UK, the procedures in place and the extent to which Rawls is able to justify his claims. Individual liberty, amongst other things, appears to be in jeopardy. Will Rawls produce a suitable enough defence to clear his name of all shortcomings?

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

On Sympathy: Animal Ethics after the Death of God

Animal rights are commonly understood as the rights of non-human animals to live freely from human interference and exploitation. These rights are, however, frequently violated by industries which use non-human animals to create products such as food, clothing, and cosmetics – regardless of the suffering caused to the individuals involved.

It is the purpose of my project to explore the human being’s inability to sympathise with this suffering, arguing that this inability has originated in Christian doctrine and philosophy, and can only be overcome after the death of God.

This project draws upon work from a variety of thinkers – including David Hume, Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Darwin, Lawrence J. Hatab, Peter Singer and Gary Steiner – to investigate the role of sympathy in the creation of moral values and the Christian narrative of human dominion.

Such discussion entails a revaluation of both our moral values and the value we place on our species, concluding that the advent of nihilism in the West creates an opportunity to recognise our shared kinship with all sentient creatures, and therefore our need to sympathise with them.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

Liberal neutrality, attack on identity

My project will posit the notion that society is entrapped in a one dimensional mode of thinking due to the technological rationality of our time. I will dissect the notion of neutrality and how it is simply a facade to cover the logic of domination. This will be evidenced by the impositions on religious beliefs and the oppression of the Islamic community and voice, highlighting that the commodification of high culture into mass culture has reduced us to a society where there is no critical angle left. A society in which one cannot argue against the supposed ‘rational’ a society that follows the history of domination yet we are all deluded into believing it is more progressive than ever. Furthermore I will reflect on case studies to illustrate the repressive nature of this society and focus on Frankfurt school critical thinkers: Marcuse and Adorno. The use of critical theory is necessary as it will enable dialect thought that will hopefully allow for the the individuals real liberty.

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2021 Abstracts Stage 3

This investigation performs a value analysis and an analysis of the conceptual frameworks provided by Eastern and Western spiritual doctrine through the concept’s divinity and transcendence.

Karl Marx’s A Critique of Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’ (1970), and Plato’s Plato Repiblic I (1937) are employed as the primary tools into the search for the meaning of Eastern and Western spiritual doctrine, also providing frameworks through which the concept of spirituality can be understood.
This investigation concludes that Eastern spiritual doctrine has more real spiritual value than that of the West through providing a value-system orientated towards freedom and a ‘pure’ conceptual framework orientated towards truth. The concept of divinity in Eastern spiritual doctrine exudes oneness and reciprocity, whilst transcendence focuses on being and presence.
Western spiritual doctrine on the other hand is thought to be reducible to a Capitalist mechanism due to the orientation of control pertinent to its value system and implicitly motivated conceptual framework. Divinity in Western spiritual doctrine embodies oppressive instruction, and its transcendence is linked to Capitalist exploitation. This, then, puts into the nature of Western Reason for its embedding with such oppressive structures and frameworks.