Education became commodified through the introduction of university fees in UK higher education. This commodification means that Newcastle University is implicitly entangled with the economic values of society. Under investigation within this project was the question of diversity in UK higher education institutions. The case study used to ground this investigation was data collected from core modules on Newcastle University’s Undergraduate Philosophy degree. The questions were categorised into five categories, ‘Understanding’, ‘Comparative’, ‘Contemporary/Applied’, ‘Diverse’, and ‘Other’. After analysing and evaluating this quantified data, Althusser’s concepts of reproduction and interpellation were analysed. This Althusserian framework provides an understanding of the role of essay questions in the reproduction of the current intellectual philosophical tradition. The Foucauldian notion of normalisation and historical examples were utilised to substantiate the claim. Whilst a good framework, Althusser’s theory is overwhelmingly unoptimistic. By engaging with bell hooks, the investigation was able to draw out some possible solutions. A framework for alteration was established based on hook’s focus on communication and work by Elbow. In an inverted hierarchical sense, change can start in the university institutions themselves. By implementing more inclusive attitudes in the academy, prejudice, and bias are deconstructed, this would lead to a critique and deconstruction of privilege and diversification of the philosophical intellectual tradition.
Tag: Foucault
This essay explores the evolution of leadership through a comparison of Homeric poems and Royal Marines Commando Ethos. Applying Foucault’s theories, the analysis delves into the power dynamics, discipline, and techniques of governance employed in these two contexts. By examining the similarities and differences, the essay aims to reveal insights into how leadership has evolved over time and how it continues to shape our society today using Foucault’s analysis of language.
The aim of this project is to explore the unresolved issues within the prison system that do not necessarily get thought about every day. My project will discuss those issues such as race, women’s sexual assault, gangs and inhumanity within supermax institutions.
The key philosophers will include Michele Foucault, Angela Y.Davis and Lisa Guenther.
Analysing the UK’s contemporary penal system using Marx and Foucault.
This paper argues that China’s social credit system (CSCS) has serious philosophical consequences for Chinese citizens on the principles of power, freedom and individuality. The CSCS is a system by which individuals’ actions are monitored and consequently rewarded or punished against what the Chinese state deems to be either “trustworthy” or “untrustworthy” actions. Through the medium of the CSCS, the state has the power to dictate the truth about the rightness or wrongness of action. This paper holds that Foucault’s conception of power and, specifically, his notion that power and knowledge are intertwined, is paramount to understanding the relationship that the state and society share in China. To be precise, this relationship is one in which the state, through its power, controls and manages truth (about action). This paper does however argue that Foucault’s notion that power operates vertically (from top-down and bottom-up) is not representative of the political framework of China. As regards the principles of freedom and individuality, J. S. Mill’s philosophy on liberty and freedom is considered in context with the CSCS. This paper shows that under the CSCS, there can be no possibility, or at least a greatly limited possibility, for any individual freedom and, by extension, individuality. Mill argues that individual freedom is essential for well-functioning liberal states, and as such his arguments are central to the philosophical enquiry into the CSCS.
This project seeks to problematize European notions of Enlightenment and to discuss notions of a non-Western form of Enlightenment. I will begin by discussing the problem of Enlightenment that still haunts us to this day. Central to this will be Kant and Foucault’s work ‘What is Enlightenment’. This will lead me to utilize work from Adorno and Horkheimer and Said to demonstrate how colonial expansion was justified through Enlightenment and Orientalist ideology. This will explain how foreign interference across the globe has been justified. I shall highlight the issues of enforcing European, Enlightenment value frameworks on non-Western cultures in reference to the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
This essay explores the genealogy of the penal system as a paradigm for understanding power dynamics within educational institutions, drawing from the philosophical works of Michel Foucault and Friedrich Nietzsche. Building on Foucault’s theoretical framework, this investigation delves into the structures of power and discipline, including hierarchical observation and normalising judgement, and their pervasive presence within contemporary educational environments. Nietzsche’s insights from ‘On the Uses and Abuses of History for Life’ and ‘On the Genealogy of Morality’ offer an additional lens to critically appraise the formation and enforcement of norms in these settings. Cinematic representations of these concepts, primarily found in Lindsay Anderson’s ‘If….’ and Peter Weir’s ‘Dead Poets Society’, are analysed to provide tangible illustrations of Foucault’s and Nietzsche’s theories within institutionalised education. The essay demonstrates how, akin to the penal system, educational institutions exercise power, regulate behaviour, and manage deviation, resulting in a profound influence on individual formation and societal coherence. By juxtaposing the penal and educational systems, this analysis highlights the urgency of addressing the inherent power imbalances and restrictive norms within educational institutions to promote more equitable learning environments.
This project’s aim is to explore Norway’s Halden Prison and look at whether or not its ethos of rehabilitation is a success in being the core function of prisons. The three primary texts that I will be using are Michel Foucault’s (2020) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, John Rawls’ Theory of Justice and Thomas Hobbes’ Social Contract Theory, in his Leviathon. I begin by looking at the historical shift of punishment as retribution (punishment of the body) towards punishment as rehabilitation (the reforming of the soul) (Foucault, 2020, p.7). From here, I move onto the two chapters that consist of the bulk of the project, the first focusing on rehabilitation and discussing the tension between whether it benefits the society or the individual. In the second chapter, I look at Foucault and Davis, who are problematising the idea that people are made into becoming a criminal—their problem is that often, ‘criminals’ are not actually ‘criminals’ and often do not need to be rehabilitated or corrected.
Girls and Social Media
The Object of my project is how social media contributes towards and perpetuates the damaging social construct of femininity.
Control.
Control is the overarching force at play in this project. It refers both to capitalist and patriarchal control. Foucault explains how social media acts as a form of surveillance, policing and governing girls’ behaviour online and prohibiting their freedom.
Identity.
Identity is relevant to this project because of the identities girls form on social media. Girls internalise the sexually objectifying media content they consume on social media, which causes the development of a patriarchal construction of identity. Tiqqun is used to demonstrate how this prohibits girls from experiencing true value in a number of ways, such as the values of liberation, introspective intimacy and identity.
Does drug prohibition provide safety within society, or does it merely conceal our freedom, and the freedom of low-income and minority communities to protect the middle-classes?
This project focuses on a Foucauldian framework to analyse the power dynamics between the systems that are supposed to protect us, and addicts’ abilities to control their own forms of therapies. It also analyses the freedom of addicts themselves, and whether the therapies currently in place helps these people to break out of their situations and take control over their own lives, or whether it just slots them into a position that conforms with societal norms at current.
I also analyse different future options for therapies for low-income and minority communities breaking from their drug addiction with psychedelic therapies and psychoactive substances.
The aim of the essay is fundamentally an attempt to breakdown the lives of addicted people and the ways in which we can continue to support them and provide them with the freedom that as humans, we deserve.
This project will examine the territory of social credit system and its philosophical implications. The main aim of this project is to look at influence of Philosophy of Confucianism had on the creation of the social credit system. China promoted the social credit system by usage of Confucianism notion of the virtue ‘trustworthiness’. However, this project aims to show that the social credit system only uses one aspect of the philosophy Confucianism while leaving out a core notion of ‘self-cultivation’. The comparison of between the social credit systema and Confucianism will show the implication such system on moral agents. this will show how the social credit system leave out the internal dimension of individual life how it and only focuses on the external dimensions. Thereafter, Foucault concept if disciplinary power will be used illustrate how the social credit system is perfect example of presence of disciplinary power in modern times. This project will show how the social credit system is an artificial model of the Jeremy Bentham’s’ Panopticon prison.
The continued belief in the reality of ghosts despite their unscientific nature can be reasoned down to a person’s social class.
Using Foucault’s philosophy we can use types knowledges to see the power structures within society and how they control us. Those who are unhappy within society such as the working classes are in position to critique society and thus see these structures.
By believing in the paranormal, one is making a choice to accept a knowledge outside of the ones deemed acceptable by society and thus unmasking the structure of what is and is not acceptable.
This essay examines the concept of madness and discusses whether madness should have a place in our metaphysical framework. It begins by exploring Nietzsche’s presentation of madness in his text The Gay Science, and concludes that madness ought to be included within philosophy. It then goes on to examine Foucault’s historical analysis of madness in his text, Madness and Civilisation, which demonstrates how the voice of madness has gradually been reduced to silence as the language of reason takes over. This essay concludes that the voice of madness ought to be included within philosophy for at times it is only the authoritative voice of madness that can lead us to new truths.
Territory/object → Social media in relation to social media and related to ‘Nosedive’ – an object of contemporary society
Philosophers → Michel Foucault, Arthur Schopenhauer
Overview → I will be exploring why so many of us feel compelled to manipulate our identities online and the issues surrounding the ease and ability to do so with little restrictions. I consider what philosophers of different centuries may have said on such matters. I aim to support and prove my claim that until we change the values of the social system that we are a part of, we will not be able to overcome the negative impacts that social media provides.
Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization- the concept of madness and how it has developed over time. Foucault argues there was a specific moment in history when madness was labelled as a mental illness.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy- life is subject to extreme bouts of suffering. Artistic production can contribute towards overcoming the pain we encounter in life. What implications does this have on the link between madness and creativity?
Are creative spirits more likely to be mentally ill? Ultimately the aim of this project is to reflect upon the complex relationship between insanity and creativity, to decide whether there is a correlation between individuals who suffer from psychological disorders, such as schizophrenia, and those who are highly artistic. It is arguable that there is a link, as mental illness and creativity often co-occur. However, this project will also reflect upon the idea that a correlation is simply a romanticised outlook with dangerous implications, and that mental illness does not need to be present for creativity to exist.
The subject matter will be considered via the philosophical thoughts of Foucault, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, but also with reference to the psychoanalysis work of Freud drawing upon examples such as Daniel Paul Schreber, a famous German judge who was a diagnosed schizophrenic, whom Freud interpreted. The evident Freudian influence expressed by Andre Breton within his novel Nadja will also be addressed. Breton believed insane people were simply victims of their imagination.
‘Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break through. It is potential liberation and renewal’
Michael Foucault
– The repressive hypothesis
– Changes in sexual practices over time
– Mode of power within society
Theodore Adorno
– Enlightenment
– Culture Industry
-Standardisation of sexual categories
Do sexual categories define individuals?
Has sexuality always existed?
How does sexuality function within society?
Generation Snowflake and The Contemporary Situation
Defined in the Collins English Dictionary – ” the generation of people who became adults in the 2010’s, viewed as being less resilient and more prone to taking offence than previous generation”
How has ‘Generation Snowflake’ come to be?
Foucault’s analysis of the kind of power at work today in Generation Snowflake is the interference and dominance of medicine, a discreet mode of power facilitating the set-up of this transactional reality.
Does Free Speech Exist Today in ‘Generation Snowflake’?
Mill’s Harm Principle – to safeguard liberty and free speech, ” the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community against his will, is to prevent harm to others”.
The right to Freedom of Expression Integrity & Ethics in Journalism
Michel Foucault on Confinement and Parrhesia | John Stuart Mill on Freedom of Expression
Territory The object of study for this project is the human right to freedom of expression, with a particular focus on discussing the extent that this right should be exercised – particularly within the Journalism sector. Establishing the value of freedom of expression will assist in evaluating how important this right is to contemporary society.
Modern examples of defending oneself by using the principle of freedom of expression will assist in understanding the relevance of freedom of expression within the modern day. Philosophical Concepts The first concept applied to this territory is John Stuart Mill’s discussion of the necessity of the right to freedom of expression: this project looks at both his reasons for freedom of expression and why he postulates this argument.
The second concept is Michel Foucault’s historical philosophy. Foucault’s work in Fearless Speech will discuss the Greek expression, parrhesia, which translates as a verbal activity designating one to tell the truth despite the risk of differing from the majority and risking danger.
This project will also discuss Foucault’s Madness and Civilisation in order to consider how society can treat those who express themselves in forms that differ to those in traditional society. This concept will lead the project to ask whether we truly do have true freedom of expression.
I am going to explore the differing perceptions, classifications and treatments of mental illness, in particular depression.
Key Themes
Personal: The sufferer’s explanation
Scientific: A biochemical explanation of the causes and symptoms, and consequent treatment using medicine
Holistic: Classification of a mental illness takes into account the patient’s experiences, cognition processes and learned behaviours, which therapy seeks to overcome
Social: The onlooker’s explanation and the stigma in society
Foucault: Modern psychiatry, although grounded in scientific truths, is primarily a system of moral judgements. Treatment of the mentally ill can be seen as society’s way of controlling what they deem to be immoral / undesirable.
Sartre: Man has the freedom to choose what their life is, however many of us live in bad faith by hiding from this freedom as it is accompanied by the responsibility to have meaning; man is condemned to be free.
This project will examine will investigate the philosophical concepts as demonstrated in “The Origin of the Work of Art”. The objective will be to show evidence of Heidegger’s thought in the context of modern music. The essay will involve a philosophical enquiry into modern music-society, using Foucault, Lyotard, Kant and Taylor to compare and contrast Heidegger’s opinion with others.