Science behind the teaching: Learning modalities; performance standards; causal relationships; systematic enquiry. Hegellan Schooling. Primary school : “Thesis” (Building blocks of knowledge) Secondary school : “Antithesis” (Reflection and cultivation) College and Uni : “Synthesis” (Facts in and of themselves) Does being “free” mean being dependant on the influence on institutions?
Tag: Hegel
Using Hegel’s Phenomenology, I examine the movements of self-consciousness apparent in a selection of socio-political incidents in contemporary Europe. Hegel’s work is not a rulebook for action or for history. But we can derive meaning in life only from the conceptual understanding of our experiences. Do all social acts have historical meaning? What part does morality have to play between consciousness and the other? Does true freedom mean the freedom to be righteous in all things?
Territory: The picture here shows a detail of one of the feature pyramids of the Kostnice Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora, near Prague. The Ossuary contains a jar of earth reportedly from Golgotha, and important Christian site, making the chapel an extremely popular place to bury loved ones. Over-population of the graveyard led to the creation of the Ossuary in 1511. Initial Aims: The Sedlec Ossuary has left a lasting impression on me and I wanted to sort out for myself why it had the impact it did. This helped me to generate a list of basic questions to answer, some of which were: ▫ How much is identity an abstract concept? To what extent is it bound up in our bodies? ▫ Do most people experience a crisis of identity as some philosophers believe (eg Sartre’s crisis of the enormity of our freedom) or is it only provoked by trauma? ▫ How rigid is our personal identity? Is identity purely conscious or can our identity remain even if we do not? ▫ Are we alienated from our bodies or united with them through our identity? ▫ How does identity work in a social situation? Key Concepts and Philosophical Models: The most obvious key concepts are identity and the mind/body divide. My chosen philosophers as key thinkers and their works are: ▫ Hegel: The Phenomenology of Spirit ▫ Beck & Beck-Gernsheim: Individualization Basic Overview: ▫ Hegel: Use and abuse of the master/slave relationship. ▫ Beck & Beck-Gernsheim: Individualization as a concept is self-perpetuating.
Place: Advertising, or more specifically, questioning the assumption that the ‘success of advertising relies upon the ability to appeal to negative human emotion’. Aims and Objectives of My Project: • To initially establish where this assumption came from. • To briefly explain ‘why’ advertising was created in the first instance and ‘how’ it developed into the institution it has become today. • To identify the negative human emotions that advertising deals with. It is imperative to also demonstrate that playing on such emotions is the very intent of advertising, both on a theoretical and practical level. I will prove that from a personal point of view, and with reference to relevant case studies that advertising does work (on the grounds suggested). I will also address the possibility that the proof of successful advertising comes when an appeal to consumer ends is absent. • To acknowledge that there are incidents in, which negative human emotions actually cause advertising to fail. I must also consider the fact that advertising, in a sociological context, has subsided to consumerism in the twenty-first century. • To consider other possible reasons ‘why’ advertising is not quite as successful as the title of my project initially implies. • To attempt to align the thoughts of certain prominent philosophers with the existence of advertising i.e. to assess how the philosophers would respond to the fundamental workings of the industry as a whole. My focus here will particularly fall upon Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Montaigne, Epicurus, Locke and Husserl.