This essay explores the themes of alienation and identity within Kafka’s collected works. The study examines the suffering of his characters psychologically through R. D. Laing and Debord and metaphysically through Schopenhauer and Buddhism. The essay focuses on texts such as “Metamorphosis”, “The Castle” and shorter works such as “A Country Doctor” and “The Judgement”. Overall, it intends to use literary and philosophical analysis to interpret Kafka’s understanding of the human condition.
Tag: identity
A Study into Human Nature: To What Extent Can you Change your Own Personality?
My project aims to understand the struggles that celebrities face when trying to be/know themselves. The aim is also to shine light on the fact that the struggle they face is more intense and harder than for a non-celebrity.
I want to breakdown the stigma that celebrities should not struggle with knowing themselves or the life they lead.
My object is the struggle to be oneself and my territory is the struggle to be oneself in relation to celebrities and fame. Discussing these both will bring up concepts such as: identity, real self, apparent self, consumerism, fluidity, culture industry and intensity.
Are transgender children too young to undergo a gender transition? In my project I aim to discuss the valuable use of our language in order to broaden our understanding on transgender issues in order to help these children in the best way possible.
This project aims to investigate the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the development of the identities of university students, looking at the impact that the removal of social influences has had on identity formation during such a critical time of personal growth. Using the philosophies of Charles Taylor and Friedrich Nietzsche to support my investigation, I will look at whether Taylor’s quote ‘one cannot be a self on one’s own’ (Taylor, 1989, pg.36) is shown to be true as a result of lockdowns and subsequent isolation, or whether COVID-19 provided students with a chance to embrace Nietzsche’s heroic individualism and create a stronger sense of self.
An investigation into the effects of non-creative and creative precarious work on identity formation in post modern society, looking at these two kinds of work and how they can be seen to corrode or consolidate people’s views of themselves, through an analysis of the work of Bauman, Taylor, Sennett, Virno, and Marx.
What is it to be a Self?
• My objective is to explore personal identity by using film and television as thought experiments. I want to further my own understanding of my ‘self’, as well as that of others around me.
• Body theory: Our personal identity persists because we have the same body from birth until death. Challenged by ‘Star Trek’ Transporter thought experiment.
• Soul theory: The soul houses our identity, supported by Plato and René Descartes. Challenged by films such as ‘Still Allice’, how does Alzheimer’s damage the soul?
• Memory theory/ psychological continuity: John Locke’s Memory Theory. We have memory links to different stages in our lives, and they are all connected. Films such as ‘Total Recall’ and ‘Blade Runner’ call into question the role false memories can have in shaping our personal identities.
Society and the Self
• Zygmunt Bauman: Timeline of personal identity. We are in Liquid Modern Times, technology dictates personal identity. Explored in films such as ‘The Social Network’ and ‘Her’.
• Friedrich Nietzsche: Flux, we are in a constant state of becoming, so there is no fixed self that persists through time. Christian values of the past should be rejected, instead we should practise Amor Fati.
• Fixed identity: Exists in the Pre-modern Era and in Social Frameworks, i.e. institutions such as the Christian Church. Patrick Bateman in ‘American Psycho’ undergoes an identity crisis in response to the fixities in his life.
• Fluid identity: The transition from Walter White to Heisenberg in Breaking Bad is fluid identity in action. Supported by Bauman and Nietzsche, as it can make for a more tolerant society. However, lacking a solid sense of self can be dangerous.
This paper attempts to show how the object of prayer is linked to knowledge, as knowledge from a theological standpoint finds its root in God, and prayer from an Islamic perspective is seen as a direct communion with God. I will look at this from a cosmological aspect, with regard to the idea of man being created in the image of God and the Adamic potential of man. I will also look at the different levels of knowledge and what knowledge is for both Qadi Abu Bakr Ibn’ Arabi and Abu Hamid Al Ghazali. Ghazali emphasizes the concept of the heart being a vessel of knowledge and uses light as a metaphor for knowledge, I will try to outline how to attain a state where knowledge is possible by means of the heart, as well as showing from a cosmological perspective that the function of humans is to be in constant remembrance of God, thus constant prayer, through the idea of the divine names of God.
This project explores the purpose of education with specific regard to the demands of employability on a student and their ability to flourish in higher education. The project discusses the importance of employability within the current education system, providing examples of the skills taught in universities that aid students vocationally. Drawing from philosopher Jean- François Lyotard, it is explained how he suggested that the meaning of knowledge had shifted in postmodernism. Due to economic and social change, higher education became increasingly commodified and there was an emphasis on skills and performativity in universities. The project subsequently explores the importance of personal flourishment in higher education, focusing on John Dewey and Aristotle. Understanding higher education in terms of flourishment creates an environment that supports students in becoming happy, successful and well-rounded individuals at university and beyond. First hand research was conducted, in the form of interviews, to help distinguish a middle ground. It is concluded that the demands of employability and personal flourishment in higher education are essential for individuals to become sustainably employable. This middle ground suggests that a need for both employability and flourishment is crucial in a student’s life to help them, and consequently society, reach their full potential in the 21st century.
This paper examines whether the exponential growth in the usage of social media is influencing the construction of our identity, with a specific focus on Facebook. The object of my project was to investigate whether there was a correlation between the exponential growth of social media and identity. The interest for this was stemmed through reading a variety of articles claiming the negative impacts social media obtains, because social media platforms exposes us to a variety of different cultures, opinions and perspectives, this ultimately must have some influence over identity composition. This project examines David Hume, ‘Treatise of Human Nature, specifically, book 1, part IV ‘Of Personal Identity’. Soren Kierkegaard’s ‘The Two ages: A literary review and lastly, Zygmunt Bauman’s book ‘Identity’. Engaging with these different texts concerning identity, provides a variety of different theories of how one forms identity. Analysing these philosophers works, highlighted that there are three main themes which contribute and can impact identity. The three main themes explored within this paper are: choice and experience, communities and collective identity and lastly, liquid modernity and capitalism. Investigating these main themes, enabled the conclusion to be reached that social media does influence the construction of identity.
Piercing a hole through the foundation of mathematics, Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem resides outside the scope of consistency, provability, and solvability. A mathematical manifestation of self-referential paradoxes, the doctrine shattered the possibility of sustaining a complete system within mathematics, as Gödel utilised arithmetic itself to convey that there will always be axiomatic statements within mathematics that cannot be proved with certainty. However, in pursuit of clarity, can the philosophical attribution of morality and analytics be utilised to elevate an understanding of the paradoxical theorem? With both enterprises positing an abstract delineation of how truth and falsity are classified, the anomalous nature of the Incompleteness Theorem perhaps necessitates similar ascription. Whilst it is essential to note that the profundity of mathematical inquiry eradicates the possibility of the paradox being ‘solved’, the attribution of philosophy can perhaps offer avenues of illuminating novel aspects of the theorem. In doing so, the findings can be strung away from pessimism and towards mere curiosity. Mathematics may be defined by its incompleteness, but can philosophy offer an elevated insight that transcends an understanding beyond the mathematical enterprise?
Samuel Beckett’s Nineteen-Sixty-One play Happy Days is best understood as a parody of the human condition. Beckett seeks to reflect the experience of what it means to be human in stage directions, set design, and language. His methods of confinement and parody also allow for a vivid portrayal of existence. A philosopher who also wrote on the human condition was Martin Heidegger. For Heidegger, this experience is regulated entirely by his concept of “Dasein”. My essay centres around seeking to attribute an overlap between Heidegger’s and Beckett’s human condition through its possible representation on the stage of Happy Days. Although Beckett is notoriously difficult to analyse and attribute a specific philosophical framework, I have uncovered evidence of possible Heideggerian influence and inherent similarities. The themes of Heidegger analysed include: world disclosure, anxiety, death, and authenticity. I have also highlighted Beckett’s use of optimism in the play as a potential counterpoint to the outwardly pessimistic philosophy of Heidegger. My aim is to show how the performance medium of theatre can be an effective tool in communicating philosophical ideas, as opposed to text on a page.
This dissertation examines John Rawls’s procedural liberalist position with a specific regard to the possible imposition of group-differentiated rights. In light of Will Kymlicka’s communitarian defence of liberalism, I invoke the argument that there are sufficient grounds to implement self-governing rights particularly to the native population in Canada. Considering Canada was the first country in the world to legally recognise multiculturalism as a governmental policy, I use the ongoing debates between the democratic state and the indigenous population in Canada to comprehend the argument for protective group rights. I also incorporate the work of Charles Taylor to determine the importance of the modern identity with specific regard to the dependency one holds to their community.
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
Tattoo artistry is a form of permanent body adornment, which functions to establish as a form of art which configures a permanent establishment of meaning, expression and identity. Tattooing is a unique and heterogenous form of art which works directly upon the body as a canvas, eliciting a relationship of pain and sensation. Examples of recorded tattoo experiences and tattoo culture have been provided, both traditionally and contemporarily to establish the diversity and adaptation of historical change, as the tools and customs have been found to radically progress. The functions by which are carried out by tattoos, such as meaning, expression and identity, are able to be assessed with respect to differing perspectives. Present in discourse surrounding tattoo artistry, is how and why distinct differences in tradition and custom development are able to occur.
The application of Susan Sontag, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Fredrich Nietzche to the heterogeneity of tattoo discourse allowed for the consideration of hermeneutic culture, metaphysical expression and the re-establishment of the self as reflective functions present in the application of tattoos. These noted functions act indivisibly throughout the consideration of tattooing and the practical tattooing process. Tattooing discourse reveals the underlying difference in the conception of tattoos and its customs, with the exploration of contemporary experimental tattoo environments, displaying the developing ideologies present in the tattooing sector.
Progressively foregrounded precisely in its lack of coming to presence is the operation by which an individual’s human or non-human, inhuman, status is delineated. It is thus that the margin of delineation by which the propriety of a human being’s humanity is decided becomes questionable and prompts further reflection. Receiving its impetus from Martin Heidegger’s Letter on ‘Humanism’, the following essay shall take the ‘human’ as galvanized in the thought of Marcus Tullius Cicero as its object, foremost reflecting on the human is discursively constituted in the complementary texts De Republica and De Legibus. This essay thus contends that Cicero’s thought constitutes the exemplary object of the critique Heidegger’s letter poses, and as such provides an essential foil to Heidegger’s proposal as to how the notion of νόμος (nomos) should be uptaken in light of the truth of being.
I will be exploring the relationship between consumerism and identity. I will ask if people are free to create an identity and control the way in which they express themselves under the social order of consumerism. I will argue that rather than being emancipatory, consumerism instead imposes restrictions on people in ways that will be explored in this essay. The main philosophical ideas used to engage with this thesis will be drawn from works of Jean Baudrillard. I will primarily be drawing from Baudrillard’s The Consumer Society and will later incorporate some ideas from his Simulacra and Simulation. Baudrillard’s philosophical analysis of consumerism provokes much thought about identity, and the freedom that we possess to manipulate this identity. These ideas will be fundamental to my argument.
The desire for control is the aetiological thread that links the asceticism of medieval women and the asceticism of the anorexic woman. The lives of medieval women are characterised by a lack of control of the self. They were defined by their role as ‘body’ where men were ‘spirit’ and therefore destined to become subservient wives valued on their bodily processes. Like the medieval ascetic, the anorexic seeks to conform to the slenderness ideal that originated in response powerful intuitions exerting power over women. To be slender meant to resist democratic forms of power such as consumerism and to control desire where the regulation of such felt out of one’s control. Through Nietzsche’s notions of The Ascetic Ideal, it is understood that asceticism forms out of human suffering and conflict and focuses on empowering existence through control. Control of the body by abstaining from food therefore becomes an active yet inward facing form of resistance over institutions that have dominated women’s lives.
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)
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.