Week 4 Seminar 2

The Outsider - Albert Campus

The Outsider is novel written in 1942 by Albert Campus. The novels theme and views are based on existentialism. Existentialism looks understanding human existence and experiences based on philosophical approach. In other words the assumption that individuals are free and responsible for their own choices and action. As Hence stated: " we are not victims of circumstances because we are what we have chosen to be. Campus never considered him self as a existentialist as he took different approaches of thoughts which the novel included such as absurd-ism, determinism, nihilism, naturalism and stoicism. The novel tells the story of an emotionally detached,amoral young man named Meursault who lives in Algeria. He does not cry at his mother's funeral, does not believe in God, and kills a man he barely knows without any discernible motive. For the crime, Meursaults is seen as a threat to society and sentenced to death. When he comes to accept the "gentle indifference of the world" he finds peace with himself and with the society that persecuted him. Camus's absurdist philosophy implies that moral orders have no rational or natural basis. Yet Camus did not approach the world with moral indifference and he believed that life's lack of a "higher" meaning should necessarily lead on to despair. On the contrary, Camus was persistent humanist. He is noted for his faith in man's dignity in the face of what he saw as a cold, indifferent universe.

Preface To Frants Fanon's "Wretched of The Earth"

The Wretched of the Earth is Frants Fanon's most famous work. The book was written during the Algerian struggle for independence from colonial rule. Fanon was a psychiatrist explored the psychological effect of colonization on a nation as well a broader implications for building a movement for decolonization. Decolonization is the action of changing a status from colonial to independence. The book relates to the novel The Outsider in a way that they both advocate a racial definition of indigenous national identity of multiculturalism. Nationalist philosophies look at the principles of all african nationalist ideologies are unity, and self determination or independence from European Society.

Week 3 Lecture 2

Frantz Fanon born 1925 in Martinique (France) - died 1961. He was a radical existential humanist whose practice focused on human values and concerns over divine and supernatural matters. Fanon had become a spokesman for the Algerian revolution against French colonialism. His work on The Wretched of The Earth was seen as the handbook for the black revolution according to its publisher but it was certainly seen as a soursebook of revolutionary slogans. Opening summary of the text presents h a discussion of how colonisers from Europe carried out their civilising mission.It also Describes what the outcomes were and how the 'civilized' native, who had learnt to echo his masters voice, finally led to the independent individual who disregarded the European civilisation and wouldn't mind taking up arms, when necessary, against his oppressor". Frantz Fanon compares the difference between natives and men. Sante states: "In the colonies the truth stood naked, but the citizens of the mother country preferred it with clothes on" - he explains as Men living a lie, not being their true self. Western culture as an entity that is hiding the truth. Western culture shapes values, the natives create their own. Satre describes the Western culture - "They stuffed their mouths full of high-sounding phrases, grand glutinous words that stuck in their teeth". He believed those that have been exposed by Western culture are 'walking lies' Satre explains how the colonisers made an effort to wipe out native culture and traditions, to substitute them with their own. "Attempts were made to create a rootless native who belonged to nowhere in particular". "In those countries where Colonialism has deliberately held up development, the peasantry, when it rises, quickly stands out as the revolutionary class". "In order to triumph, the national revolution must be socialist" - Points out that revolution is constantly in the making. The key theme of the preface is oppression. In terms of Existentialism, the themes of the true self and culture moulding individuals has links with the natives as they come into contact with the colonisers. Satre admires Fanon, explaining how Fanon is the first since Engel "to bring the processes of history into the clear light of day".

Week 1 & Seminar 1

Consumerism

Consumerism is a part of a society and economics where the desire to purchase goods and services is in a greater amount. So in order the media to be successive and running over the years it has developed and created new forms of media. The first ever form of media was Printing Press. The first printed text on paper was the Bible which was very popular with the religions and people who believed in it. This later developed to the creation of newspaper which was popular with the society as high populations had interest in reading the latest News around the world or the country. In San Francisco, America and the " Wild West " the latest news of gold and the war was being published. (Citizen Kane) Reporters were sent to the war front line to deliver news on what is happening and the information was telegraph as a new form of technology. 1920s to now the technology continued to develop and the invention of radio and the arrival of cinema started to wipe out the newspapers out of the scene. As newspapers only being popular in huge cities so their income came only from there. In America every town had a radio so it meant that they were very profitable as where in Britain it was nationalised and so. In the UK the BBC controlled the radio it was more educational, classy and all about the good quality. This meant that BBC Radio in the UK did not have much competition so newspapers were still going on. But in America it was the other way around the form of new technology raised above newspapers. This lead to a lot more advertising being introduced in order the media to run and produce.

Week 8 Seminar 4

Introduction by Paul Krugman to The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, by John Maynard Keynes

School of economics thought to be developed in Britain and originated with Adam Smith and reached maturity in the work of David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill. The theories of the classical school were mainly concerned with the dynamics of economic growth. Reacting against mercantilism, classical economics emphasized economic freedom. It stressed ideas such as laissez-faire and free competition. Many of the fundamental principles of classical economics were set forth in Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776), in which he argued that a nation's wealth was greatest when its citizens pursued their own self-interest. Neoclassical economists such as Alfred Marshall showed that the forces of supply and demand would ration economic resources to their most effective uses. Smith's ideas were elaborated and refined by Ricardo, who formulated the principle that the price of goods produced and sold under competitive conditions tends to be proportionate to the labour costs incurred in producing them. Mill's Principles of Political Economy (1848) gave the ideas greater currency by relating them to contemporary social conditions. Among those who have modified classical economics to reach very different conclusions are Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. John Maynard Keynes was born 5^th of June 1883 and died 21^st of April 1946 in Britain. Keynes was an economist whose ideas and theory were put in a book written in 1936. The General theory of Employment, Interest and Money created the terminology and shape of modern macroeconomic; it is about the way economists thought. The book tackles the idea of establishing classical economics which was developed by the likes of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus. Keynes was not a socialist his aim was to save capitalism and make sure it is not buried. He wrote the book at a time of mass unemployment, of waste and suffering. Keynes believed that capitalism had failed and the only way to turn things around is by the means of production could restore economic sanity. The General theory could be concluded in four points:

• Economies can and often do suffer from an overall lack of demand, which leads to involuntary unemployment

• The economy’s automatic tendency to correct shortfalls in demand, if it exists at all, operates slowly and painfully

• Government policies to increase demand, by contrast, can reduce unemployment quickly

• Sometimes increasing the money supply won’t be enough to persuade the private sector to spend more, and government spending must step into the breach

Week 7 Lecture 4

Economics – The dismal science: The Age on Uncertainty.

Economics can be explained as knowledge of understanding production, consumption and transfer of wealth. Economics has been replaces by modern economics by aiming only to get money. In order to do that modern economics is all about the desire to consume, giving customers what they want. So producers are throwing goods and services to consumers as ‘the more you see the more you want’. That could be seen as a way of thinking for the producer for them to create more products that would interest society. Basically economics is to satisfy the costumers, how a product can be developed and sold to make money. As product being the utility of economics it plays a big part as it’s important for it to be what consumers want. This falls down to forgetting their needs and it’s all about what they want and are willing to pay for it. Utilitism is a modern action to maximise the overall happiness, by whatever means necessary. Looking deeper into economics and how it works according to Ricardo’s Theory of Value, prices of a product do not correspond to its value. For a product such as piano would cost about 5000 this will include the labour and work done on in. For a piano to be developed as a product would not cost as much to build as it is sold. In a society for a product to be successful it will mean to have made a big profit which falls down to how many people bought the product. Malthus Iron Law of Population was pessimistic as he stated it would be a loss of population to have one kid, stabled population to have 2 kids and high population to have 2+. Malthus believed in one massive population in order to work Capitalism depends on profit. So the bigger the population the more profit will be made.

Week 6 Seminar Paper

Lanugage

Frege on Sense and Reference

Gottlob Frege was a German logician, mathematician and philosopher who played a crucial role in the emergence of logic and analytic philosophy. Frege's logical works were revolutionary, and are often taken to represent the fundamental break between contemporary approaches and the older,Aristotelian tradition. Frege paper ‘Sense and Reference’ written in 1892 with explains the difference between the two kinds of significations. It is a theory of the philosophy of language of the mind. Essentially, the theory of sense points that "sense" and "reference" are two different and separate aspects of a term's meaning, and that both of these are semantic necessities for a statement have significance. For example the names "Dr. Seuss" and "Theodore Geisel" refer to the same person, but each name expresses a different sense. Thus the "a=a" and "a=b" substitution conundrum is explained. Since "a" has a different sense from "b," the sense of the entire expression "a=a" is different from the sense of the expression "a=b." When this idea is taken one step further, you can see how the usage of "a" for "b" in a propositional attitude statement like "John believes that Theodore Geisel wrote 'The Cat in the Hat'" can result in an untrue statement; in this example, "Theodore Geisel" and "Dr. Seuss" have different references as well as senses, as "Theodore Geisel" refers to a man who could be said to not have written any books. This in a way answers the question is there relation between objects, or between names or signs of objects. Frege applies the distinction between sense and reference to sentences of all kind. In a way I can agree with Freges theory as creating logics out of it. Seeing the difference between sense and references how a little extra sign such as ‘Dr’ can change the view of the whole image.

The Pragmatists on Language and Truth

Charles S. Peirce was a pragmatist who created theory and logic based on language which was embedded in a general theory of signs. Peirce called that semiotics as his idea was that sign stands for an object which be being understood or interpreted can it itself be seen as further sign. The semiotic function of signs had a relation between representamen, object and interpretant. Peirce put signs into three classes and related to real life examples. Natural sign of a cloud relates to natural sign of rain. The next one is iconic signs which signify by resembling their object. An example of that are naturalistic paintings, sculptures and also maps. The third and last one is the Iconic sign which was two features. First one is a sign could share the same its object and some features that each could have in common but if the other did not exist. Second one symbols which words are important such as uniforms and traffic signals. Peirce and James also looked at the meaning of truth. They relate truth to pragmatism and state that it is not so inconsistent with realism. Truth and Reality are not the same as each but they can relate as truth is something thought or said about reality. In this case I can agree on his classes as Natural signs surround our normal day life activity or living. For example seeing a ‘Stop’ on the road not only means you should stop literally but also is a warning if you don’t you put yourself and others in danger. Peirce point on iconic signs I can agree with it as certain signs represent something they have a deeper meaning to them.

Language Games and Private Language

Wittgenstein stated he had an idea that philosophy was an activity, not a theory and that philosophical pronouncements were not propositions in the same sense as statements of everyday language. He believed that ordinary language embedded that social activities and structures that he called ‘language-games’. Wittgenstein said that the significance to sound and marks on paper that make up language is by themselves the symbols are inert and dead. They become alive by being meant by speakers and writers to be understood by readers and hearers. Wittgenstein idea or theory relate to society as language can be embedded by a culture. Different words or signs can adopt different meanings which can lead to a change of a language. In a way this can be a game as games are not based on reality. Language is made up and given life by the use of it.

All this theories or ideas no matter if they are right or wrong they have helped shape our language or identity. What they have said or stated has been taken into a consideration and taken into explaining what language is and creating a part of us and how important it is.

Week 5 Lecture 3

Structuralism-Hermeneutics: Hidden Meanings

Hermeneutics is derived from a Greek word, meaning to interpret, and its derivative meaning is interpretation. The first step of understanding is to untangle its multiple layers. In its barest sense, hermeneutics can be understood as a theory, methodology and praxis of interpretation that is geared towards the recapturing of meaning of a text, or a text-analogue, that is temporally or culturally distant, or obscured by ideology and false consciousness.

Structuralism could be seen as a method of interpretation and analysis of aspects of humans life's, their behaviour ,culture and experience that focuses on their relationships with each other.A human person, as another, or as a text, is certainly viewed as a decentred person by the post-structuralist. But the human person, as the self, or as the reader, or as the post-structuralist critic, is viewed in a slightly different light. In the bottom-line, the post-structuralist philosophy of the subject wavers between the Cartesian and the existential paradigms of subjectivity. As heirs of the philosophies of suspicion of Marx, Nietzsche and Freud, post-structuralist hermeneutics also adheres to a philosophy of the object that is similar to that of the critical hermeneutics: texts are warped by power and ideology according to their work and views.