Nietzsche undermined the theories written by the Enlightenment philosophers as he attempted to find the truth by using subjective epistemology. Epistemology focuses on the nature and scope of knowledge and Nietzsche believed that in life there was no universal truth, just impressions of truths which have a relative value. What may be true for one person is completely false for another as we are all individual and our minds think and perceive in a variety of ways. One example of this is a man has bright green hair, not everyone is society has green hair so it may be true for him but not for his wife lets say. These truths are found within ourselves and not in the physical outside world, which rejects the theories of Enlightenment philosophers such as Newton who believed the world can be understood using science. In addition, Nietzsche suggested that nothing in life is certain and as humans, we are unsure whether we will see a specific object or person more than once in our lives.
Marx has similar theories to those of Nietzsche with regards to the idea of universal truth. He believed that the truth from the oppressed is different to that of the oppressor. Truth is heavily dependent on your perspective of a truth, if you are in the ruling class and you believe that women should be equal to men then that is what is true. Different groups of people think differently to each other and this is known as having different consciousnesses. Similar to Marx, Friedrich Engles presented a theory that truth and systems of morality are subjective and can change over time- they are temporary. The subjective is on a social level, not an individual level and truths vary from one culture to another. For example, cannibalism is illegal and immoral in the UK but is widely celebrated in Africa.
Freud believed that mental unhappiness came from issues within the inner tripartite self and that mankind is on a slow journey to death. Humans copy each other and follow each other like a pack of animals and are born and will die in a state of depression. There have been many criticisms of Freud’s theories by many philosophers including Nietzsche who argues that each human being has an individual will which makes them who they are both physically and mentally. This will is good and society should just be whoever they want to be. The seven deadly sins are virtues and we should all just express ourselves freely and evil is just what we as individuals disapprove of.
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| Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) |
Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege can be considered as the father of semiotics and the philosophy of language and was particularly interested in what words and sentences signified. He suggested that there is a distinction between the reference of an expression and the sense of an expression. The reference of an expression is the object which a word refers to and the sense is how way in which a word presents its meaning. “The morning star is identical with the evening star” is an identity statement as the both the morning and evening star refer to the planet Venus, if a sign is squashed with two names with the same reference then the statement is true.
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| DVD cover of the operetta |
Following on from the lecture the group watched a short operetta named “The Seven Deadly Sins” composed by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in 1933. The operetta tells the story of two sisters, Anna I and Anna II. Anna I is the main singing voice and Anna II, the dancer, is heard only infrequently and the two sisters are the same person but have a split personality. Brecht splits the personality of Anna into Anna I, who is the voice of reason, and Anna II who is emotional but acts impulsively. This operetta really captured how Freud’s tripartite self can work on an individual with the ego and the id and how they are in constant conflict with each other. Below is a video of the prologue of the operetta which highlights the conflict between the id and the ego.. enjoy!!
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