William Cobbett lecture

During the 19^th century England was experiencing a period of great change which would lead to one of the biggest revolutions in history- the industrial revolution. Agriculture began to decline leading to mass famine and new cities such as Birmingham and Manchester were emerging as the industrial centres.  This change marked the transition from the 17^th and 18^th centuries when there was focus upon science and how this affected the world in which we live to the paradigm of change and how nature played an important part in society not just mechanics.  Philosophers began to interpret and understand the world through change such as Darwin’s theory of evolution in 1859.  He believed that all species evolved from natural selection and that only the best members of a species survive and reproduce to continue the process. Chemistry and geology were seen as important sciences as they were able to explain the development of the Earth through chemical change and not just science.  As the British Empire began to industrialise and develop it came into contact with the Eastern world and countries such as India. It became heavily influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism as these non Ibrahamic religions believed in a constant cycle of life and death whereby life was an endless process.

During the revolution nearly all traces of agriculture and farming were destroyed. The army known as the “Red Coats” destroyed the land all across Britain so that farmers were unable to produce crops or use the land for grazing. Scotland was particularly affected as it relied heavily on agriculture for wool production and hunting and when this industry was destroyed Scotland was left helpless and unable to export any goods. Many Scottish farmers were forced to migrate to the inner cities or to other countries such as Canada and the USA.  The few remaining farms that were not destroyed by the Army became large industrial farms under the Act of Enclosure passed in 1878.

William Cobbett
9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835

William Cobbett who was an English Journalist produced a series of articles relating to this change which were published in his 1830 book “Rural Rides”.  He travelled around many areas of Southern England documenting the conditions of these areas from the point of view of a farmer and a social reformer.  He believed that parliament should only enforce a law to help agriculture if members have witnessed conditions first hand. He witness tens of thousands of landless peasants who were struggling to survive and had no option but to migrate to the cities to find factory work.  In 1844 a law was introduced whereby people were forced to find work in cities otherwise they would be placed in a workhouse where they would eventually starve and die.

The Communist Manifesto Seminar

This seminar was based around the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848 which presented and analysed the problems of a capatalist state. During this seminar three members of the group presented a seminar paper giving different interpretations of the manifesto. All three of the papers were highly informative and this led to a fairly intense group discussion where we were all able to share our opinions of Marx's ideas. The general feeling amongst the group was that even though Marx did not intend to create a plan for a new communist society it has been interpreted and adapted by dictators all over the world and used to suppress the masses in many countries such as Russia and China. This shows that a document which originally set out to solve the problems of capitalism within a country has been used in a much more brutal and controlling manner throughout the course of the 20th century until Communism's collapse in 1989.

Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx
May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883

Karl Marx was one of the key philosophers of the 19th century and his ideas of creating a new state where everyone was regarded as equal has been adapted and used all across the world in many Eastern European countries such as Russia. He was born in 1818  in Germany to Jewish parents and he studied Law, Philosophy and Revolution but during his time at the University of Berlin he bacame increasingly fascinated by the works of Hegel. After he graduated he focused upon Revelation and radical journalism and his ideas were very controversial within society at the time so he was forced to flee from Germany and other countries before settling in London where he lived until his death in 1883.

In 1844, Marx met Fredrich Engles who published his works including the Communist Manifesto and in 1848 when revolution was spreading around Europe he pledged his full support. He wanted to change the world and move away from capitalism towards a new ideology where everybody is equal and working for the common good. The state would be destroyed and there would be no personal possessions, religion and countries would all unite for the sake of Communism. He believed we can explain everything in society by analysing economics and our society was economically determined. He took a very scientific approach into proving the world was economically dependant by studying tax records and commodity prices every day for several years. He thought that humans had the power to trigger a revolution as they were the most dominant species as they had the ability to produce tools in order to survive.

In order for a revolution to begin and trigger a change, the prolatariat who were the working class had to rise up against the borgoisie who were the elite class. Marx believed this would happen over time as the proletariat had nothing to lose as they had no property or wealth but everything to gain as if his theories worked the proletariat would have more wealth. Capitalism alienates people as we value some things over others and this causes a degree of inequality.

Marx thought humans have three needs within themselves, a natural self where humans need to eat, drink and sleep in order to live, an alienated self where the natural self is perverted for example sex is perverted as we live in a male dominated society and finally species self where everybody is part of one another and this self turned out to be one of the most important characteristics of Communism. He stated that humans are stuck in the alienated self as we do not get job satisfaction as we can see our collegues in higher positions and work in general causes an alienation of our self as it does not develop the mind or body.

Marx used Hegel's model of Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis to explain how a new society would form. The Thesis was the dominance of the Bourgoisie, free market Capitalism, a liberal state and individual rights and this would be opposed to by the Proletariat and Socialism would be the result or Synthesis. This change would be inevitable no matter how hard states tried to stop it and a revolution by the proletariat was imminent.

Kant and Hegel Seminar

The seminar was based around the ideas of Emmanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and the seminar paper was read by myself and Asha and this gave the group a very good introduction to the discussion. We had a long discussion as a group about how influential Hegel's ideas were on other philosophers such as Karl Marx with his belief that history can be divided up into three stages, Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis and these stages allow human being to have self knowledge and understanding. A thesis is a proposition such as a fact or belief that a human believes and an antithesis allows the proposition to be contradicted or agreed up. The synthesis is the end product where either the thesis or antithesis is combined to create a belief. When humans have full knowledge of the world around them via this process known as a dialectic then they have full knowledge and Hegel thought that this is the point where history ends as there is no more to be discovered.

Romanticism lecture- guest speaker





Prometheus

The guest lecture was based around the concept of Romanticism and how many writers in the 19^th century were heavily influenced by the classical mythological God, Prometheus. Prometheus stole fire to give to people in society and was named the “bringer of fire”. For his actions he was punished by Jupiter and chained to a rock where a vulture attacked his liver for 30 years. It was this act of heroism that inspired many writers to celebrate his life and to an extent Prometheus brought together the ideas of Romanticism and shaped the way people viewed the movement. Writers such as Mary and Percy Shelley and also Ludwig Von Beethoven viewed Prometheus as the God of romanticism and there are many works of literature and art celebrating his actions. To them he symbolised freedom and resistance to tyranny and oppression as he tried to help society no matter what the consequences were and he can be seen as the spirit of “liberty, egality and fraternity”. This school of philosophy is called Promethenism and there are two main ideas: political and aesthetic Promethenism.         

Political Promethenism is best highlighted in the sonnet Ozymandias by Percy Shelley which was written in 1818. Ozymandias or Rameses II as he is also known was a 13^th century Egyptian ruler who was considered the “king of kings” due to his tyrannical approach to ruling Egypt. Shelley’s inspiration for writing the sonnet came from a visit to the British Museum in London where he saw a sculpture of Ozymandias. The sculpture was broken and stood alone in a cabinet and this is reflected in the poem. Instead of presenting Ozymandias as a hero and placing him on a pedestal which is a classical feature of a sonnet, Shelley undermines his strength and power as a king and highlights his downfall as due to his tyrannical actions he became a weak and broken person.

The Townley Vase, housed in the British Museum

Aesthetic Promethenism can be best seen in John Keat’s poem Ode to a Grecian Urn written in 1820. Keat’s inspiration came from a Townley Vase which he also saw in the British Museum like Shelley. The urn was a Roman vase which was found at a villa near Monte Cagnolo near Rome and can be seen as a paradox as the outside of the urn depicts figures and landscape which are typical subject matters of the Romantic movement whereas the inside of the vase shows images that can be associated with death and suffering.  The carvings on the vase demonstrate skill and Keats argues that this skill should be celebrated and this is reflected in the ode.  The urn is presented as having human qualities through the use of personification and it is suggested that the urn is a supreme object as it will outlive human mortality and its beauty will live on forever. The ode can also be viewed as a protest by Keats against the devaluation of art in the industrial society during the 19^th century when the industrial revolution was fully underway in England.

Seminar about Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft
27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797

The first seminar of semester 2 was based around chapter 4 of the essay entitled Vindications Of The Rights Of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft which was written in 1792. As a group we discussed how some of the ideas in her essay can be viewed by both society in the 18th century and modern day society. Women were percieved to be objects of beauty and their sole purpose in life was to marry and provide her husband with children to continue the family name. In comparison, women today are allowed to have very successful careers and are highly educated and this is accepted by society. I read the seminar paper to the rest of the group and was pleased with the feedback they gave me saying that I had managed to summarise the key points of chapter 4 very well and I hope to get a good mark for it! 

Seminar Paper (Semester 2)

Mary Wollstonecraft- Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Chapter 4)

In Vindications of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft argues that women are degraded in society and are to an extent powerless in decision making and are thought of as second class citizens. Men stand in the way of women and reason and due to the power of men in society; they have very little influence in daily living. Women are duty-bound to men in a variety of ways such as decision making, marriage and to provide their husband with children to continue the family name.

In the chapter, Wollstonecraft uses the example of birds to describe the socially accepted role of women. They are shut up in cages day after day with no option but to plume themselves to look as attractive as possible so that men will take an interest in them. Therefore, passions of men have placed women on thrones like queens and they are seen as idols that can be worshipped. Until mankind becomes more reasonable towards women, there is a possibility that women will always be considered the inferior sex unless attitudes within society change over time.

Wollstonecraft argues that idea of women being the property of men is one of the most important questions that we should ask ourselves about society. When a man lawfully marries a woman then he is obliged to take care of both the woman and her children financially. If the woman remains faithful to the father of her children then she should not be treated like a prostitute and used just to provide children. In addition, the man and woman should live together in order to bring up their children, and the man should remain faithful to his wife at all times as a man must never have more than one wife.

In one particular section of her essay, Wollstonecraft presents the idea that men are able to get a well-paid job as they have been highly educated unlike women who have no means of education. The only way a woman is able to rise above her social class is to marry a wealthy man who will provide for her. She challenges the views presented by the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau stating that being educated to the same level as men, women should not have power over men, only the power to be able to make their own decisions in life. This contradicts the viewpoint of Rousseau as he believes that if we educate men and women in the same way then men will lose some of their power and women may become the dominant sex in society.

Wollstonecraft concludes in chapter 4 that women should not be considered heroes for struggling and fighting to become equal to men. They should just be treated as normal human beings with rights and the freedom to do as they please without being under the strict control of men.