Mathematics explained.. and concluded

So mathematics and logic have been around since time bagan but over time philosophers have come up with new theories to explain numbers and their origins. In Ancient Greece philosophers such as Plato believed that Greek numbers were derived from geometry and the art of music and the first number that existed was the number two. For example, the number three has its origins from a triangle which is a three sided geometric shape. You can count the sides of a triangle and the answer is three. This is known as the Platonic theory of numbers and Plato also continues to argue in his writings that all numbers are related to each other through ratios. Using the example of a piano all the keys are in ratio to each other from the note C.The note C is almost the base note which determines the other notes as note E is a specific ratio of C and so is B. Each ratio equates to a certain number which is then used to describe mathematics. Therefore, the one way in which numbers can be understood are in relation to others otherwise mathematics canot be interpreted properly. You need to understand a whole system before you are able to analyse individual parts within a system.
One crucial part of the Greek numerical system is that it did not contain the number zero. The number zero was first used in India by the religion of Islam. Aristotle argued that it was not possible to have the number zero as the definition of zero was that zero was nothing, for example if there are no apples on a table you say "there were no apples on the table". But the number zero was something otherwise it cannot mean nothing. A number cannot be nothing and also something, therefore zero does not exist.

Giuseppe Peano
(27 August 1858 – 20 April 1932)

However, modern philosophers such as Guiseppe Peano and Bertrand Russell believe that zero can be regarded as a natural number. Peano was an italian mathematician who argued that zero was a real number that could be used to count objects and could also be used in mathematical operations such as addition and multiplication. He also believed that there were numbers that were lower than zero (negative numbers) but these cannot be used for counting as it was impossible to have minus objects. For example, you cannot have minus 2 bananas and then add 3 bananas as you do not have anything to start off with with. Russell had similar theories to those of Peano and used analytical philosophy to explain mathematics. He argued that mathematics was a form of language and each number had its own individual class. For example, the number 5 is a word to describe a class that contains all classes that have 5 objects and we know this through the method of counting. Counting creates a group or category that can be described using natural numbers such as 4 or 7. As human beings we are able to instinctively count up to seven objects before actually physically counting them as 1...2...3..4...5. There is a process that we undertake to calculate numbers:

Natural number + process (known as a syntax)= predicate (outcome which can be a larger or smaller number depending on the process)

These predicates can be analysed by applying mathematical operations such as square roots and division. For example, the number 5 can be multiplied by 10 to make the answer 50 but the number 50 can be divided by 10 to get the answer 5.  Therefore, mathematics could be applied to all fields such as physics and even mechanics and played an important part in everyday life even if it was simply counting schoolchildren.

Existentialism concluded

The second lecture of the semester concluded the topic of existentialism and we looked at key figures of the movement including Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre and Fanon. Heidegger believed that reality revolved around a concept that there is no certainty in our lives and that philosophy is no longer relevant as we are now able to think freely for ourselves. Society has developed almost through the stages of childhood as children are told what to think but now humanity has matured into adulthood where it has the capability to think independently. There are new and different moralities which give the right to kill and oppress fellow human beings should it be thought necessary. This opposes John Locke’s natural rights as Locke believed that every human being should be guided by a God like figure who represented authority and violence was not permitted under any circumstances as it is a sin. In Nietzsche’s world there was no God as he coined the famous phrase “God is dead!”  He also stated in his philosophy that every human being can be described as an “overman” where he must create his own place and identity in the world and defines himself by the choices he makes.

Heidegger wrote his famous book “Being and Time” which was obsessed with human existence and asked the question what is it to be a human being?  and what does it mean to physically exist in the world. He concluded that all beings and creatures are Dasein (they just exist in the world for a period of time until they die). We are stuck in our minds and we can never be totally sure of what is around us. For example, we may believe that we can see a computer screen but we can never be 100% sure that the screen is actually real or just a product of our imagination.  We are defined by our engagement and involvement in the world and when we are asked to describe ourselves we do not speak about our true selves only the social aspects of our selves.  The future is the only time that matters as it gives beings an opportunity to make choices that will affect the rest of their lives, the past has been and gone and you cannot make choices about the past.  The philosophy of Heidegger is in direct contrast with that of Rene Descartes who believed that “I think, therefore I am”. We can only be sure of our existence because we have the ability to think which shows that we are living beings.

Sartre believed that humans cannot escape choice, everybody has to make choices in order to progress with their lives but you can hide away from it.  However this is bad as you should not follow society but be your own individual person.  Each person should take responsibility for their own actions and not place the blame on anybody else or lie to escape punishment.  Authority is the “other” in us and should be ignored and overcome as it stops human beings from being their real selves.  Fanon developed Sartre’s ideas further and believed that society should use direct violence against its oppressors and kill everybody who is associated with a violent regime not just the boss.  Non-violence is just collaborating with the enemy and is an acceptance of the oppressor’s power. Fanon’s book “The Wretched of the Earth” has been used worldwide especially in the Black Power movement and Malcolm X in the USA in the 1960’s. This idea can be closely linked with Fanon’s personal life as he was a soldier who fought in the Algerian War of Independence and saw the torture and violence that was targeted at the Algerians who were fighting to become a free nation away from France.  

Following on from Fanon’s idea of violence the group watched a film “The Battle of Algiers” which was released in 1966 to show the struggle and violence which took place between the French army and Algerian nationals during the War of Independence from 1954 to 1962. The film highlighted the realities of Existentialism as the both the French troops and Algerians were using every form of violence they could think of in order to kill the other including makeshift bombs and walk by shootings.

This video is a trailer for the film but highlights the violence that is used by both the French forces and the Algerian nationals. It is well worth a watch

Seminar Paper- Tabloid Nation parts 2 and 3

                                    Seminar Paper- Tabloid Nation parts 2 and 3

The second part of the book Tabloid Nation focuses on how the Daily Mirror became increasingly influential especially during the two World Wars. The newspaper became an important tool for families during the First World War as it printed information about the battles which enabled them to find out if their loved ones were still alive. Reporters were sent over to the battle ground to take pictures which would be published. These exclusive images of trench warfare were printed on a daily basis and 1,700,000 copies of the newspaper were being sold each day. As a result of the newspapers decision to focus on the events of the War it became a trusted newspaper as families relied on the paper to inform them of any news whether it was good or bad. However, things were about to take a downturn as the TUC publishing company decided to invest nearly £8,000,000 in the Mirror’s rival newspaper, the Daily Herald in order to outsell the Daily Mirror. The Daily Mirror needed to take drastic action in order to save the Mirror from collapse and in 1934 Harry Guy Bartholomew who was the editor in chief of the Daily Mirror decided to join forces with Cecil Harmsworth King. The duo changed the newspaper’s style from a typical British newspaper to a New York style tabloid newspaper filled with cartoon strips and full page images in a bid to increase sales. The aim was to attract a wide target audience ranging from businessmen to domestic housewives. In 1938, an Agony Aunt was employed by the newspaper and women were able to send in letters explaining domestic issues and they would receive help and advice. Women were now given a voice which could be heard and they no longer had to keep their problems to themselves as there was someone to comfort them.  These steps by Bartholomew and King was a success as the newspaper attracted sales of 2,400,000 copies per day and the General Election of 1945 secured the newspaper’s future. The Daily Mirror printed large poster campaigns to promote the Labour candidate Clement Attlee persuading readers that Labour was going to benefit the working classes. The working classes in Britain at this time made up the highest percentage of people therefore it had the most power and influence. Sales of the newspaper increased dramatically and Attlee won the election by a record majority.

The power and influence of Bartholomew and King can be compared to that of William Randolph Hearst who started a newspaper empire in the United States of America in the 1890’s. He borrowed money from his mother to buy the rights to the New York Morning Journal in 1895 which was on the verge of collapse and entered a head to head battle which rival newspaper owner, Joseph Pulitzer. Hearst used “yellow journalism” techniques such as eye catching headlines and stories based on sensation and crime and this was a major success as sales of the newspaper soared. Over the new few years, Hearst invested in more newspaper companies and by the mid 1920’s owned 28 newspapers across America.  He dominated the newspaper market during this time and his influence within the media industry was unchallenged. His success is so great that a film was produced in 1941 by Orson Wells named Citizen Kane which documented his road to greatness.     

Switching back to Tabloid Nation, part 3 explains the developments of the newspaper throughout the 1950’s and 60’s. In 1952, Hugh Cudlipp was employed by the Daily Mirror to once again remodel the style of the newspaper. The working class structure was changing and the Labour Government introduced the “welfare state” where there was full employment and the NHS was introduced to provide free healthcare. The younger generation who were born post World War Two known as the “baby boomers” were having a big influence on society and did not want to read the Mirror with its 1930’s content.  Therefore, Cudlipp and King embarked on a project which would make the newspaper appeal to young people. Editors were employed from all walks of life including university graduates and women to report about so called “modern” topics such as celebrities and media such as the radio and later on television. From 1960, “shock issues” of the Mirror were produced in order to gain readership and to grab young people’s attention and this marked the start of the Daily Mirror’s reputation for reporting on serious issues but with an entertaining twist. Sales of the newspaper continued to climb and beat all of its rivals.

However, the Mirror was about to suffer yet another setback due to the launch of commercial television especially ITV in 1956. The broadcasting company directly competed with the Daily Mirror for advertising revenue and aimed to be the “Daily Mirror of the airwaves” trying to persuade young people to watch television rather than sit down and read a newspaper. The newspaper went through a makeover and advertised itself as the paper of “youth” by the 1960’s reporting on pop artists such as Elvis Presley and Bill Haley and the Comets. By 1964, the Daily Mirror became the biggest selling newspaper in the world with 5 million copies sold each day. One further development of the Daily Mirror which would prove to be a landmark in the newspaper industry was the introduction of Mirrorscope which was a pull out magazine which was written by young journalists. It contained crime reports, sex advice, cartoon strips and sports results and can be regarded as the predecessor of The Sun Newspaper. The glory days of the Mirror were about to take a turn for the worse in 1968 when King published his own front page spread titled “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” regarding Harold Wilson’s departure from office as Prime Minister. He was later sacked from his position as chairman by Cudlipp and this marked the end of the Harmsworth Empire.

Overseas in Australia there was a new newspaper tycoon ready to exert his influence in the British newspaper industry. Rupert Murdoch bought the News of the World in 1968 and when Cudlipp put the Sun up for sale in 1969, Murdoch seized the opportunity for newspaper domination by buying the newspaper and merging it with the Mirror. He used the modern 1960’s style that the Mirror had used and copied it in the Sun and employed Larry Lamb to be the editor. However, the launch of the new style Sun was not totally successful but within 18 months readers had warmed to the spelling mistakes and poor quality pictures and the newspaper was selling 2,500,000 copies a day. The Mirror was struggling to sell 1,000,000 copies per day and the Sun took the crown as the bestselling newspaper in the world by 1978.  Murdoch’s success has continued to the present day and he is the owner of Twentieth Century Fox television and News Corporation. He is regarded as the richest and most powerful media tycoon and he owns the rights to a large number of TV shows including The Simpsons and American Idol.

In conclusion, the Daily Mirror enjoyed a continuing run of success throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s and its attempts to attract younger target audiences by introducing reports based around celebrities and sport. Young people were more interested in whether their favourite football team had won than who will win the next general election. However, its good fortunes were turned around when Rupert Murdoch purchased both the News of the World and Sun newspapers and copied the Mirror’s style with more emphasis on pop music and celebrities which are extremely important in a youngster’s everyday life. Murdoch had seized his opportunity to dominate British Journalism as a result the Daily Mirror was slowly collapsing under the pressure.  

20th century journalism

So the first lecture of another semester was based around 20^th century journalism. Newspapers throughout the 1950’s transformed dramatically and their format remains similar to tabloid newspapers of today such as The Mirror and the Daily Mail. Following the end of the Second World War there was a huge baby boom in England and by the late 50’s and 60’s this generation of youngsters were in their teenage years. Britain during the 50’s and 60’s was very affluent with full employment across the country and the introduction of the welfare state meant that every citizen was entitled to free healthcare and education. But the most influential event during this time was the popularisation of commercial television and the broadcast of ITV in 1968. In addition, ITV contained advertisement breaks which allowed companies to advertise their products to the younger generation who had disposable income, unlike their parents who suffered the hardships of the war. This allowed advertisers who had previously only been able to advertise to a newspaper audience to reach out to a wider target audience on the small screen.  As a result newspaper companies had to make changes in order to remain competitive with television. For example, The Mirror under the charge of Hugh Cudlipp began reporting on the world of celebrities and popular music in order to persuade the younger generation especially young working class men to read the newspaper.  The newspaper became an even greater success as sales of the newspaper increased to around 8 million by the late 1960’s. It ignored television and continued to report on the latest events in the celebrity and music worlds but slowly television would take over the crown.

The image of the newspaper below shows a typical front page headline of the 1960’s with the death of rock star Eddie Cochrane in 1960.

After the introduction of ITV soap operas such as Coronation Street began to attract more viewers than newspapers could manage and so television became the more dominant form of media.  Young people were tuning in to watch the latest episode of Coronation Street rather than read the Daily Mirror and sales of the newspaper began to decline. 

Rupert Murdoch began his British newspaper empire in the late 1960’s when he purchased The Sun and bought the rights to the Daily Mirror in an attempt to persuade young people to stop watching television and pick up a newspaper. He relaunched The Sun as a modern newspaper for the “cool generation” by including a free pop out magazine containing gossip, horoscopes and the sports results. This became a trademark of the newspaper and magazines are included in the newspaper today. Sales of the newspaper increased and so did Murdoch’s empire. Currently, he is the owner of News Corporation and Twentieth Century Fox television who owns rights to major American TV shows such as The Simpsons. 

The video above is an interview with Rupert Murdoch himself and discusses how techology such as television has changed and revolutionised new media. It is well worth a watch as it is very relevant to the lecture.

The final lecture of Year 2, Semester 1

The final lecture of the semester was based around the concept of Existentialism which was a cultural movement in the 19th and 20th centuries whereby philosophers  believed that human beings were the key to thoughts. Soren Kierkegaard who can be considered as the father of Existentialism, Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl and Jean Paul Sartre were amongst this group of philosophers and their theories will be outlined in this blog.


Kirkegaard was a disciple of Friedrich Neitzsche and he wrote many works surrounding the feelings and emotions of human beings when they are faced with a choice. He had a very unhappy life and despised the fact that he was alive as life symbolised pain and suffering. He turned to religion and Christianity for guidance on how to live his life in a happy state. He also believed that every person should experience a "leap of faith" which described the emotions that would be felt when they fell in love or believed strongly in God. As humans we are better off putting our faith in Christianity as it is as valid as any other religion around the world, no idea is more valid than another as eventually everything in life mounts to nothing as we are all going to die. This discussion of Kierkegaard leads on well to the film "Wings of Desire" which was released in 1987. The film is a German black and white film that focuses on Kierkegaard's theory that Christianity is the saviour of humanity.The film is based around two immortal angels who populate Berlin help people who are in pain or are suffering. One of the angels  falls deeply in love with a trapeze artist. The angel chooses to become human so that he can experience human emotions so he can feel the power of love. 
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Front cover of Wings of Desire
showing the angel who longs for
love

Heidegger is well regarded for his work in phenomenology and greatly explored the idea of the 'question of being'. One of his most important works, Being And Time was written in 1927 and outlined his concepts of "Dasein". He thought that a person's personality changes constantly from second to second and humans are simply a structure of time that are always looking ahead to the future to predict what will happen. Human thoughts are surrounded by a notion of dread , events in our lives cause us to feel pain and there is no escape until we die. This is also a key theory of German psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud who also believed that human lives were plagued with hurt and people needed therapy in order to help them to cope. Heidegger argued that the "dasein " is just a way in which humans are able to deal with dread, to question who they are. If we do not know who we are then we can not feel dread as nothing is for certain. He also devised a tri part theory for the existence of time
The past= guilt
The present= dread
The future= unknown
As humans we feel guilt about the past as we were not living, the present is unknown as we are unaware of our true identity and we dread the future as we do not know what will happen.


Husserl believed that humans have a subjective perception of objects, we choose what images we wish to see and in what context we wish to interpret them. We do not find a definitive explanation for what we see, merely a perception as different people interpret images in totally different ways. For example take a look at this image, people may see a duck or a rabbit, both interpretations of this image are true and there is no definite answer.


Sartre wrote the book La Nausee in 1938, outlining how our ideas are the product of real life situations. It is centred around a protagonist who constantly feels sickness and dread and attempts to resolve this by doing good deeds such as charity work in an attempt to find his true being. He believes that objects are an obstacle to his identity, both intellectually and spiritually and this is the cause of his near insanity. He eventually finds a revelation and is happy with who he is.  In the book Sartre uses the ideas of dread and "dasein" and implies that the only way to defeat dread it to be honest with yourself and have good faith. After all we are all doomed to death together so why not have good faith.

Seminar on Totalitarianism

For the last seminar of the semester we looked at Totalitarianism and Hanna Arendt and how her theories can be easily applied to many historical events. As a group we focused on Hitler and the Nazi Regime and how methods were enforced on the Jews that can be regarded as Totalitarian. Hitler used state terror in order to round up the Jews into concentration camps and then punished them with torture should they speak out. We also discussed whether there could ever be another incident of extreme totalitarianism, I argued that there could because it only takes one extremely power hungry dictator to introduce new ideology and terror to the masses within a country and then a totalitarian state to be formed. There will be no end to this method of rule as throughout the world today there are many dictators in countries such as Congo and Zimbabwe and it only takes new forms of repression for terror to spiral out of control.  The group also discussed how it is difficult for the masses to speak out against a dictator as they will get punished by either torture or death or a combination of the two. Totalitarianism can be seen as one of the most repressive methods of rule over the masses as it succeeds in destroying a whole group of innocent people who have a different way of life and religion to the ruling government who consider themselves to be the superior class. We concluded that everything should be done in order to attempt to prevent any more Totalitarian rule as the Nazi Regime and Apartheid in South Africa show the devastating effects of power with thousands of innocent people being killed as a result.

Totalitarianism and Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906 – December 4, 1975) can be regarded as one of the leading critics of Totalitarianism.  She was a German philosopher and politician whose theories on the structure of society are important to the present day. In one of her numerous books entitled, The Origins of Totalitarianism which was published in 1951 she outlines the ways in which Totalitarianism takes place and what effects it has on society.

Hannah Arendt speaking about her
political theories

She argues that each individual has their own unique personality, therefore it is impossible to predict what people will do. Everything is possible so people strive to seek as much power as they can as it is unlimited, however this power comes at a huge price as humanity will be destroyed. The methods by which leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin gained this power and control was to break down people's individuality using state terror and ideology such as Marxism or Communism. Terror is the most important method as it prevents the masses from rebelling against the government and you are punished for wrong thoughts or appearance. (for example target of the Jews and the master race of blonde hair blue eyed people during the Nazi regime). The combination of terror and ideology breaks down society as there are no laws or authority and people lose their human rights. This idea of giving up rights is similar to the theories of Thomas Hobbes who believed that society will always need a ruler to maintain law and order but consequently humans lose their human rights. People lose their individuality through Ideology but this must be embraced and celebrated and it is the masses who will fuel this ideology as they are weak and vulnerable.  Finally,Arendt believed that there will never be an end to Totalitarianism as it is one endless loop of destruction and there will always be groups in society than can be targeted such as the Jews and the disabled.

Arendt was so interested in the ideas of Totalitarianism that she published another book entitled Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1968which was based around a true story she witnessed in Argentina. Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi fugitive during the Holocaust in the Second World War and was captured by Israeli Secret Service Agents in 1960. He was tried for his crimes against humanity in Jerusalem to show the world that the Holocaust was never forgotten and Arendt sat in the courtroom listening to the trial. Eichmann was sentenced to death for his part in the Holocaust but he defended himself stating that he was simply a law abiding citizen. Arendt believed that his crime was not his status as a Nazi but an inability to think for himself, he simply obeyed the orders of his officers without questioning them. As human beings we make a judgement based on what we believe and in the case of Eichmann he just didn't think about his actions. Everyone should rely on their own personal judgements not what the law states and must be prepared to break laws if it is necessary.  Below is a video of a newsreel which summarises Eichmann's trial