Learning Through Play with Kirsty Gardner

A Witness to Reality Interview by Jenni Koetsier

Kirsty Gardner is a teaching assistant at All Saints Pre-School in Winchester and she enjoys being hands on and involved with a wide range of activities. However, she interacts with the children from a knowledge base of how to shape spontaneous play as a learning tool. She explains that children are like sponges and that they absorb everything around them.

Kirsty Gardner who did a degree in Early Childhood Education Studies and Social Care now works with children

Jenni Koetsier from Sound Radio spent a morning 'back at playschool' and observed how, for three year olds, 'play' is important work and vital for development. To listen in please click on the link: learningthroughplay

Dance Criticism

Review One

Dance Magazine such as The Dancing Times

Word Count 1, 077

Dance Review - The Point, Eastleigh – 10 November 2011

The bgroup’s premiere of The Lessening of Difference choreographed by director Ben Wright.

The bgroup was founded in 2008 by Ben Wright who has had eighteen years of international experience as a dance artist. As well as performing with Adventures in Motion Pictures, in 1995 he choreographed the role of the Prince for Mathew Bourne’s Swan Lake. Wright has also worked as a movement director for Operas, most recently Glyndebourne’s Knight Crew. Last year Wright’s company created a hit with About Around performed by four dancers in ‘the round’ so that the viewers had to be involved with the action.

Tonight at the first performance of Wright’s most recent work, we are invited on a journey of episodic ‘real-life’ stories portrayed through digital projection by Dick Straker, conversational text by David Charles Manners, and gesture based dance movement by a quartet of performers in costumes designed by Theo Clinkard. Every story expresses one particular aspect of intimacy, that of physical love. Realities are passed on from personal points of view because Nuno Silva narrates the poem ‘I don’t believe you’re gone’ enticing us to empathise with him completely in his loneliness. We do not know why his partner left him and perhaps we would side differently if we did.

Any text draws parallels of meaning, a fluid contact duet where bodies fold into one another like jigsaw puzzle pieces (touch never being interrupted throughout every embrace or lift) is befitting to the author’s ‘all this, all you, all me’. Manner’s writing is certainly rich and meaningful; it is far more powerful and effective than Wright’s choreography which couldn’t stand alone.    

I must mention the captivating video design by Dick Straker who has worked with many non-standard projections and visual media including projections for Riverdance (1995). Throughout the The Lessening of Difference we are treated to an array of text, picture, and video projections on screen; the falling snow is particularly ‘real’ so we feel cosy and form associations when snow falls at the end of every ‘story’. The picture of heart wings is a repeated theme mentioned in narration, on the paper passed among the audience, and on the screen that Kier Patrick stands in front of flapping his arms, presenting the freedom of the soul. Guy Hoare who worked as lighting designer for  Henry Oguike for six years, gives good interpretation for intimate sections contrasted with cheerful brightness when the performers throw ‘snowballs’. A chair, duvet, microphone, scrunched balls of paper, someone writing, another playing a banjo are the things that exist on stage before anything really ‘begins’. It’s as though we stumbled across someone’s private life, the boundaries taken away.

Sound Design by Alan Stone is incredible as it comes from physical objects, a music box, an old radio, and instrument on the stage. Music is also suggestive as to tone, a Fado the Portuguese genre expressing permanent loss and its consequent life lasting damage, is sung as a solo, giving us the sense of someone contending with the aftermath of a melancholic break up. Later we have the Habanera from Carmen, sung beautifully but mocked with a candid xylophone accompaniment. Presently the stage is brightly lit, and all four dancers dressed in ridiculously blue high school wrestling singlets are running, jumping, physically pushing and catching one another in-between the occasional sexual grunt which sets the audience into fits of giggles. They rampage to Why Can’t I be You by The Cure, buttock cheeks are exposed and after one of them steps up to the microphone and says ‘these limbs made glorious’, they all rhythmically dry hump with pelvic thrusts, and sing along.

Stories are portrayed with extreme honesty and vulnerability. Patrick strategically positions the duvet and settles down to perform, pouting and posing for his Apple Mac laptop, perhaps he is on video chat on all fours reversing his rear to the web-cam to Barry White’s ‘The First, the Last, My Everything’. Elsewhere there is a women’s solo performed in silence, and she does really silly things, they are almost seductive but then pitifully comical too and she clearly longs for attention. You feel that in bed this is as confident as she dares to be and at the end of her solo, red roses are thrown on stage and her relief is very tangible as she says “thank you” because finally she is noticed.

The key message of The Lessening of Difference is that it doesn’t matter who you fall in love with. It is the desperate physical hunger for the intimacy found in another that is integral, so duets portray both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. The audience breaks into laughter at several comical points but there is forced participation too, a piece of paper is given to ‘pass on’ and dancers climb on our chairs whispering “sorry”. Yet I think it’s unique for any performance to achieve the extent of audience involvement The Lessening of Difference does; you don’t feel like you are in the auditorium and ‘they’ are on the stage.

Wright copies a position within an Indian rite where a naked corpse is laid and someone wanting to ‘face the true intimacy of life and death’ places a hand on the corpse’s chest and lower belly. Manners experienced this ritual himself and suggests in his writings that during, he felt a touch of the console offered by a higher spiritual being ‘comfort from imagined gods, Salvation’s hope, or Divine Grace in promise’. Wright claims to collaborate with Manners but seems to makes a piece about shallow sex instead. Intimacy is a multidimensional complex and has many various facets and if Manners truly witnessed the love between death and life, it would be a love far beyond the human figure and orgasmic ecstasy that Wright’s choreography disappointingly portrays.

Manners writes about ‘essential shared experiences that unite us’, thus if you have experienced any unconditional compassion, sacrifice, understanding or companionship you won’t appreciate the animalistic content of the supposed ‘lessening’ of ‘difference’. You will leave feeling sad and empty that the agreed and here portrayed concept of universal love is so far from the truth. The attempt to define our common humanity is lost as I couldn’t feel more different. Spiritual love and physical love is never simultaneously explored, unless in the case that two spiritually awakened people who love each other, become one.

Review Two

Broadsheet such as The Guardian

Word Count, 433

Dance Review – The Theatre Royal, Winchester – 03 October 2011

Ballet Black’s 10th Anniversary Gala Performance

In celebration of their 10th anniversary Cassa Pancho’s Ballet Black gave a showcase of distinguished variety, starting flirtatiously as the music’s lyrics repeatedly ebb and flow ‘falling in love’. Confident smiles from the dancers invite us to participate in the atmosphere they create. Short red skirts expose muscularity and Sarah Kundi demonstrates assured use of line and high extensions, dynamic or controlled as required.

Robert Hylton's Human Revolution sees Cira Robinson and Jazmon Voss run towards one another so their faces meet consequently close. There is no music to begin, only silent intensity which encourages a sense of rivalry. They each perform solos while the other intently gazing, muscles fired in eager anticipation. When the music does start it sounds like a heart beat which is visually interoperated with circular pacing intercepted with immaculate precision and poise. Traditional ballet pirouettes as would be seen in a coda overlay ingenious craftsmanship because they are repeated a second time so that the turns coincided. Robinson slaps Voss’s chest and then spins away from him but he pulls her towards himself and lifts her. Now they move in clockwork unison…did anyone in the auditorium remember to breathe?  Thus, Da Gamba which followed seemed disappointingly unconvincing and excessively cordial in comparison, but being his first choreography for those who don point shoes we must commend Henry Oguiki for his creation to Bach’s Cello Suite in D minor.

Shift, Trip … Catch was choreographed in 2005 by Antonia Franceschi who used to dance as an apprentice with New York City Ballet and has since taught for Rambert Dance Company and Richard Alston. The piece shows off a sassy Kundi and Robinson dressed in white bikinis, and they incorporate hip and torso undulations between bourrées executed with powerful limbs stabbing the floor like needles.

After interval the gala came to an end with a long winded narrative piece, the first ‘story’ to belong to the company’s repertoire. Orpheus was choreographed by Will Tuckett who trained at The Royal Ballet School and he has since choreographed for English National Ballet and The Royal Ballet. Tuckett uses a Stravinsky score to narrate the story of Orpheus elegantly performed by Ballet Black’s longest serving Damien Johnson, whose character removes his blindfold prematurely and as a result tragically loses his wife Euradice performed by Sarah Kundi. It is very vivid when at the penultimate scene, the furies eat Orpheus like interrogators who become dogs ‘devouring’ with animalistic movement and the odd twitch as means to confirm if he is dead.

Review Three

Broadsheet such as The Guardian

Word Count 581

Dance Film Review - Caught, The Envelope, and Nacscimetno - Parsons Dance Company

The David Parsons Dance Company was founded in 1985 by the commercially successful David Parsons who has since created over 70 works for his company. The ten full time dancers do an annual New York season, otherwise touring nationally and internationally for 32 weeks of the year.

Parsons is renowned for creating multidimensional works, with a strong interest in technology, interested in how much can be said through a picture depending on whether the decisive moment is captured or not. Parsons performs a solo Caught with music by Robert Fripp and lighting that he designed himself. Flashes of light allow split second glimpses so the audience speculates ‘where is he?’ Sometimes he is ‘caught’ mid leap, alternatively travelling so fast that we see him in one flash, and in the next; at the opposite end of the stage, and we begin to wonder if we are missing anything.

The Envelope explores moving objects, with cheeky, plucky music by Rossinni that suitably compliments the tiptoeing and slinking entrances. The seven dancers are clad in black costumes designed by Judy Wirkula, they also have Arabian headscarves scarves and incongruous dark glasses. A dancer determinedly throws an envelope off stage, quite repeatedly in-between multiple turns, but alas the envelope keeps flying back at him. The other dancer’s join in the fascination make rectangular shapes with their arms, stacked up like a stepladder. They circumspectly place the envelope in their mouths before strategically dropping it or they might have an obsession with passing it on to one another, twitching whenever it is received but eager to be rid of it. There is a’ four cygnets’ parody with arms linked and travelling footwork leading into soldier’s kicks which triggers the rolling out of a carpet and so the passing of the envelope becomes regimental. In the slow solo, Parsons holds his ankles in a crouch, as though a reflective bullfrog on a lily pad, but the piece ends quite nonsensically and ironically because as the envelope finally leaves, another is thrown on.

Nacscimetno is based on Brazilian social dancing with people having a good night on the town with everyday clothes, costume by Santo Loquasto, and music by the composer Milton Nacsimento whose name constitutes to the title. The piece commences with a male dancer travelling towards and around his female interest. It’s as though he kisses her cheek, ‘boy meets girl’ and she is moving too, animated with enchanting leaps and turns that wind up like a corkscrew and then release back. The eight dancers fill the space, alive with skipping that moves both backward and forward with sudden changes of direction. Girls run to jump to be caught and spun around by their male partners and the unfolding skip or a springy ‘grape vine’ sequence definitely reminds one of social dancing. As a conclusion approaches the original couple just walk slowly, and stand amongst the frenzy which then stops too and in close proximity to one another the group lunges and sways from side to side with sweeping arm movements, like a slow windmill that gathers pace. They all fall to the floor leaving just one of their community standing, but then they all make a soft cluster with heads rested on one another as to slumber, and oh so gently uncurl to stand and form a horizontal line, their arms linked across their backs to walk away from us.

Review Four

Broadsheet such as The Guardian

Word count 401

Dance Film Review - Esplanade (1975) by the Paul Taylor Dance Company -

Video Published in 1988

Inspired by simply watching people going about daily life in the street, Esplanade, choreographed by pioneering American modern dance choreographer Paul Taylor, is based on everyday movements such as skipping, running, jumping and walking. Taylor intended to use physical people, and they do maintain high energy throughout the piece in a manner beyond the average person’s capabilities, but it is skilful choreography and modification of the ‘pedestrian’ movements that constitutes the piece to becoming ‘dance’.

This is a joyous piece and Taylor’s famously athletic company certainly enjoy to move, and move they do because their bodies are habituated to his capabilities to push non-dance movement into the realms of rich dance. Esplenade is a captivating piece that tests perceptions because Taylor stopped dancing the year before it was made, beginning to choreograph without the reliability of his own movement vocabulary choosing ordinary movement, and we gasp at the genius of it.

There is an element of relational humanity expressed in Esplanade which compliments the inevitably cheerful music by Jan Sebastian Bach. The bright blue background as stage set and the choice to have each dancer in an individual colour ranging from pink, to peach to lavender add a playful quality to the overall visual experience. Taylor aimed to provide food for the eye; engaging the senses of his audience.

Although in the genre of pure-dance there is a glimpse of characterisation and narrative portrayed through slow sections where couples embrace, or a female dancer might kneel close to her male partner who places a hand on her head as though to soothe or provide comfort and reassurance. Dancers gesture reaching out and towards to walk slowly surveying their surroundings with calculated gaze.

However most movement exists fast-paced - as if in a playground with spatial patterns altered and rearranged almost by accident; sometimes the nine dancers (six women, three men) all move together, running in a large circle, then without warning cluster and clump. No lines in space, vertical, horizontal and diagonal are left unexplored. Female dancers literally run and leap, flinging themselves towards respective male partners in the trust that they will be caught, so the total commitment to each movement is exhilarating. Taylor has certainly succeeded in presenting a delectable visual platter.

Review Five

Broadsheet such as The Guardian

Word count 400

Dance Review - The Point, Eastleigh – 05 October 2011

The Featherstonehaughs say a final goodbye with Sketchbooks of Egon Schiele

Choreographer Lea Anderson presents a re-working of the 1998 hit, Sketchbooks of Egon Schiele inspired by the Austrian 20^th Century figurative painter. Anderson’s craftsmanship takes us on a journey of intricate tense movement between exact poses of stillness as intimidating eyes stare out from hauntingly painted faces. The six all-male Featherstonehaughs wear audacious suits that are textured stiff with bright coloured paint designed by Sandy Powell. They literally become sketches using splayed fingers iconic from figures in Schiele’s thirteen sketchbooks.

Sometimes in the silence we hear the sound of the dancer’s shoes but the electric guitar and set of drums have a powerful influence too. Played live so the molecules fill the space the music is performed by Steve Blake and Will Saunders who also composed it. Anderson decided to set the piece to new music because, as she explains in her pre-show talk, ‘it didn’t quite fit before’ and she has a particular love for live music and the atmosphere it creates.

At one point in the piece three of the Featherstonehaughs move together, and when I say together I mean they are ‘just’ walking across the stage but one cannot help being impressed at legs moving in mechanical perfection. Spatial patterns and stances are presented before they stop… another pair has been staring at them like voyeurs but now take a turn to move with an uneasy jittery quality. This interplay between the two groups continues and a sense of aggression builds particularly since some of the stances reek with attitude. One wonders if this is a piece about zombie like mannequins come to life or a catwalk gone wrong but the eye so appreciates the repetition and the shapes created.

One might ask if they actually move, will the pace increase, is this a build-up …and if you hold these questions you are rewarded; the movement does become fast and frenetic with them all moving simultaneously. Suits are replaced with Powell’s skin tight ‘nudity costumes’ (painted red nipples, extenuated genitals and pubic hair). We see the versatility of the performers who were ridged with tense movement before, but now execute fluidity and control of curved continuous shapes. The Featherstonehaughs culminate an unforgettably impressionable goodbye, demonstrating their accomplishment since their founding in 1988.

A Day in the Life of a Young Parelli Enthusiast

A Photo Documentary Collection by Jenni Beth Koetsier

Ten year old Kate Koetsier has daily responsibilities pertaining to her pony Cloud. She lives on Longfields, the youngest in a family of horse lovers. Kate's mother and two older sisters also follow the Natural Horsmanship programme Parelli which focuses on the phsychology and personality of horses. A strong relational bond between horse and trainer is the inherent focus, including a lot of ground work and trust exercises.

Collecting the Ponies from the Sanctuary of their Field

A Moment of Companionship During the Grooming Session

Riding like the wind



Beyond the point of no return, the split second of calculated calm before Cloud jumps

The double balancing act; if you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much room.

Chilling out ...

History and Context of Journalism Year Two Semester Two Exam Questions and Revision:

History and Context of Journalism Year Two Semester Two Exam Questions and Revision:

1)      Outline the verification principles as part of the school of thought known as logical positivism. Hoe might this principle be applied in the day-to-day work of a journalist?

Most ‘truth claims’ need to be categorised as true or false. This is not a question of metaphysical truth but of justifiable truth. As a journalist the responsibility is to state something as ‘truth’ as long as there is enough evidence to suggest so, and to list these factors. For example “Mr x was convicted of murder, following y court case, with the account of such and such a witness, supported with b CCTV”.

The Vienna Circle (1922) is a group of philosophers having a common applied understanding of the logical positivism according to Wittgenstein and ‘Tractatus’ (1921). The Vienna Circle greatly influenced 20^th Century philosophy. They used logical analysis, categorising two kinds of statements. One statement is reduced to a simpler statement about experience (empirical) and the other statement cannot be reduced (thus metaphysically meaningless). All statements are true, false or meaningless. For example there is proof that there is fibre in bran flakes so this is ‘true’. There is proof that rabbits don’t lay eggs so this is ‘false’. However there is no proof, or perhaps not even a method of proof, that there are pink elephant on another planet. Though this may be unlikely we have no proof and thus this statement cannot be deemed ‘false’ but rather ‘meaningless’. In short a proposition’s meaning is defined by its empirical (experience through the senses) standing, otherwise it is meaningless. This philosophical discovery greatly questioned the validity of other philosophical schools of thought such as metaphysics. The statements that the Vienna Circle refer to are synthetic ones (ie. Facts about the world) as apposed to analytical ones.

In chapter 31 ‘Philosophy of Logical Analysis’ of Russell’s book ‘History of Western Philosophy’ (1946) it is stated that since Pythagoras there has always been a distinction between those concerned with mathematics as opposed to those influenced with the empirical. Modern philosophy combines the empirical with the deduction of human knowledge. We know that 2+2 is 4 because of logic rather than empirical experience having seen two couples in a dance forming a quartet. Maths consists of known, proven and logical truths that can be ‘tested’ in many ways. 3+1 is actually the same as 4 and 2+1 is the same as 3. This is not to say that mathematical knowledge is a priori either.

Alfred Ayer was influenced by the Vienna Circle (1922). He wrote ‘Language, Truth and Logic’ (1936). The verification principle as formulated by him states that for a sentence to be verified it must contain empirical truth otherwise it is metaphysical, meaningless or literally senseless.

Perhaps when Wittgenstein wrote ‘that if which we cannot speak we must remain silent’ in Tractatus (1921), he meant that that which cannot be proven as with regards to science must be left alone since no conclusion can be reached (not to say that such things cannot be discussed or explored within art, fictional literature, the expressive arts or poetry).

The News of The World newspaper and alleged journalist using phone hacking as means of extracting information for their articles (thus stolen information) is contented with passing on blame or deniability. A journalist constantly thinks 'can this information be trusted or not’ and then takes the information through the verification principle since truth in some ways is merely the method in which it is verified.

2)      What is phenomenology: can there be such a thing as a subjective reality or subjective truth? What sort of standards ought a journalist apply?

Kant is responsibly for the exploration of phenomena in his ‘Critique of Pure Reason’. Everything that exists also has a noumenal nature as the unperceived object meaning that things don’t only exist when being seen but they exist, differently, when unperceived. 

A naïve realist believes that things are there whether you are thinking about them or not, meanwhile it is still there but it is radically different. When you perceive the object it becomes a ‘phenomena’ which is an idea that solved many issues in technical philosophy.

Modern science and quantum mechanics is the mathematical explanation of the dual relationship between energy and matter. There is a development of time in physical things through the wave function, which is a momentum within an atom that tells its electron how to behave, which brings some various probabilities.

The quantum theory can be relevant with regards to the noumenal (unperceived) and phenomenal (perceived) worlds. The world is made up of things, really tiny particles that persist throughout time. Thus an atom or continuous ‘state of affairs’ (as Wittgenstein refers) exists for a certain amount of time and then is replaced by a different state of affairs, this is what is meant by quantum science with reference to the noumenal/ phenomenal worlds, when it is said ‘the change takes place at the quantum level’.

The active side of the mind summons all the noumenal possibilities into the one single outcome/’phenomena’. However how does this particular perception arise as opposed to another (ie. through the change at the wave function what makes certain probabilities get chosen over others)? According to Husserl (1859-1938) this is due to intention. We see what we want to see due to the extent of self deception. We can will the world into existence. Husserl also asserted that the mental and spiritual realities are different to the physical.

Husserl (1859 -1938) worked with Heideggar (1889 – 1976) who was an existentialist. Heideggar explored the question of being. His work brought about questions of intention and morals, as can be recognised in Albert Camus’ book ‘L’Etrenger’ or ‘The Outsider’. Heideggar also asserted that the past is beyond ones control, the future is unknown and therefore we only have the present and we have choice within this present.

Solopsism is a philosophical idea that only one’s own mind is sure to exist. Perhaps similar to Hume who felt that there is no causation in nature, everything happens within our minds.

3)      Describe in broad terms Keynes ideas on monetary policy, with an indication of how Keynesian “revolution” came about. Does “Keynesianism” inevitably lead to social regression, mortal failure, and serfdom as Hayek asserts?

The Keynsian system largely involved the printing of more money, which of course made money to be of less worth. However it also resulted in full employment and good circulation for a larger spectrum. As money is backed by gold, even if you don’t in essence have enough gold employ people anyway. Give a school teacher a salary of £20,000 per annum whether this money is legitimately in ‘existence’ or not. This is because she will in turn pay rent to a landlord, purchase groceries from a supermarket, invest in her hobby, book a holiday, and attire herself with high street fashion thus giving into other markets who in turn feedback into further ones. This is how a ‘non existent £20,000’ creates real money.

John Maynard Keynes is the economist who theorised fixed price controls. The government’s central bank to lower interest rates when prices rise and raise interest rates when prices fall. Unemployment in Britain during the interwar period (1918-1939) was sometimes as high as 20 percent. Keynes felt that the way the government spent its money greatly affected employment. He did not advocate for wages to be cut, arguing that if they were cut there would be less household income and therefore less consumption. Thus he advocated that wages remain stable as prices remain stable. Keynes asked why government couldn’t secure employment with public works projects. Similar to Adam Smith Keynes didn’t see the need to ‘socialise’ the economic market, suggesting that if there was full employment, there would be individual economic strivings (Smith’s ‘hidden hand of the market theory) who’s value would be distributed across the market.

Hayek (1899 – 1992) held the opinion that we are all as medieval serfs since we all work for the state. He wrote The Road to Serfdom (1944) arguing that central economic planning could lead to totalitarianism.

4)      “Facts in logical space are the world” Witgenstein in Tractatus .Do you agree?

A fact is something that can be independently verified, but does this mean to say that the world is made up of these facts? Does logical proof and validity mean there is no ideal (and thus no heaven, no noumenal world and no physical objects)?

To better contextualise these questions we need to go back to Kant and Phenomenology. In The Critque of Pure Reason (1781) Kant explains how what we experience physically through our bodies is not the real world but merely a replica made with our brains. If everything is made by the brain, this is closer to everything being facts since the brain consists of thoughts. Therefore if the brain makes a replica of the world, we are closer to (as Wittgenstein states) the world itself being made up of facts. Further to this Kant’s ‘brain’ could be the same as Wittgenstein’s ‘logical space’.

Rejection of Plato

Ideal forms

  

5)      Looking back at HCJ as a whole choose a topic/philosopher. Explain why they are important for journalistic reasons.

Bibliography:

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Keynes.html

‎'It is self-evident that identity is not a relation between objects' (page 52). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein

Wittgenstein was concerned with Symbolism as exemplified with Language. We use language with the intention to mean something with it. The relationship between thoughts, progressed into words and developed into sentences. Also the idea that the sentence is meant to present truth. What relationship does one sentence have to another sentence in order to symbolise something comprehensive? Wittgenstein is thus concerned with accurate symbolism.

I find the following statement really interesting/beautiful, taken from the introduction (by Bertrand Russell) of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 'the object of Philosophy is the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a theory but an activity' (xii).

The book has a challanging preface, saying Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is not a text book but can only be understood by someone who has already had the same thoughts, or at very least, similar thoughts. The author is concerned with language, what can be summurised with our words can and therefore must be said clearly, but what cannot, must be left in silence (an idea that gives me butterflies in my stomach, for as a dancer I feel that there are some surreal things in life that cannot be expressed through words but can be conveyed in other mediums, such as dance).

Within the main body of the book Wittgenstein numbers each proposition and further comments with decimal points. For example '1. The world is all that is the case. 1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things' (page 5).

Have you noticed how words even with the exact same spelling or sound but different meanings cannot demonstrate their different roles without other words around them. For example when I say 'nails' you dont know if I am talking about finger nails or the nails I bang with a hammer unless I use the word 'nails' in the context of a sentence. Wittgenstein explains this on page six 2.0122.

On page ten pictures are discussed and how in order to establish whether a picture is true or false we must compare it to reality. To this I question, what about perception?

Alfred Ayer: 'Language, Truth and Logic'

Chapter One:

The process of elimination and eradication of all philosopher's prior babble and grapples with things so overcomplicated its unnecessary 'a straightforward process of elimination must lead to their discover' (pg 13). Sense experience is surely an empirical situation? How do we differentiate between raw reality and past experience, how do we limit thought? Metaphysics always questions what there is, and what it is like. Ayer doesn't reprimand the metaphysician for attempting something completely fruitless but perhaps not specific. Ayer uses the example of a sentence, even if it grammatically asks a questions but we already know the answer we might not see it as a question at all. Also, in terms of thinking 'what things are like', there is the practical issue of being able to place oneself where an observation can be made. One has to settle with the idea that some things are achievable only theoretically and not practically, as Ayer uses the example of seeing the other side of the moon.

Ayer questions whether a sentence can be deemed factual if it is truthful and if the information it contains can be proved, and further to that, proved by experience. Hence his terms factual proposition versus experimental propositions. Perhaps the sense cannot be considered providers of 'rea' information since Ayer reminds us that the sense can sometimes deceive us. Ideas about appearance versus reality.

On page 25 Ayer discusses the phrase 'martyrs suffer' and the phrase 'martyrs exist'. Because they are both grammatically organised in the same way, our logic categorises them the same, but actually the phrases are very logically different. Yes, there can be real proof that martyrs suffer, but martyrs do not exist since the whole point in being a labeled a martyr is the nation of dying for something strongly believed in. Therefore the phrase should be 'martyrs did exist' or 'martyrs existed'. If it is easy to write nonsensical sentences without meaning to be nonsensical, or indeed seeing that they are even nonsensical, then it is also (proof) possible that common problems of philosophy or nonsensical and that if philosophy is to be considered an eligible branch of philosophy it must be differentiated from metaphysics.

Chapter Two: The Functions of Philosophy

Ayer seems against deductive logic for the sake of it or as considered a main philosophical trend, he also appears against generalisation and 'laws of nature'. He doesn't see why starting points and conclusions have to correlate and be of such exactitude for successful winning of arguments. 'Thus we may conclude that it is not possible to deduce all our knowledge from 'first principles' (page 31). Yet there is this belief that it is the philosopher's duty to find the first principle.

Existentialism

Andy Warhol 1928 - 1987:

Warhol influenced fashion, pop, music and culture. He is known for his Screen Tests, silent film portraits of celebrities and friends filmed in a factory (a good website: http://www.warholstars.org/filmch/screen.html). Some candidates were high on heroin for these films. This links with existentialism due to heroin giving the sense of no past or future. Under the influence people feel no worry for the future, no interest and no boredom. The neurons for pain and pleasure are also turned off (this is why people feel cold when coming off heroin, wanting to take more). In The Outsider by Camus the main character Meursault could well be high.

In the 1960s and 1970s there was a lot of heroin chic in music and fashion (pale skin, dark eyes, jagged bones). Also aspects of the androgynous, for example Edie Sedgwick one of Warhol's superstars, was thin, 1.63m tall and often wore her hair short looking like a beautiful man. Warhol himself was homosexual.

Politics:

The 'old left' from Marx is about economic oppression and the 'new left' is concerned with racism, personal oppression as from Hiedeggar - the past which is guilt and the future which is fear.

Existentialist Authors Love Writing About Junkies:

The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs 1959.
 
The Electric Kool-Acid Test by Tom Wolfe 1986  where the author writes as a literal journalist in the genre of hysterical realism. Wolfe travels with the band the Merry Pranksters, the dangerous drug LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) is involved.... as are hallucinations.

L'Etrenger by Albert Camus

The Outsider/Stranger (as translated into English) is a short narrative associated with the philosophies of existentialism, absurdism, determintism, naturalism and stoicism.

Part One:

The main character is Meursault who oddly doesn't grieve at his mother's funeral but sits smoking and drinking coffee instead. The next day Meursault meets with someone he used to work with named Marie and they begin a sexual relationship, which could be considered absurd considering that his mother had so recently died. The author questions whether Meursault is capable of human politeness and social graces, let alone emotion and feeling.

Meursault gives constant critique and justification for people and things around him. During his first person narrative account, he in a mental state of things just happening in the now. He either classifies things as interesting or annoying. This is exemplified through Meursault's friendship with Raymond. Raymond believes that his girlfriend has been unfaithful and asks Meursault to write her a letter arranging a meeting between them; Raymond plans to beat her. Knowing full well that Raymond's girlfriend will come to harm, Meursault still writes the letter, seeing Raymond's 'interesting' and justifiable side.

Unfortunately the family of Raymond's now physically harmed girlfriend are not impressed and stalk Raymond, wanting revenge. Being on the scene, Meursault gets involved by killing one of the men because (as he justifies it) 'the sunshine and heat confused him'.

Part Two:

Meursault is in jail and unhappy that he cannot gratify his sexual desires with Marie. He also misses his freedom. He is however unable to feel remorse, described as a soulless monster that deserves to die. Awaiting his execution Meursault tells the chaplain that 'God is a waste of time'. Meursault undergoes a different journey grasping the universe's indifference towards mankind and wishing for a large audience at his execution wanting to be 'greeted with cries of hate'.

Philosophical references:

With regards to absurdisim Meursault is an unreceptive man, he only has sensory experiences. He lives in the physical alone as exemplified through his reaction to the responsibility of murdering someone 'the sun had physical effects on him'; things 'just happen'. Only in execution can Meursault acknowledge responsibility for his actions, yet the inhumanity of murder is irrelevant to Meursault, he just accepts dying as part if the status quo. Absurdity overrides responsibility and Meursault is satisfied with his death because the world is meaningless and because God is a waste of time.

Although writing an existentialism view, Camus himself didn't consider himself to be of the existentialist philosophy.Yet the book expresses strongly the idea of human life having no meaning or order; therefore peace in death. The character Meursault gives such a calm account of life, almost nonchalant, as someone who merely sees as opposed to feeling as well. The Outsider/Stranger describes the individual who cannot bond, connect or feel with another; Meursault admits to not loving Marie.

There is no over analysing and no thought for consequence. There is no regard for the future or for the past. Existence in the present is all that matters. In this sense perhaps Meursault is a hero, since he had integrity in living his life exactly to these principles.

Seminar Paper on The New Industrial Estate

Seminar Paper

The New Industrial Estate by John Kenneth Galbraith

A Guardian newspaper article published soon after his death in 2006 describes Galbraith as a ‘visionary economist who defined, and defied, the 'conventional wisdom'’ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/may/01/guardianobituaries.usa). The article also explains how Galbraith had awareness of his intelligent superiority and possessed a well developed sense of humour

Born in Canada 1908 Galbraith is remembered for his assistance in wartime price controls and for being the American ambassador to India from 1961-1963. He was a keen follower of John Maynard Keynes, the reputable name of economics and developer of selective price controls. Galbraith’s discovery differed to that of Keynes. Galbraith realised that general price controls were indeed required which were established in 1942 with the support and backing of President Roosevelt. As a result unemployment hardly existed. Galbraith understood the marriage between fixed price and income for economic stability and high employment.

Within his book The New Industrial Estate Galbraith presents the controversial message that within high industry and advances economies it is the corporate leaders and experts (which he calls the technostructure) that control everything and that they subordinate the government for their own progression and self esteem. The book presents the economy as it is, showing how everything is dominated by omnipotent corporations and that such faith is better deflated. This seminar paper looks in closer detail at a few of the chapters within The New Industrial State.

Chapter Six: The Technostructure

The dictionary definition for the term technostructure, used frequently in Galbraith’s writings is ‘the group or class of technically skilled administrators, scientists, and engineers who manage and influence business, the economy, and government affairs’ (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/technostructure).

The firm or group being given more importance over the individual is difficult to consider since the individual protects himself form the masses and the individual has soul whilst corporations are soulless. Those in socialist power therefore, have the task of positively acquiring information from the many individuals within ‘modern industrial decision-making’ (Galbraith 1967, p. 76). Essentially a combination of highly specialised talent is required for the success of a project.

This combination is in three parts:

1. Technology itself, which dispenses the need for genius or multiple/deeply skilled employees.
2. Those who understand, manage, and plan the technology with scientific talent and specific skill, to result in the smooth and ultimate flow of information.
3. Co-ordination, the understanding that various talents must all fall and form to the same purpose. The specialist’s contributions must be tested for relevance and reliability.

Chapter Eight: The Entrepreneur and the Technostructure

The firm is subject to the market because it has no control on quantity or price of sales. There is danger in a firm growing since it results in more stockholders having a say through the voting processes and the owners having less power in decision making. Stockholders may have less knowledge than is required to make sound decision.

Large firms can tell small competitors to conform to their set prices or lose business altogether. The entrepreneur creatively conducts a system in which only a group of highly specialised and communicative people can mark the success of his business operation. Some entrepreneurs begin to resent this organisation they have created, an organisation that now their business cannot survive without. Galbraith writes that ‘Henry Ford, aging and autocratic, became increasingly resentful of the organisation without which his company could not be run. He reacted by shunning employees of specialised technical knowledge’ (Galbraith 1967, p. 104).  

                                                  

Chapter Nine: A Digression on Socialism

Power sits with those individuals who make the decisions within industrial enterprise. This power changes within the context of mature enterprise since only the group has access to the information required to make the sound decision. After the WW2 Britian lived under socialism ‘the purpose of socialism is the control of productive enterprises by the society …. none, or not many, seek socialism so that power can be exercised by an autonomous authority’ (Galbraith 1967. p. 113).

Chapter Sixteen: Prices in the Industrial System

Value theory is the way in which prices are set. The relationship between supply and demand is very crucial to good economy. However, ideally prices should be set irrespective of a corporation excelling in or being expelled from the market. Otherwise a business could influence the market for its own progression. Competition is also good, as Galbraith writes ‘competition is inherent in the animal spirits of the entrepreneur. In response thereto he advertises and merchandises his product with even greater energy and aggressiveness for not being allowed to cut prices’ (Galbraith 1967, p. 187).

There is a wasteful competition though, and this is in the case of an oligopoly. Galbraith uses the economic term ‘oligopoly’ which has similar meaning to monopoly in that it refers to a few firms dominating sales within a market. Galbraith explains that oligopoly is not as wicked as monopoly but only due to lack of ability not lack of desire. If a large firm can dictate change in price the economy cannot work properly.

Chapter Twenty Two: The Control of the Wage-Price Spiral

There must be enough buying power to support the labour force required; this is how the state aggregates. To test the success of the economy look at unemployment and see if its rate is low or high. Only a lot of aggregate demand would secure the employment, if any employment at all, of uneducated people. When unemployment is low Unions can have a field day since workers can strike knowing that they will not be replaced.

Price remaining constant is a good way to foresee and manage customer/consumer reaction. If the prices change the customer’s attitude and choice change accordingly which is not easily managed.

Bibliography

Galbraith, J. K (1967). The New Industrial Estate. Penguin Books: Middlesex

Dictionary.reference (online). Last Accessed 15 February 2011. Available at URL: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/technostructure

Guardian (online). Last accessed 15 February 2011. Available at URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/may/01/guardianobituaries.usa

Money is a human being

Yes money is a human being with regards to its interchangeability, selfishness, control and stubbornness ..... well its a human character reduced to numerical form and adding to that, it controls our universe. There is the illusion that money is the best friend, the biggest desire, and driving force for motivation and that this, money can buy anything. Well, there are some things money cannot buy.

A soppy person might say 'money cant buy love' or 'money cant buy me', a more obvious 'reverse the situation around' example is poverty. You can pay to have a poverty simulator and go sit dehydrated in a desert but unless you are poor, with regards to culture, demographic and state of being, even money cannot buy you poverty.

We have previously learnt about Adam Smith the mechanistic thinker. Mechanistic thinkers avoid paid and seek pleasure, which in short seems very logical. This logic is expanded to form careful calculations as to how every individual's utility goes up or down depending on circumstances. There is also the long and short term utility, a precise measure of human behaviour.

The term utility is also used in economics, an example of price: there are those prepared to pay £500 for a laptop and £50 for a hoody. In economics this quite simply means that the laptop produces ten times more utility than the hoody. This is utility without morality; sheer facts and the price system with which our society works.

Using the term utility within human existence, everyone must be free to maximise their utility - hence utilitarianism (the moral worth of an action).

Aggregation is an important economic concept. Individual economic units come together to determine market price and service as contributors to the whole. However these individual units cannot be considered separate to the context 'one cannot hope to isolate individual economic units from their context, study them experimentally, and establish what could be called elementary laws of economic behavior' (http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Aggregation.aspx).

Classical Liberalism is associated with political philosophy; freedom and democracy. The first liberalists were called Whigs and came into being just after the Corn Laws ceased (laws which had restricted trade). They focused on Free Trade and small government. 'Under a system of completely free trade, capital and labor would be employed wherever conditions are most favorable for production' (http://mises.org/LIBERAL/CH3SEC7.ASP).

The Kantian system is much more concerned with morals. There are categorical imperatives that cannot under any circumstance be broken, else the whole universe shall just fall apart. These include not lying or stealing for example. Classical Liberalism in some ways decentralises the church and goes against all such Kantian morals in a sort of rebel.

Deontological ethics is morals purely based on action rather than intent. If I did the washing up, I did a good and moral action; its all about the action and the action has been done. Never mind that I might have done it with a very bad attitude as liong as I act from a sense of duty; as Kant believed. Deontological theories are often contrasted with teleological ones.

Moral questions of killing one person to save one hundred come into play and determine whether you are a utilitarian or not. Should the NHS spend money on new born babies as apposed to pensioners for example?

The Labour Theory of Value by Ricardo:
Labour just as anything that can be sold, can be increased or decreased in supply. The natural price of labour is in accordance with human necessity of survival, so if cost of food rises so shall cost of labour. The market aspect to labour is quite simply that labour is expensive when it is scarce and it is cheap when it is available. If times are good labourers can have large happy families, but this increases the population and in the future wages will then be lowered. It is sad when the worker cannot even afford to buy the thing he himself made when it goes on market. See this link: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/workbook/ralprs27c.htm.

Contrary to John Swift's satire of 'eat your own babies so you dont starve' Keynes boosted the economy by getting society to keep busy with unnecessary things. Keynes lived and worked through the world wars and the great depression and was of much assistance with his theories.

Theories such as Adam Smith's hidden hand of the market and free trade suggest, as now reffered to as classical economics, that people MUST be free with a political constitution in order to trade.

With regards to population there is the Iron Law of Wages by Malthus:
He believed that population grows geometrically. If every couple has two children the population will remain the same, for when the parents die the children shall replace them. Land and provision can merely double, but if a couple has four children these children become eight children, then, sixteen and then thirty two. This growth cannot be supported by natural rescources.

Products have the danger of overproduction and under consumption. If someone is paid a £5 wage for a £10 product he cannot affors his own product.

Marx was influences by both Ricardo and Malthus, and his findings are catagorically diagnosis rather than solution.

Money is transparent and really doesnt do anything for itself. Your precious £20 note is really just a scrap of germ infested paper. But the representation of what it could do for you is what is precious. It maximises your utility and it enables trade.

The Credit Creation Ratio means that your £1,000 in the bank enables the back to have £10,000 of lending money for anyone who has an account with them too. This is back by gold, since gold is money, but it is not instantaneously transferable.

Bond Auctions:
The government will have a bond, a security debt. The issuer agrees to pay the bond with or without interest at a later date. The issuer is the borrower and the holder is the lender. Bonds regulate the economy, and there should be enough tax brought in to pay debts.

some theories we have learnt, in modern context

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xyzjw/Justice_A_Citizens_Guide_to_the_21st_Century/

Modernism: Nietzsche's 'Thuse Spoke Zarathustra' with mention of 'Ulysess' by James Joyce

'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' is read by gathering segments of the disjointed religious text; in some ways its format is similar to the Bible. Within the book Astra is an ancient figure in Persian religion, founder of  the Zoroastrianism religion (now scarce and mainly l in Iran/India) known for the funeral rights; leaving the corps on a pillar for birds to pick at. The key point that Nietzsche tries to bring out through Zoroastrianism is an obsession between good and evil; a dialectic history within the religion of a battle between good and evil. Another key theme is the stages of struggle and progression; the camel, the lion, the child. Struggle is good for us, we should embrace it if not bring it upon ourselves, to become the overman or superman.

Ulyses by James Joyce, exemplifies the human as a sexual being, how the Id goes wild, the Super Ego controls and conforms to society rules and the Ego mediates between the two.

Nietzsche express a modern world where there is no centre of the universe and therefore no absolute good or evil. One can questions weather this leads to anarchy or chaos, depending on if you take the Hobbes approach where the state of nature is evil so the world would be full of rape and murder, or base your ideas on Rousseau where there would be peace with no land to fight over as John Lennon suggests in 'Imagine'.

Modernism is the start of free speech. It is also about refusing to let current society rules and historical rules, morals and discoveries prevent one from living a full life. Taken to the extreme, if you have a goal and desire to kill someone, why lower yourself to societies rules and live your life unfulfilled (I think this idea is mentioned in Nietzsche's book 'Beyond Good and Evil', not saying that evil is good but that there is no evil only yourself.).

'The Origins of Totalitarianism' by Hannah Arendt

 

Good evening and welcome to this blog post.

We shall begin by clearing up some, shall we say 'technical jargon' surrounding the subject:

1. Totalitarianism: the idea of a nation being ruled by a dictator without law; individual subordinate to the state

2. Antisemitism: prejudice against Jewish people

3. Xenophobia: fear or hatred of foreign people or states  

4.Nationalism: excessive patriotism 

'The Origins of Totalitarianism' was written in 1951 after WW2 and after Hitler's death. Ardent writes about a form of government where dictatorship doesn't allow for individualism. She discusses how Arabs and Jews lived together in post war states and how racism is deep within western society. In chapter two she discusses the Nation's state, the rights of Jews and how democracy aims to include what everyone wants in its decisions. There was no equality; Jews were just needed for their skills without being involved in the state. Within the German class system Jews had no class, therefore lacking rights.

In Part Three of the book the following topics are looked at : the powers of Hitler and Stalin, Nazism, the Nazi party, facism, biological racism, pure society, Stallinism, sovereign union, lack of constitutional law, and the power through totalitarianism.

Stalin manipulated propaganda, where we see the media's role; and early link between media power and the masses.

Biological racism aims to control and organise people to all look the same; Hitler wanted blond haired and blue eyes people. The agreement as to what is aesthetically pleasing can be done through brain washing as advertising does today, for example the Ugg boot trend. When masses are one there is a loss of responsibility as a whole, which can be used to shape a power when the masses a brain washed sufficiently.

Snobbish behaviour is exemplified by Hitler's ideas being taken to the extreme and through Carey's metaphor of bacteria used to describe the masses. Ardent thought that the holocaust was normal, a strange thong for her to say, being a Jew herself, but perhaps she says this within the broad teleological lenses of history?

Human industrialism, on an industrial scale ; organised mass murder.

'All explanations of antisemitism look as if they had been hastily and hazardously contrived, to cover up an issue which so gravely threatens our sense of proportion and our hope for sanity' (Arendt 1951, p. 11). An example of such a hasty explanation (as described in the above quote) is xenophobic outburst; essentially modern antisemitism growing as traditional nationalism declined.   

Arendt explains that Nazi nationalism was not simple, their propaganda directed at travelers not members (see page 12). She also clears up that 'persecution of the powerless' may not be pleasant but that it doesn't come from human hatred alone because 'even exploitation and oppression still make society work and establish some kind of order (Arendt 1951, p. 13).

Some interesting further quotes to end off:

Arendt questions 'what happened' to case the holocaust on page 387.Her book seems to take a historical look at what came before communisim and totalitarianism in an effort to explain the birth of such ideas, she looks at Russian Imperialists for example. .

On page 407 she discusses how masses are quickly forgotten and replaced, which reminds me slightly of some of the thoughts portrayed in John Carey's 'Intellectuals and the Masses'. 

On page 408 Arendt seems annoyed at the masses describing the 'proverbial fickleness of the masses and the fame that rests on them'.  

Ardent put some misconstrued ideas about dictators to rest 'the widespread belief that Hitler was simply an agent of German industrialists and that Stalin was victorious in the succession struggle after Lenin's death only through sinister conspiracy are both legends which can be refuted by many facts but above all by the leaders indisputable popularity' (page 408-409)...'nor can their popularity be attributed to the victory of masterful and lying propaganda over ignorance and stupidity' (page 409).

Idealism is dangerous 'idealism,  foolish or heroic, always springs from some individual decision aand conviction and is subject to experience and argument' (page 410).

 

Totalitarianism

Branch of phenomenology ...


Hannah Arent thought that the Holocaust was normal; the idea of death factories on an industrial scale where hair is shaved for clothing, gold from teeth are used as currency and calcium is extracted from bones. A factory was put outside every city in Europe and no one resisted until the Soviet army stopped it.

Th romantic 'Dickens' idea, that most schooling depicts is that Hitler was a mad genius that hypnotised all Germans. In fact everyone was involved in some small way, like the people that booked the trains that transported so many Jews. Some citizens would collaborate for the chance of better life an attitude of  'just doing our jobs'.

Stalin was eventually accused of mass murder, in the ideology of Hannah Arent, instead of helping peasants we should kill them just as gypsies are a problem today. Or what about the Siberian prisons where there was no desire to escape and nowhere to escape to. The prisoners dug the 800 mile White Sea Canal which took five years, Benson and Hedges equivalent cigars were named after this canal; Stalin's way of celebrating. Perhaps economy can only survive on essential slave labour.

Organised mass murder on an industrial scale is what you get from Marxism. 

Lets look into a communist quota; one third of Winchester residents must become 'slaves', and must be sent to work at the gulag. A rule is decided at random, as of today it is illegal to wear pink socks, maybe  tomorrow drinking tea without sugar is an offence, and perhaps next week bow ties are a no no. Those who break these instantaneous rules are sent off to live a life of hard labour. This is the system of Hannah Ardent.

Forget films such as 'Life is Beautiful' or 'Schindlers List' and get a grip with 'Shoah', see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090015/plot summary and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W0WcZu9O74.

People turned themselves in for minor crimes as to avoid being selected for bigger crimes and the longer sentences that went with them.

Look at Animal Farm by George Orwell.

'The Intellectuals and the Masses' by John Carey

Carey looks at some renowned names such as Jose Ortega, Friedrich Nietzche,  Knut Hamsun, George Bernard Shaw, George Elliot, Alfred Harmsworth, T.S Elliot, and W.B.Yeates. He critically analyses their work in its function of society class and its masses versus intellectuals.

Spanish philosopher Ortega wrote The Revolt of the Masses (1930), where he looks at growth in population as the cause of the masses; Europe's population grew from 180 million to 460 million between 1800 and 1914 ( see page 3).

Nietzche's Zarthustra says ' Many too many are born' (Carey 1992, p. 4).

Hamsun's novel entitled Hunger (1890 and he is known as a father of modern literature.Nietzechian ideas are clearly seen through one of the characters in his novel who says 'I believe in the born leader, the natural deposit, the master, not the man who is chosen but the man who elects himself to be ruler oer the masses' (Carey 1992, p.5).Hamsun believed in 'the great terrorist', who came to be Hitler.

Shaw's novel Immaturity (1879) was not welcomed by publishers, things like Treasure Island were more popular and Shaw 'made a conscious effort to write for the millions' (Carey 1992, p. 6).

Harmsworth is similarily mentioned, due to his 'busy man's paper', the Daily Mail. He wanted to 'deal' with the interests of the 'masses', since the newspaper must make money.