Week 8 Seminar Notes Gp2

Seminar Outline
1. HOUSEKEEPING (17.30-17.45)

2. INDIVIDUAL RAT (17.45-18.00)

3. TEAM RAT (18.00-18.20)

4. CHALLENGES (18.20-18.25)

- ONLY IF REQUIRED

5. LECTURE INPUT - ISSUES FROM READINGS/RATs (18.25-19.00)

6. OUTLINE REFLECTIVE & TEAM PROJECT (19.10-19.30)

7. CONFIRM TEAM PROJECT QUESTION/STATEMENT (19.30-19.40)

8. 1st TEAM MEETING (19.40-20.20)

Important Information, Ideas & Questions
Winning Question : Globalisation: Westernisation or Easternisation?

Three notions of Self of Cartesian philosophy

Lecture notes
 * 1) the self-defining subject of consciousness
 * 2) the all knowing subject of consciousness
 * 3) the formally empowered subject of consciousness

Theoretical background : See Descartes, Kant and Nietzsche

NB - Only put short pieces of info here, just basic info on the thinker and their main ideas

Descartes

Rene Descartes was a french philosopher and mathematician. famous for the quote "I think therefore I am" or "cogito ergo sum". This quote demonstrates Descartes belief that our ability to perform independent thought is evidence of our existence as independent beings, that is we do not rely on 'god' or our senses to perceive the world, but on our ability to think about the world.

Kant

Immanuel Kant was a Prussian Enlightenment Philosopher. His body of work is impressive, however he is most well-known for his ideas of knowledge and judgement, and attempting to bridge the gap between rationalists and empricists. he conceived of two kinds of knowledge 'a priori' and 'a posteriori', that is prior to experience and after experience. a priori knowledge consists of ideas that one knows without knowing the world, things like the passage of time, dimensions of space and so on. a posteriori knowledge is gained through experience, such as the idea that wax melts, or that the sky is blue.

  Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche is commonly regarded as the father of existentialism. He is famous for the books Thus Spake Zarathustra (Also Sprach Zarathustra) Ecce Homo, and The Gay Science among others. He is famous for concepts such as 'The Will to Power', 'The Ubermensch' and the idea that 'God is dead and we have killed him'. Unfortunately Nietzsche suffered from illness, and his sister took charge of some of his works. As a Nazi sympathiser, she edited Nietzsche's work to support the Nazi regime. However, it is known that Nietzsche ceased to be friends with the composer Wagner over his Nazi sympathies, and did not approve of anti-semitism at all. His unadulterated work was rediscovered and republished in its original form after his death. Regarding his nationality, Nietzsche considered himself many things, last of which was german.

  Levinas

Emmanuel Levinas was a Lithuanian Jewish scholar and philosopher who is most notable for his concept of 'the Other'. Levinas states that the experience of the other requires a fundamental acceptance or denial, and in the experience of this ultimately unknowable other, the self experiences a form of transcendence and knowledge of the self.

Russel

Colonialism

Some key quotes from the lecture:

- Colonialism is in essence about economic domination and political hegemony (Foucault 1980)

- The very structure of Western rationality is racist and imperialist (Derrida 1974).

- “For victims of colonialism, culture means strategies of survival as much as heritage, so that the gap between inherited or official meaning (ideology) and its individual performance provides room for resistance and individuation.” - Simon During (1999: 189) --Glendud 01:48, September 15, 2009 (UTC)

Post Structuralism

Poststructuralism is a critique of Western civilisation, culture and epistemology; dismantling Western tradition from within. It is not linked with time. It also argues that Western domination is a symptom of the unwholesome alliance between knowledge and power. It argues that Western philosophy begins and ends in violence and discerns (through Derrida) the inevitable lack and persistent doubts of the aggressive, confident Self.

Poststructuralism criticises the Western/Cartesian conception of the self identity is premised on the violent, aggressive omission or exclusion of the Other; indifferent to difference. It gives the Self the power to define and requires the repression or erasure of difference.

Derrida: Deconstruction: "strategy of critical analysis [...] directed towards exposing unquestioned metaphysical assumptions and internal contradictions in philosophical and literary language." ... works with questions of how texts should be read and interpreted --Glendud 01:48, September 15, 2009 (UTC)

Post-Colonialism

Postcolonialism is based on knowing what the Other is, those that is apart of the Self.

Any claim that there is a universal or normative underlying characteristic, is termed as Eurocentrism/Universalism. This is hostile to the Others, or difference, as it gets rid of it.

Aims to diagnose the material effects and implications of colonialism as a malaise at the heart of Western rationality.

Is postcolonial writing compromised if written in the colonial language?

"Humanism"

According to Gandhi, it argues that human-ness is bound up with questions of knowledge; presupposes a relationship between what a man is and what a man knows. It is anthropocentric and argues that beneath underlying diversity is a universal human nature which is revealed through rationality.

Some key quotes from the lecture:

- “... frequently misunderstood as a temporal concept meaning the time after colonialism has ceased ... Postcolonialism is, rather, an engagement with and contestation of colonialism's discourses, power structures, and social hierarchies... A theory of postcolonialism must, then, respond to more than the merely chronological construction of post-independence, and to more than just the discursive experience of imperialism” (Gilbert & Tompkins, 1996)

- Close connections between capitalism & imperialism: “capitalism spread from its original base in Europe, through trade and in alliance with political, cultural and economic imperialism. Wherever it went, capitalism came into conflict with traditional ways of life.” (McGuigan, 1999: 1) --Glendud 01:49, September 15, 2009 (UTC)

Important Notes


 * Go to blackboard and get the Reflective Essay Task sheet
 * Begin to note down the processes and learnings of your participation as they occur. This helps us get richer ideas.
 * Work on the 500 word essay as a TEAM.
 * Begin to have a note taker for each team meeting.

Glossary
Cartesian


 * relating to French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes

Imperialism

When a State advances beyond the limits of nationality its power becomes precarious and artificial. This is the condition of most empires, and it is the condition of our own. When a nation extends itself into other territories the chances are that it cannot destroy or completely drive out, even if it succeeds in conquering, them. When this happens it has a great and permanent difficulty to contend with, for the subject or rival nationalities cannot be properly assimilated, and remain as a permanent cause of weakness and danger. (Seeley, cited in John A. Hobson,1902, Imperialism, A Study, chapter1)

Nationality

A portion of mankind may be said to constitute a nation if they are united among themselves by common sympathies which do not exist between them and others. This feeling of nationality may have been generated by various causes. Sometimes it is the effect of identity of race and descent. Community of language and community of religion greatly contribute to it. Geographical limits are one of the causes. But the strongest of all is identity of political antecedents, the possession of a national history and consequent community of recollections, collective pride and humiliation, pleasure and regret, connected with the same incidents in the past. (J. S. Mill, cited in John A. Hobson,1902, Imperialism, A Study, chapter1)