/library/oar/handle/123456789/15197 2025-12-27T05:25:10Z 2025-12-27T05:25:10Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/15805 2017-01-25T10:00:29Z 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Cinematic representation and causality : a critical analysis Abstract: This paper is concerned with the issue of cinematic representation and how the main theories in the field are based upon a weak causal assumption. In the paper I first focus upon the issue of causality in general - expounding the ideas of Aristotle, Hume, Kant and Nietzsche respectively. By doing so, it shall become clear that causality is not a necessary precondition of the world. After this, I turn my focus to film theory and the multiple proposed theories which attempt to account for the issue of cinematic representation i.e. cinematic perception. Finally, following Richard Allen, I borrow from the philosophy of the later Wittgenstein, to show that film theorists, who focus upon cinematic representation, should not assume causality to be necessary. Such an assumption leads to weak theories. Description: B.A.(HONS)PHIL.

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/15795 2018-04-06T08:15:09Z 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Attending to music : traversing the experience of listening through the physical into the ineffable Abstract: In order to traverse the experience of listening to music from the physical into the ineffable, I shall first explore the immediate experience of listening with reference to the physical elements of its perception. I shall then consider the subtler level of this experience by evidencing the virtuality of the experiencing agent, identified as ego, in light of the self that witnesses the experience, and is unchanging. Lastly, I shall explore how the experience of attending to music is ultimately inarticulate and therefore ineffable since in the process of listening, one recognises the stillness that underlies the experience. Silence is thus identified as the cause for the happening of musical experience. Description: B.A.(HONS)PHIL.

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/15794 2017-01-25T09:53:17Z 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Can recognition in Hegel’s dialectic of desire account for Lacan’s problem of misrecognition? : readings from the ‘Phenomenology of Spirit’ and the ‘Mirror Stage’ Abstract: In this dissertation, I seek to ask and answer the question of whether Hegel can respond to Lacan’s problem of misrecognition. I do so by offering a detailed outline of both positions and offering a brief analysis of the similarities and differences within their conclusions. To this end, I outline Lacan’s objection to the Cartesian cogito and his response in the form of desire, and the ultimate failure of this desire to account for the integrity of the subject and its pursuit of its own truth. I also outline Hegel’s account of desire and recognition, demonstrating how desire fails to give the subject its truth, and why it seems as though the servile consciousness succeeds in recognising the truth of itself. In my concluding synthesis, I answer the question posed positively, by elaborating on Lacan’s ethical imperative and demonstrating how this is similar to the endeavours of the servile consciousness. Description: B.A.(HONS)PHIL.

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/15793 2017-01-25T09:52:08Z 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The value of beings and its relevance to environmental ethics Abstract: In this paper I argue for a naturalist theory of value. I show how value is based on ‘good for’ relations between entities which are recognized by human reflection and consciousness. Through a brief analysis of living beings within their environmental conditions I show that there is a web of value within nature connecting all living beings. I show that the conceptual split between ‘Society’ and ‘Nature’ is false and that human beings are intimately connected with their embodied nature, and that sociality is an emergent property of our physical reality. I also outline some aspects of what it means to be a human being. The final chapter discusses my conception of an environmental ethics which I believe should not solely concern our relation with the environment but is also a method by which to drive the environment to the most desirable state of affairs – the flourishing of life. I claim that this is possible through our economic systems and industrial activities, for these are primarily the ways in which we interact with the environment and are now the main drivers of global change. I also briefly show how these insights serve as an argument against various other positions. Description: B.A.(HONS)PHIL.

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z