The presentation scheduled for 10.40am on Thursday 6th December was ultimately a success despite confusion with the meeting time and the classroom it was to take place. It had been decided prior to Thursday morning that Alexi would provide the introduction and conclusion; David would provide his research and findings of Rousseau and the Social Contract; Nick would provide his findings on Mills and hos views of work and society; and I would provide my findings and analysis of The Sexual Contract by Carol Pateman in relation to the question.
Alexi provided the powerpoint slides; they were well presented and illustrated with quotes and pictures to aid our argument. Alexi's was succinct and to the point with his introduction and lead to a smooth transition to David and the Social Contract. He discussed the works of Rousseau; that man is born free yet is unable to make the choice of freedom when applied to paid work. He read clearly despite directly quoting from his script; at level 2 the use of prompt cards instead of scripts reflect true research and understanding of a topic and audience awareness. His timing was good and again the transition from David to Nick was good.
Nick provided his research on Mills; produced an excellent presentation using prompt cards and good voice and audience awareness. Nick clearly illustrated his key points: Paid work is a custom to society so no choice is given whether it is servitude or not. Once again, his timing was accurate and allowed a smooth transition to myself and the remaining topic for the presentation; The Sexual Contract by Carol Pateman.
In my analysis, it became apparent that gender is an important factor in determining servitude. The world is still a patriarchal society; that men are still able to exert their freedom over women ; hence, gender makes freedom unequal; civil freedom is not universal. Patemen arrives at this conclusion through the historical expectation of women to serve men and the examples of prostitution. I was able to speak to the audience, not quoting directly from my script, with a clear voice despite some hesitation in the early stages. I managed to conclude my point before leading to Alexi's conclusion that summed up our main points - paid work is NOT voluntary servitude. Overall, it was a success in my mind and my fellow group members.
However, I admit that my presentation was over long and would possibly merit a downgrading when using a limited time frame (20 mins maximum per group). This was due to a lack of practice and a lack of overall philosophical knowledge of the subject. I admit that I was unable to attend all the lecture sessions for the Deviant Philosophy part of the PH2004 lectures due to personal, work and illness. On the other hand, I was well informed by the other group members of the tasks required by myself for my part of the presentation. I researched the Sexual Contract and the works of John Locke and his works regarding divine servitude; the use of God and freedom (although this was omitted before the final presentation). My performance was above adequate for the required task and I am satisfied with the overall work by other group members; Dr Meena Dhanda explained my presentation was good although it was over long.
To improve for next time I shall produce a script using prompt cards with key points and rehearse the presentation for timing and improve my confidence and overall performance. With these factors accounted for my next group assignment shall be better.
Although I did miss lectures, I did enjoy the course work and have grasped the course content much better than initially thought. And through my presentation I understand the opinions of such philosophers as Rousseau, Mills and Locke and the the Social and Sexual contracts in detail.
On a final final point, there may be some dissatisfaction of some of the group members on my part played. if this was the case then I can only apologise. My non-attendance was not through deliberate means and I understand the course goals despite this.
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
Saturday, 8 December 2007
Last Deviants
Deviant Presentation Aftermath
On Thursday at 10.30 four of us revealed our long awaited presentation to the audience. I supplied the introduction, Dave talked about the social contract, Nick discussed liberty and the custom of work, Blair divulged on the sexual contract and I closed the presentation with a quick summary. We were aided by the power point presentation, equipped with colorful pictures and quotes. We went a little bit over the time limit I think, but not more then 3 minutes.
I guess we were all happy with the way it looked and sounded, there were a couple of tiny glitches here and there, but we can call it a decent piece of work. The lecturers seemed to like it as well, we operated on some well-researched material, which in the end I think helped us succeed.
This is my last entry, so at the very end I would like to say that I enjoyed working with my group mates and believe we all got to know the issue of paid work and servitude much better.
On Thursday at 10.30 four of us revealed our long awaited presentation to the audience. I supplied the introduction, Dave talked about the social contract, Nick discussed liberty and the custom of work, Blair divulged on the sexual contract and I closed the presentation with a quick summary. We were aided by the power point presentation, equipped with colorful pictures and quotes. We went a little bit over the time limit I think, but not more then 3 minutes.
I guess we were all happy with the way it looked and sounded, there were a couple of tiny glitches here and there, but we can call it a decent piece of work. The lecturers seemed to like it as well, we operated on some well-researched material, which in the end I think helped us succeed.
This is my last entry, so at the very end I would like to say that I enjoyed working with my group mates and believe we all got to know the issue of paid work and servitude much better.
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Post Presentation Entry - Dave's Final Thoughts! (Blog #6)
Deviant Philosophy.
Group Topic – “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”
Post Presentation Thoughts:
This morning (Thursday 6th) we did our presentation. After a bit of a hiccup with the starting time everything got going. I was the only group member who opted to read directly from a script – this was for several reasons;
1) At
2) I’m not actually a student of Philosophy and I don’t mind admitting I found it rather difficult to get a clear understanding of all the concepts and theories being discussed in our group – Rousseau his self was rather perplexing for me at the best of times.
Aleksy opened with a fairly well winged introduction. We decided at the last minute to introduce ourselves independently just before we began to talk so that everyone would be able to put a face/voice to the names for the Q&A section that we’d be closing with.
After Aleksy had given a introduction to the topic and how we’d be handling the presentation I read my script. Despite for a few misreads and missing a word or two I thought that I had delivered my part of the presentation accurately and clearly. I was disappointed with my inability to hold eye-contact but as I’ve mentioned before I never really got comfortable with the philosophical side of the argument and so I needed my script to function and present a structured argument – plus there was just too much information for me to memorise.
Nick delivered his part of the presentation neatly – he had known for a while exactly what he had wanted to say and it showed in the way he presented the information. Blair followed and started off fairly well; however I think that his lack of interest in the topic may have been the reason that his argument strayed slightly in the middle and he unfortunately spent longer than we’d originally planned presenting his section. Despite this his contribution to the presentation filled in the last gap of the argument perfectly and allowed Aleksy to close the presentation with a somewhat rushed conclusion.
The Q&A followed and the first question was the worst – “What did we get from Rousseau’s The Social Contract?” Quite possibly the worst question that could have been asked – Aleksy gave his opinion first – but as he hadn’t really dedicated much of his time to reading it I felt I should try to add to what he said by giving some of my own opinions about Rousseau’s work as well… this I found hard because, as I started at the start of my presentation, Rousseau’s theories are full of paradoxes and I think that I might of actually confused area’s of Discourse on Inequality with that of The Social Contract.
The next question was the best – a question concerning work which people enjoy; Nick quickly took pole position for answering this one as it was something that himself and I had discussed in our group meetings. Nick used his example of how engineers might enjoy their work as it would allow them the opportunities to work on big projects that they could never achieve if engineering was merely their hobby. I supported his argument by comparing someone who enjoys their work – like Meena for example – with people who are brought into a lower social class or are born with less opportunities and how these people who work in the lower tiers of society – cleaners, dustbin men, factory workers… are less likely to enjoy their work and thus they don’t do it voluntarily.
That ended the presentation and with the few hiccups aside I feel it went suitably well. The presentation had a few holes in it, but with a twenty-minute time-frame I’d like to see anyone cover the subject of ‘Paid work as voluntary servitude’ to any great extent.
paid work is voluntary servitude #5
This will be my final entry reflecting on the performance of the presentation. On the whole the seemed to go very well, we had no problems with the technology in showing our power point, everyone knew when it was their turn to speak, and it seemed that there weren’t any mistakes apart from the odd struggle to pronounce certain lines which is something expected in many respects.
I was happy with my own performance; I felt that I spoke clearly with plenty of volume and I gave eye contact to my audience. But, I could not do my speech from memory, there seems to be this nagging mental state when giving a presentation which makes your mind go blank, because you’re trying to explain something so everyone can understand and to do this within the allotted time, there is a tendency to want to stick to a script. But in this mental state which seems to come over it’s as if instead of explaining something through progressive thinking, instead I felt as if my mind was blank waiting for the lines to just pop into my head. Because of this I had to refer to my flash cards more than should be necessary. Before the presentation when I was practicing I could do it off by heart, but in the presentation situation I didn’t feel confident enough to be able to explain coherently within the specified time without referring. This same mental state was operating for questions too, I felt my answer adequately described my position but I needed time to get it across. Meena posed the question (roughly) of what was the difference between paid work and work which was freely chosen?, as we might not have clearly explained the difference between the social contract and acting out of custom. I was able to use my example of an engineer in my previous blog to show that people who pursue their interest as a job are volunteering as a paid job will provide certain opportunities to reach a desired goal which might not be possible to achieve as an individual. Dave helped me in answering this question with an example which reflected the opposite to my example, jobs which do not really improve a human being or help in achieving a desired goal like collecting rubbish or turning a stop and go sign. The point of our presentation was to give a general account of the question, which Dave mentioned and which I touched on in my previous blog. All in all the presentation and questions went fine, where our perspectives had some rational weight behind them which we were able to explain and expand upon coherently.
I was happy with my own performance; I felt that I spoke clearly with plenty of volume and I gave eye contact to my audience. But, I could not do my speech from memory, there seems to be this nagging mental state when giving a presentation which makes your mind go blank, because you’re trying to explain something so everyone can understand and to do this within the allotted time, there is a tendency to want to stick to a script. But in this mental state which seems to come over it’s as if instead of explaining something through progressive thinking, instead I felt as if my mind was blank waiting for the lines to just pop into my head. Because of this I had to refer to my flash cards more than should be necessary. Before the presentation when I was practicing I could do it off by heart, but in the presentation situation I didn’t feel confident enough to be able to explain coherently within the specified time without referring. This same mental state was operating for questions too, I felt my answer adequately described my position but I needed time to get it across. Meena posed the question (roughly) of what was the difference between paid work and work which was freely chosen?, as we might not have clearly explained the difference between the social contract and acting out of custom. I was able to use my example of an engineer in my previous blog to show that people who pursue their interest as a job are volunteering as a paid job will provide certain opportunities to reach a desired goal which might not be possible to achieve as an individual. Dave helped me in answering this question with an example which reflected the opposite to my example, jobs which do not really improve a human being or help in achieving a desired goal like collecting rubbish or turning a stop and go sign. The point of our presentation was to give a general account of the question, which Dave mentioned and which I touched on in my previous blog. All in all the presentation and questions went fine, where our perspectives had some rational weight behind them which we were able to explain and expand upon coherently.
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
The Last Deviants
Final Meeting
We met in the early morning to see our presentation, as they say in flesh. We all read out our parts and agreed on final changes to the power point slides. All that is left now is practice and waiting for Thursday. During our final meeting Hobbs and Locke were due to the lack of time excluded from the bibliography and do not feature in the presentation.
I was also given an extra part to speak about, after my opening I will briefly tell students about the Social Contract. As well as afterwards I’ll be doing the summary.
I think as a group we did a good job on this assignment and we’ll have nothing to be ashamed of on Thursday.
We met in the early morning to see our presentation, as they say in flesh. We all read out our parts and agreed on final changes to the power point slides. All that is left now is practice and waiting for Thursday. During our final meeting Hobbs and Locke were due to the lack of time excluded from the bibliography and do not feature in the presentation.
I was also given an extra part to speak about, after my opening I will briefly tell students about the Social Contract. As well as afterwards I’ll be doing the summary.
I think as a group we did a good job on this assignment and we’ll have nothing to be ashamed of on Thursday.
Final Meeting - Tuesday 4th December
At the final meeting, we showed our content to each other so that it was possible to understand how our presentation would come together on Thursday morning. It was agreed that Alexi would do the introduction and conclusion. David would introduce the works of Rousseau and his views on man's freedom and the Social Contract. Nick shall look at Mills and the belief that work is custom to society; man has no choice in whether to serve as such. As for me, it was decided that Locke's argument was not as appropriate to our final conclusions than first thought, therefore, I shall use The Sexual Contract by Carol Pateman to form the argument that gender and social class can be used to answer the question "Is paid work voluntary servitude?"
My original script, based on information gained by Alexi's initial examination of the text, have had to be completely revised for the Thursday session. I encountered a great deal of problems trying to form a suitable argument due to my recent lack of attendance at lectures (not my fault due to illness, working commitments and other personal reasons). However, I now grasp the content a great deal better now.
Pateman's argument concentrates on gender inequality; based on patriarchy and male sex-right to women. It is through historical examples, and prostitution, that women have been - to a great respect - in servitude to men. It is rarely voluntary; except when social class is involved and determines the possibility that a woman should 'prostitute' herself to achieve a living. It is this discrimination of women, especially when they have no children, that forces a woman into patriarchal servitude that allows them to become accepted in society.
With this respect we could answer the question that gender inequality and social class would suggest it is not voluntary servitude for paid work. Housewives are not paid, although it is voluntary to work for the husband and family. Prostitutes do not voluntarily serve men for money. In modern day terms, The Sexual Contract, does not reflect modern day society views and values but has its prominence through history that these inequalities existed. Sexual discrimination, stereotypes and chauvinism shall undoubtedly continue until attitudes change.
It is hoped with these arguments tied up together that the presentation shall be successful in answering the question. My final analysis of the argument shall be posted in the next weblog posting after Thursday where I shall reflect on the critical points of all the other team members and my own, including a copy of my presentation script to show my understandings of the topic and the goals of this module
My original script, based on information gained by Alexi's initial examination of the text, have had to be completely revised for the Thursday session. I encountered a great deal of problems trying to form a suitable argument due to my recent lack of attendance at lectures (not my fault due to illness, working commitments and other personal reasons). However, I now grasp the content a great deal better now.
Pateman's argument concentrates on gender inequality; based on patriarchy and male sex-right to women. It is through historical examples, and prostitution, that women have been - to a great respect - in servitude to men. It is rarely voluntary; except when social class is involved and determines the possibility that a woman should 'prostitute' herself to achieve a living. It is this discrimination of women, especially when they have no children, that forces a woman into patriarchal servitude that allows them to become accepted in society.
With this respect we could answer the question that gender inequality and social class would suggest it is not voluntary servitude for paid work. Housewives are not paid, although it is voluntary to work for the husband and family. Prostitutes do not voluntarily serve men for money. In modern day terms, The Sexual Contract, does not reflect modern day society views and values but has its prominence through history that these inequalities existed. Sexual discrimination, stereotypes and chauvinism shall undoubtedly continue until attitudes change.
It is hoped with these arguments tied up together that the presentation shall be successful in answering the question. My final analysis of the argument shall be posted in the next weblog posting after Thursday where I shall reflect on the critical points of all the other team members and my own, including a copy of my presentation script to show my understandings of the topic and the goals of this module
Last Group Meeting Prior to Presentation (Blog #5)
Deviant Philosophy.
Group Topic – “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”
Week Eleven Meeting:
Today (Tuesday 4th Decemeber) we met for the last time as a group before the presentation which takes place on Thursday 6th. Firstly we read over each others prepared scripts and discussed the best order to present the information so that the presentation will have an understandable and clear structure which leads from one point to the next without causing confusion or too much ambiguity. Aleksy will be handling the introduction – which will end with the paragraph that I had originally written to start my discussion based around Rousseau. This was the most logical way to handle it as this will bring me straight into my discussion in a natural and fluid way without having to have Aleksy stop and introduce me directly.
My part of the presentation will, as I’ve already said above, cover the works of Rousseau and use his works to discuss the presentation topic. I will be mainly handling the meaning of the words ‘voluntary’ and ‘slavery’ since, in my opinion, how we translate and understand these words is directly significant to how we answer the question. Using Rousseau’s work I will talk primarily about choice – how choice is pivotal for an action to be considered voluntary and how because of custom and the way we are raised in Western society that we don’t have much choice at all. I also discuss how choice cannot be a clear absolute – often times in life we are given the illusion of choice when little to no choice exists – to relay this I use the example of how a conquered countries inhabitants maybe faced by either death or slavery by the conquerors – this isn’t a real choice since on one hand the civilians are faced with a profitless death and in the other they are faced with a profitable death which benefits only their oppressor.
The discussion of this leads directly into the term slavery, which I then explain is relevant to a work environment in the sense that as you climb a work-place hierarchy the rules and laws which govern this environment become decreasingly important to how you act. For example; the owner of a company isn’t subject to the companies rules – he does however have the liberty to dictate and modify these rules; this is what Rousseau describes as pure despotism – when someone in a society is outside of the rules of laws with govern it then they become the masters of all who follow these rules.
After me will be Nick with his discussion on Mill and Chuck Palahnuik’s Fight Club. Nick focuses his discussion more on the way that we are raised in a heteronymous nature where we follow custom and the social norms around us unquestioningly and without though. His debate is ideal to follow mine in that it follows on with the custom and choice issues I raise only in much greater detail. He uses some rather attractive quotes from Fight Club and issues raised by Mill to strengthen his argument.
Next up is Blair’s work on The Sexual Contract where he advances my discussion on choice and freedom by raising the issue of equality. Blair will discuss how people may be born free but they are not born equal – this directly impacts how much of their liberty is lost as they grow up and how there degree of choice suffers due to their gender, social class etc.
By this point in the presentation we will have had a strong discussion about the semantics and definitions of voluntary (which leads us onto choice) and slavery. The conclusion (read by Aleksy) will tie all 3 parts of the presentation together allowing us to form an over-all opinion and explain how the statement is too broad and ambiguous to answer in any concise and accurate way.
There were several differences of opinion for how we should handle concluding the presentation during the meeting. Nick didn’t seem entirely happy with how we, or rather I, had suggested doing it. Hopefully he will be happy with the end result and the presentation will be succinct and successful.
Group Topic – “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”
Week Eleven Meeting:
Today (Tuesday 4th Decemeber) we met for the last time as a group before the presentation which takes place on Thursday 6th. Firstly we read over each others prepared scripts and discussed the best order to present the information so that the presentation will have an understandable and clear structure which leads from one point to the next without causing confusion or too much ambiguity. Aleksy will be handling the introduction – which will end with the paragraph that I had originally written to start my discussion based around Rousseau. This was the most logical way to handle it as this will bring me straight into my discussion in a natural and fluid way without having to have Aleksy stop and introduce me directly.
My part of the presentation will, as I’ve already said above, cover the works of Rousseau and use his works to discuss the presentation topic. I will be mainly handling the meaning of the words ‘voluntary’ and ‘slavery’ since, in my opinion, how we translate and understand these words is directly significant to how we answer the question. Using Rousseau’s work I will talk primarily about choice – how choice is pivotal for an action to be considered voluntary and how because of custom and the way we are raised in Western society that we don’t have much choice at all. I also discuss how choice cannot be a clear absolute – often times in life we are given the illusion of choice when little to no choice exists – to relay this I use the example of how a conquered countries inhabitants maybe faced by either death or slavery by the conquerors – this isn’t a real choice since on one hand the civilians are faced with a profitless death and in the other they are faced with a profitable death which benefits only their oppressor.
The discussion of this leads directly into the term slavery, which I then explain is relevant to a work environment in the sense that as you climb a work-place hierarchy the rules and laws which govern this environment become decreasingly important to how you act. For example; the owner of a company isn’t subject to the companies rules – he does however have the liberty to dictate and modify these rules; this is what Rousseau describes as pure despotism – when someone in a society is outside of the rules of laws with govern it then they become the masters of all who follow these rules.
After me will be Nick with his discussion on Mill and Chuck Palahnuik’s Fight Club. Nick focuses his discussion more on the way that we are raised in a heteronymous nature where we follow custom and the social norms around us unquestioningly and without though. His debate is ideal to follow mine in that it follows on with the custom and choice issues I raise only in much greater detail. He uses some rather attractive quotes from Fight Club and issues raised by Mill to strengthen his argument.
Next up is Blair’s work on The Sexual Contract where he advances my discussion on choice and freedom by raising the issue of equality. Blair will discuss how people may be born free but they are not born equal – this directly impacts how much of their liberty is lost as they grow up and how there degree of choice suffers due to their gender, social class etc.
By this point in the presentation we will have had a strong discussion about the semantics and definitions of voluntary (which leads us onto choice) and slavery. The conclusion (read by Aleksy) will tie all 3 parts of the presentation together allowing us to form an over-all opinion and explain how the statement is too broad and ambiguous to answer in any concise and accurate way.
There were several differences of opinion for how we should handle concluding the presentation during the meeting. Nick didn’t seem entirely happy with how we, or rather I, had suggested doing it. Hopefully he will be happy with the end result and the presentation will be succinct and successful.
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Early Presentation Script
This is an early script for the presentation that I've written two weeks ago, to bring all the materials and ideas together. It is now greatly improved and enhanced with additional quotes and references. I promised to post online for further discussion, so here it is.
Introduction by Alex Budaj
Our group will present the idea of paid work being voluntary servitude. We will supply all people present with a brief definition of the master and slave morality, explain the distinctions between a social and a sexual contract and tell the tale of a mighty leviathan ruling the society. We will also discuss liberty from the point of view of Rousseau and Mills, propose ways of escaping servitude and leave room for discussion about the very nature of natural choice and freedom when it comes to social sustenance.
Let us begin by quickly calling to mind the Social Class theory developed by Marx, which states that society even in its simplest, primal form created an almost natural divide for all its members. People are thus always belonging to one of three classes, the ruling, middle and working class. Whether we call it feudalism or Marxist dialectics one thing is obvious, there were always people who had to serve their masters.
Our presentation will introduce aspects of voluntary servitude and paid labor based on the works of creators of social mechanics, people like Rousseau, Mill or Hobbes.
To begin lets travel to the early stage of this module when we were discussing Nietzsche’s philosophy. What he describes as master morality and slave morality can give us our first explanation as to why some people’s destiny is to serve in order to survive.
Nietzsche grouped people by their spirit, strong, noble and powerful are the masters. People with who are week, have not developed a distinctive character and are not ready to fight for what they think is right are slaves. This idea is of course a bit extreme for our purpose, but lets move on to the central part.
Social Contract by Dave Kynaston (once by Rousseau, but who cares)
Jane- Jacques Rousseau 18th century philosopher, politician, historian and sociologist worked hard on defining the principles of society, describing its hidden mechanisms and finding ways to improve it. Rousseau’s Social Contract (Du Contrat Social) deals amongst other things with slavery and servitude. Rousseau points out that from the perspective of natural law ‘no man has natural authority over his fellow’. This would suggest the natural and given equality, which is, later on disrupted by society.[1] The French philosopher argues that it is impossible to give away ones freedom willingly and happily. Such basic liberty can only be sold in need, therefore ruling out the word ‘voluntary’, as it will have nothing to do with free will. The only way around this is to alienate yourself from your own liberty, thus becoming a slave to your master, but fully acknowledging your decision. Such acceptance allows to live in tranquility, but the price Rousseau points out might be too high. He uses the example of Greeks trapped in the Cyclops’s cave, ‘tranquility is found also in dungeons, …the Greeks lived there very tranquilly, while they were awaiting… to be devoured’.[2]
So far we have alienation as a way of escaping the social mechanic, however it still leads to servitude, therefore we assume that in this case paid work is not voluntary servitude on the grounds that it is not voluntary. It is not voluntary because we are not volunteering as human beings, but rather we are acting out of conditioning or custom of society. And in this case, possessing the free will, we should be able to escape society altogether, simply step out of the circle, but leaves us outcasts, vermin living beyond the walls of civilization.
Linking civilization to contemporary society we can come up with these questions:
How many of us discuss the reasons why we work? If you ask someone, the general answer given is to earn money, to buy food, to buy a car, pay the mortgage.
But these are reasons, which have not been critically analyzed by people as individuals, on the contrary, these answers have simply been slapped into us every day by the doctrine of society. As if disciplining a child to be aware of a rule, the child takes it as a given, that the child must not do such or such because it is not allowed.
Because we take the reasons to work as a given we tend not to discuss this, but instead discuss which job we would like to do.
- the point I’m trying to get across is that the hereditary perception of society is passively accepted like principles are accepted as the beginning point.
-when I say passively I don’t mean that everything society shovels us we inevitably accept, but when it is the norm it is difficult to reject.
But now let us move on to another contract of society, one which is dealing with exploitation and servitude of another sort.
Sexual Contract and Devine Servitude by Blair Cumming
Prostitution, often called the world’s oldest profession brings us to Carol Pateman’s The Sexual Contract. Prostitution gives us an excellent example of servitude for money. Sexual Contract will stand in opposition to the Social Contract, because while the Social states that all people are born equal and free the Sexual reminds us of the gender dispute and disrupts the thesis by female exploitation and set frames in which women have to function. If a male becomes a slave or a servant due to material needs, women are born with the statement that their greatest accomplishment in live is to be a good servant to their male partner. With this theory of gender predomination the feminists fought. The Sexual Contract tells us that the order of the world makes men and women unequal to each other. Through established institutions of marriage, wifehood and motherhood Pateman draws a conclusion that in the past ‘women were subordinate to men’. Entangled as it were in the sexual contract, which ties them down and gives no room to develop or even alienate themselves from society.[3]
She makes further claims pointing out that ‘until the late nineteenth century the legal and civil position of a wife resembled that of a slave’.[4]
Thanks to the Sexual Contract we now see that only recently, from a historical perspective, women are allowed the same liberty at birth. And with the word ‘liberty’ we shall move on to the questions of free will and liberty itself.
John Locke a great believer in men’s power of mind and rationality sees the whole of mankind as servants to God. For such servitude redemption of sins and salvation can one day be offered. Locke argues however that such divine servitude does not put a strain on our natural liberty. He says, ‘men have been created capable of freedom and capable of reason. We are born free as we are born rational.’[5] As to our relations with God Locke says, ‘as a work of God, man remains always not only God’s servant, but forever God’s property. However, the sovereignty of that divine Master, in spite of being absolute, does not hamper the liberty of man, since it is God himself who created man capable of freedom and capable of intelligence, so that he might search by his personal efforts for eternal bliss and eventually merit it.’[6] Now as time is short let us move on to the final stage of our presentation, liberty by John Stuart Mill and a quick summary.
Liberty and Summary by Nick Danvers
Every member of society should strive to be useful, utilitarianism from Mills’s point of view is not only usefulness but also praising spiritual and moral pleasure far beyond physical ones.
Liberty of an individual must be great in its value but should not trespass on the liberty of others. As Hobbs wrote in the leviathan, every man should enjoy his natural freedom, but such freedom can never be destructive to other members of society, as it then looses its purpose and needs drastic action. Now to sum up let us recall what we already said, man is born free to loose his liberty, due to natural laws. Servitude for pay or reward is predestined to every human, and the only way to escape it is to fully alienate yourself from civilized society, thus becoming an outcast.
[1] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and Discourses, Aldine Press J.M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1975 (trans by G. D. H. Cole) [p.169]
[2] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and Discourses, Aldine Press J.M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1975 (trans by G. D. H. Cole) [p.169]
[3] Carol Pateman, The Sexual Contract, Polity Press, 1994 [Wives, Slaves and Wage Slaves p.119]
[4] Carol Pateman, The Sexual Contract, Polity Press, 1994 [Wives, Slaves and Wage Slaves p.123]
[5] J.W. Yolton, John Locke: Problems and Perspectives: A collection of new essays. Cambridge University Press: London, 1969 [p.3]
[6] J.W. Yolton, John Locke: Problems and Perspectives: A collection of new essays. Cambridge University Press: London, 1969 [p.6]
Introduction by Alex Budaj
Our group will present the idea of paid work being voluntary servitude. We will supply all people present with a brief definition of the master and slave morality, explain the distinctions between a social and a sexual contract and tell the tale of a mighty leviathan ruling the society. We will also discuss liberty from the point of view of Rousseau and Mills, propose ways of escaping servitude and leave room for discussion about the very nature of natural choice and freedom when it comes to social sustenance.
Let us begin by quickly calling to mind the Social Class theory developed by Marx, which states that society even in its simplest, primal form created an almost natural divide for all its members. People are thus always belonging to one of three classes, the ruling, middle and working class. Whether we call it feudalism or Marxist dialectics one thing is obvious, there were always people who had to serve their masters.
Our presentation will introduce aspects of voluntary servitude and paid labor based on the works of creators of social mechanics, people like Rousseau, Mill or Hobbes.
To begin lets travel to the early stage of this module when we were discussing Nietzsche’s philosophy. What he describes as master morality and slave morality can give us our first explanation as to why some people’s destiny is to serve in order to survive.
Nietzsche grouped people by their spirit, strong, noble and powerful are the masters. People with who are week, have not developed a distinctive character and are not ready to fight for what they think is right are slaves. This idea is of course a bit extreme for our purpose, but lets move on to the central part.
Social Contract by Dave Kynaston (once by Rousseau, but who cares)
Jane- Jacques Rousseau 18th century philosopher, politician, historian and sociologist worked hard on defining the principles of society, describing its hidden mechanisms and finding ways to improve it. Rousseau’s Social Contract (Du Contrat Social) deals amongst other things with slavery and servitude. Rousseau points out that from the perspective of natural law ‘no man has natural authority over his fellow’. This would suggest the natural and given equality, which is, later on disrupted by society.[1] The French philosopher argues that it is impossible to give away ones freedom willingly and happily. Such basic liberty can only be sold in need, therefore ruling out the word ‘voluntary’, as it will have nothing to do with free will. The only way around this is to alienate yourself from your own liberty, thus becoming a slave to your master, but fully acknowledging your decision. Such acceptance allows to live in tranquility, but the price Rousseau points out might be too high. He uses the example of Greeks trapped in the Cyclops’s cave, ‘tranquility is found also in dungeons, …the Greeks lived there very tranquilly, while they were awaiting… to be devoured’.[2]
So far we have alienation as a way of escaping the social mechanic, however it still leads to servitude, therefore we assume that in this case paid work is not voluntary servitude on the grounds that it is not voluntary. It is not voluntary because we are not volunteering as human beings, but rather we are acting out of conditioning or custom of society. And in this case, possessing the free will, we should be able to escape society altogether, simply step out of the circle, but leaves us outcasts, vermin living beyond the walls of civilization.
Linking civilization to contemporary society we can come up with these questions:
How many of us discuss the reasons why we work? If you ask someone, the general answer given is to earn money, to buy food, to buy a car, pay the mortgage.
But these are reasons, which have not been critically analyzed by people as individuals, on the contrary, these answers have simply been slapped into us every day by the doctrine of society. As if disciplining a child to be aware of a rule, the child takes it as a given, that the child must not do such or such because it is not allowed.
Because we take the reasons to work as a given we tend not to discuss this, but instead discuss which job we would like to do.
- the point I’m trying to get across is that the hereditary perception of society is passively accepted like principles are accepted as the beginning point.
-when I say passively I don’t mean that everything society shovels us we inevitably accept, but when it is the norm it is difficult to reject.
But now let us move on to another contract of society, one which is dealing with exploitation and servitude of another sort.
Sexual Contract and Devine Servitude by Blair Cumming
Prostitution, often called the world’s oldest profession brings us to Carol Pateman’s The Sexual Contract. Prostitution gives us an excellent example of servitude for money. Sexual Contract will stand in opposition to the Social Contract, because while the Social states that all people are born equal and free the Sexual reminds us of the gender dispute and disrupts the thesis by female exploitation and set frames in which women have to function. If a male becomes a slave or a servant due to material needs, women are born with the statement that their greatest accomplishment in live is to be a good servant to their male partner. With this theory of gender predomination the feminists fought. The Sexual Contract tells us that the order of the world makes men and women unequal to each other. Through established institutions of marriage, wifehood and motherhood Pateman draws a conclusion that in the past ‘women were subordinate to men’. Entangled as it were in the sexual contract, which ties them down and gives no room to develop or even alienate themselves from society.[3]
She makes further claims pointing out that ‘until the late nineteenth century the legal and civil position of a wife resembled that of a slave’.[4]
Thanks to the Sexual Contract we now see that only recently, from a historical perspective, women are allowed the same liberty at birth. And with the word ‘liberty’ we shall move on to the questions of free will and liberty itself.
John Locke a great believer in men’s power of mind and rationality sees the whole of mankind as servants to God. For such servitude redemption of sins and salvation can one day be offered. Locke argues however that such divine servitude does not put a strain on our natural liberty. He says, ‘men have been created capable of freedom and capable of reason. We are born free as we are born rational.’[5] As to our relations with God Locke says, ‘as a work of God, man remains always not only God’s servant, but forever God’s property. However, the sovereignty of that divine Master, in spite of being absolute, does not hamper the liberty of man, since it is God himself who created man capable of freedom and capable of intelligence, so that he might search by his personal efforts for eternal bliss and eventually merit it.’[6] Now as time is short let us move on to the final stage of our presentation, liberty by John Stuart Mill and a quick summary.
Liberty and Summary by Nick Danvers
Every member of society should strive to be useful, utilitarianism from Mills’s point of view is not only usefulness but also praising spiritual and moral pleasure far beyond physical ones.
Liberty of an individual must be great in its value but should not trespass on the liberty of others. As Hobbs wrote in the leviathan, every man should enjoy his natural freedom, but such freedom can never be destructive to other members of society, as it then looses its purpose and needs drastic action. Now to sum up let us recall what we already said, man is born free to loose his liberty, due to natural laws. Servitude for pay or reward is predestined to every human, and the only way to escape it is to fully alienate yourself from civilized society, thus becoming an outcast.
[1] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and Discourses, Aldine Press J.M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1975 (trans by G. D. H. Cole) [p.169]
[2] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and Discourses, Aldine Press J.M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1975 (trans by G. D. H. Cole) [p.169]
[3] Carol Pateman, The Sexual Contract, Polity Press, 1994 [Wives, Slaves and Wage Slaves p.119]
[4] Carol Pateman, The Sexual Contract, Polity Press, 1994 [Wives, Slaves and Wage Slaves p.123]
[5] J.W. Yolton, John Locke: Problems and Perspectives: A collection of new essays. Cambridge University Press: London, 1969 [p.3]
[6] J.W. Yolton, John Locke: Problems and Perspectives: A collection of new essays. Cambridge University Press: London, 1969 [p.6]
paid work is voluntary servitude #4
Today we met to discuss the final structure of our presentation, like what order we would present, making sure the power point contained all the necessary props (pictures & quotes), and generally discussing what questions we may be asked.
Alex is doing the intro, Dave is next explaining Rousseau’s theory which runs nicely into my segment as Dave glances upon the relevance of custom which I give a more detailed account of, and finally Blair provides the example of how the female gender of humanity have resembled slaves which emphasises the role of society on restraining choice.
It must be noted that our presentation refers to a general account of our presentation question and that there are individuals who may volunteer to be subject to rules in order to develop themselves, or in other words, just as society uses humans as instrumental means humans use society to achieve certain goals. For example there are people who love their jobs like an engineer who loves to make things. Paid work actually allows an engineer to carry out the work they love and affords opportunities to be involved with projects which they otherwise might not of had the chance to do like being part of creating an extravagant building or working on a vehicle which may break world land speed records.
What this presentation really focuses on are people forced in a way (external forces) to work a job which is unpalatable to them and which also offers no real enhancement or development of human life for the sake of earning money.
Here is my script for the presentation constructed from my readings and combined with my own thoughts, which compliment each other.
- paid work is not voluntary servitude on the grounds that it is not voluntary. It is not voluntary because we are not volunteering as human beings, but rather we are acting out of conditioning or custom of society.
- a human being acting voluntarily is when a human being has exercised his capacity of rationality, as Aristotle would say, in making a choice there has to be deliberation
- but where people act out of conditioning or custom there is no deliberation, but instead a mechanised response.
- my argument is that the general masses act not as evaluative creatures who exercise human faculties (perception, judgement, descrimative feeling and mental activity), but act from conditioning, custom, what the norm is.
- let us apply this to the subject of work;
How many of us discuss the reasons why we work? If you ask someone, the general answer given is to earn money, to buy food, to buy a car, pay the mortgage.
But these are reasons which have not been critically analysed by people as individuals, on the contrary, these answers have simply been slapped into us every day by the doctrine of society. As if disciplining a child to be aware of a rule, the child takes it as a given, that the child must not do such or such because it is not allowed.
Because we take the reasons to work as a given we tend not to discuss this, but instead discuss which job we would like to do.
- the point I’m trying to get across is that the hereditary perception of society is passively accepted like principles are accepted as the beginning point.
- when I say passively I don’t mean that everything society shovels us we inevitably accept, but when it is the norm it is difficult to reject.
- for example, the general masses have become consumers, no doubt from the endless advertising on radio, television, posters etc. designed to make you believe that you need all the crap they’re selling as they appeal to impulses which have been moulded by the ideals of society (for example status - recognition of status is what you own)
- but do we think, and say does this really matter to me as a human being? Instead the masses are fooled into becoming ‘by-products of a lifestyle obsession’ (Fight Club, chp11) where they simply work to increase material possession because this is the norm defining a worthful human life.
- the affect resulting from accepting the ideals of society without question we act out of conditioning or custom which is a mechanised response. Or as Mills describes it ‘we act like cattle rather than human beings’(pg72); we act this way but do not know why, it is merely accepted through conditioning instead of reason.
- what this means is; that because we do not reason as individuals where we exercise our human faculties to uncover truth or falsities, then we are not acting because of ourselves but because of custom, and if we are not acting from ourselves then it cannot be voluntary.
‘he who does anything because it is custom, makes no choice’ (Mills pg65)
Alex is doing the intro, Dave is next explaining Rousseau’s theory which runs nicely into my segment as Dave glances upon the relevance of custom which I give a more detailed account of, and finally Blair provides the example of how the female gender of humanity have resembled slaves which emphasises the role of society on restraining choice.
It must be noted that our presentation refers to a general account of our presentation question and that there are individuals who may volunteer to be subject to rules in order to develop themselves, or in other words, just as society uses humans as instrumental means humans use society to achieve certain goals. For example there are people who love their jobs like an engineer who loves to make things. Paid work actually allows an engineer to carry out the work they love and affords opportunities to be involved with projects which they otherwise might not of had the chance to do like being part of creating an extravagant building or working on a vehicle which may break world land speed records.
What this presentation really focuses on are people forced in a way (external forces) to work a job which is unpalatable to them and which also offers no real enhancement or development of human life for the sake of earning money.
Here is my script for the presentation constructed from my readings and combined with my own thoughts, which compliment each other.
- paid work is not voluntary servitude on the grounds that it is not voluntary. It is not voluntary because we are not volunteering as human beings, but rather we are acting out of conditioning or custom of society.
- a human being acting voluntarily is when a human being has exercised his capacity of rationality, as Aristotle would say, in making a choice there has to be deliberation
- but where people act out of conditioning or custom there is no deliberation, but instead a mechanised response.
- my argument is that the general masses act not as evaluative creatures who exercise human faculties (perception, judgement, descrimative feeling and mental activity), but act from conditioning, custom, what the norm is.
- let us apply this to the subject of work;
How many of us discuss the reasons why we work? If you ask someone, the general answer given is to earn money, to buy food, to buy a car, pay the mortgage.
But these are reasons which have not been critically analysed by people as individuals, on the contrary, these answers have simply been slapped into us every day by the doctrine of society. As if disciplining a child to be aware of a rule, the child takes it as a given, that the child must not do such or such because it is not allowed.
Because we take the reasons to work as a given we tend not to discuss this, but instead discuss which job we would like to do.
- the point I’m trying to get across is that the hereditary perception of society is passively accepted like principles are accepted as the beginning point.
- when I say passively I don’t mean that everything society shovels us we inevitably accept, but when it is the norm it is difficult to reject.
- for example, the general masses have become consumers, no doubt from the endless advertising on radio, television, posters etc. designed to make you believe that you need all the crap they’re selling as they appeal to impulses which have been moulded by the ideals of society (for example status - recognition of status is what you own)
- but do we think, and say does this really matter to me as a human being? Instead the masses are fooled into becoming ‘by-products of a lifestyle obsession’ (Fight Club, chp11) where they simply work to increase material possession because this is the norm defining a worthful human life.
- the affect resulting from accepting the ideals of society without question we act out of conditioning or custom which is a mechanised response. Or as Mills describes it ‘we act like cattle rather than human beings’(pg72); we act this way but do not know why, it is merely accepted through conditioning instead of reason.
- what this means is; that because we do not reason as individuals where we exercise our human faculties to uncover truth or falsities, then we are not acting because of ourselves but because of custom, and if we are not acting from ourselves then it cannot be voluntary.
‘he who does anything because it is custom, makes no choice’ (Mills pg65)
Monday, 3 December 2007
Further Analysis - The Sexual Contract by Carol Pateman
Further to my allocated task it was agreed with consent of other group members that I should also familiarise myself with The Sexual Contract by Carol Pateman. It was discussed that further to the aspects Divine servitude that the argument of patriarchy and aspects of prostitution would be worthy to be included in my section of the presentation.
The Sexual Contract discusses the ongoing views that men and woman have not been created equally as opposed to the Social contract discussed by David; that everyone is created equally as provided by Rousseau and other philosophical writers:
"Sexual difference is political difference; sexual difference is the difference between freedom and subjection."
Pateman, C. (1988) The Sexual Contract. Polity Press: UK, p.6.
Indeed through various examples, it becomes apparent that woman have suffered immensely through history as a result of patriarchy and forced servitude: that man is the superior to a woman in all respects. This is best illustrated with the Master/Slave model provided by Nietzsche: the man is portrayed as the 'Master' and the woman subordinated to the position of a 'slave'. Although this view is a rather simplistic relationship in Pateman's terms to the sexual contract: the woman is not a true 'slave' as such.
It is through the contract of marriage that she has a different relationship to that of a slave; the marriage contract is different to that of an employment contract or worker. In the past, the woman is required to provide for the man's needs since it has been her destiny to marry a man, have a family, look after him and not question his authority (the popularised view of females involvement in society throughout history until recently). Although as a human she was free to think for herself, she was not able to express herself without punishment or ridicule. It is with these views it is important in answering a question regarding servitude since in the modern day it happens less frequently and is frowned upon; in the nineteenth century this would be the opposite and accepted by society at the time.
These are the views that feminists have fought for so long; the aspects of liberty, freedom and equality for woman to be the same as men: as 'free institutions' so to speak. Further to Pateman's views, she discusses the role of prostitution with regard to the sexual contract with some surprising results.
In Pateman's view, prostitution is a form of patriarchy although it is the female's choice to become a prostitute:
"The story of the sexual contract also supplies the answer; prostitution is part of the exercise of the male sex-right, one of the ways in which men are ensured access to women's bodies."
Pateman, C. (1988) The Sexual Contract. Polity Press: UK, p.194.
On the other hand, Pateman shows that prostitution was not always controlled by men and not slavery; women were free to exercise their right to sell sexual services as they so chose. In the UK, the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act forced prostitutes to seek protection by men, therefore, returning the unequal balance of the sexes back in male favour. Prostitution, in her view, is not slavery because the female is not bought or sold and is not his property; only her sexual service are for sale for a particular period of time. This is an interesting concept since the popularised view is that prostitutes have no choice and are slaves. In some cases, prostitution and the sex industry are increasingly becoming classed as 'paid work' and would therefore make the argument of prostitution as slavery redundant. Yet these arguments need more evidence to be considered true and authoritative
In summary, Pateman identifies the struggle that females have endured throughout history and attempts to discuss why this is the case. Yet, female inequality continues in the modern day through sexual discrimination, stereotyping and chauvinism. The female struggle from forced servitude to equality with their male counter-parts provides an excellent argument to answer the presentation question on the basis of work and voluntary servitude.
The Sexual Contract discusses the ongoing views that men and woman have not been created equally as opposed to the Social contract discussed by David; that everyone is created equally as provided by Rousseau and other philosophical writers:
"Sexual difference is political difference; sexual difference is the difference between freedom and subjection."
Pateman, C. (1988) The Sexual Contract. Polity Press: UK, p.6.
Indeed through various examples, it becomes apparent that woman have suffered immensely through history as a result of patriarchy and forced servitude: that man is the superior to a woman in all respects. This is best illustrated with the Master/Slave model provided by Nietzsche: the man is portrayed as the 'Master' and the woman subordinated to the position of a 'slave'. Although this view is a rather simplistic relationship in Pateman's terms to the sexual contract: the woman is not a true 'slave' as such.
It is through the contract of marriage that she has a different relationship to that of a slave; the marriage contract is different to that of an employment contract or worker. In the past, the woman is required to provide for the man's needs since it has been her destiny to marry a man, have a family, look after him and not question his authority (the popularised view of females involvement in society throughout history until recently). Although as a human she was free to think for herself, she was not able to express herself without punishment or ridicule. It is with these views it is important in answering a question regarding servitude since in the modern day it happens less frequently and is frowned upon; in the nineteenth century this would be the opposite and accepted by society at the time.
These are the views that feminists have fought for so long; the aspects of liberty, freedom and equality for woman to be the same as men: as 'free institutions' so to speak. Further to Pateman's views, she discusses the role of prostitution with regard to the sexual contract with some surprising results.
In Pateman's view, prostitution is a form of patriarchy although it is the female's choice to become a prostitute:
"The story of the sexual contract also supplies the answer; prostitution is part of the exercise of the male sex-right, one of the ways in which men are ensured access to women's bodies."
Pateman, C. (1988) The Sexual Contract. Polity Press: UK, p.194.
On the other hand, Pateman shows that prostitution was not always controlled by men and not slavery; women were free to exercise their right to sell sexual services as they so chose. In the UK, the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act forced prostitutes to seek protection by men, therefore, returning the unequal balance of the sexes back in male favour. Prostitution, in her view, is not slavery because the female is not bought or sold and is not his property; only her sexual service are for sale for a particular period of time. This is an interesting concept since the popularised view is that prostitutes have no choice and are slaves. In some cases, prostitution and the sex industry are increasingly becoming classed as 'paid work' and would therefore make the argument of prostitution as slavery redundant. Yet these arguments need more evidence to be considered true and authoritative
In summary, Pateman identifies the struggle that females have endured throughout history and attempts to discuss why this is the case. Yet, female inequality continues in the modern day through sexual discrimination, stereotyping and chauvinism. The female struggle from forced servitude to equality with their male counter-parts provides an excellent argument to answer the presentation question on the basis of work and voluntary servitude.
4th Meeting of the Supreme Deviant Group
We all met in the classroom to report on the progress of our work and uncover any malfunctions in the upcoming presentation. As I am doing the introduction I have acquainted myself with all the texts we will be discussing, paying special attention to the Social and Sexual Contracts, as I believe these works will be most relevant, as they address the role of an individual in society and thus individual servitude.At the meeting Nick and I briefly discussed our idea of including Palahniuk’s Fight Club into our presentation, it seems a bit extreme, but it just might work. We will reach our final verdict during our very last meeting on Tuesday, when we will rehearse the presentation and enter final corrections.
I’ve also created the power point slide presentation, adding some informatory pictures and quotes as well as some juicy, spicy ones.
As I mentioned earlier next Tuesday we will meet for the final time and have a run through the whole presentation. With the amount of work we put into the thing, it should go down smoothly.
I’ve also created the power point slide presentation, adding some informatory pictures and quotes as well as some juicy, spicy ones.
As I mentioned earlier next Tuesday we will meet for the final time and have a run through the whole presentation. With the amount of work we put into the thing, it should go down smoothly.
Sunday, 2 December 2007
Investigating Locke - Divine Servitude
For my task, I analysed the works of Locke and his views on Divine Servitude and its appropriate relevance when looking at paid work as voluntary servitude.
Locke's works focus on the ideas that man is not bound by the bondage of money or material possessions since he is free to do with what he likes because of the ability of thought and rationale given to him by a higher power. If there is any restriction to this it is reflected in his Creator/Creature ideologue; that the only person that has the ability to restrict man's freedom is God:
Cambridge University London
This is an important idea when it comes to asking and answering the question: "Paid work is voluntary servitude" because in Locke's view Man is free to do as he chooses; only restricted by his service to God (i.e. praying and keeping within the boundaries of religion). Locke further argues that if a man was bound by servitude then how would this be possible with the abilities of the mind and thought:
“For Locke, freedom is a mode of power, power being in itself a simple idea which is given to us through sensation as well as through reflection: do we not observe within ourselves that we ‘can’ think, that we ‘can’ move parts of the body at will?”
Polin, R. (1969) John Locke’s conception of freedom. In. Yolton, J.W. (1969) John Locke: Problems and Perspectives: A collection of new essays.Cambridge University London
With his perspectives, it shall be possible to provide a suitable counter argument to the question posed: that man is free to choose his liberty with thought and rationale, although he is not able to choose his destiny since it is determined by the Creator (in this case, God). That is the only aspect that he cannot control, so it could be argued that paid work is not voluntary servitude since man is free to make this decision and not coerced in anyway.
I shall also be investigating the Sexual Contract by Carol Pateman to compare other views of servitude by woman to men, patriarchy and other themes in this particular presentation.
Locke's works focus on the ideas that man is not bound by the bondage of money or material possessions since he is free to do with what he likes because of the ability of thought and rationale given to him by a higher power. If there is any restriction to this it is reflected in his Creator/Creature ideologue; that the only person that has the ability to restrict man's freedom is God:
"The only external limit to reasonable usage of human freedom springing from this relationship of Creator to creature consists in the fact that man, as the property of God, has been created to last as long as the Creator wishes and not according to his own good will and pleasure. That is the reason why man is not free to dispose either of his life or of the life of others, even if he has the desire, power and opportunity to do so.”
This is an important idea when it comes to asking and answering the question: "Paid work is voluntary servitude" because in Locke's view Man is free to do as he chooses; only restricted by his service to God (i.e. praying and keeping within the boundaries of religion). Locke further argues that if a man was bound by servitude then how would this be possible with the abilities of the mind and thought:
“For Locke, freedom is a mode of power, power being in itself a simple idea which is given to us through sensation as well as through reflection: do we not observe within ourselves that we ‘can’ think, that we ‘can’ move parts of the body at will?”
Polin, R. (1969) John Locke’s conception of freedom. In. Yolton, J.W. (1969) John Locke: Problems and Perspectives: A collection of new essays.
With his perspectives, it shall be possible to provide a suitable counter argument to the question posed: that man is free to choose his liberty with thought and rationale, although he is not able to choose his destiny since it is determined by the Creator (in this case, God). That is the only aspect that he cannot control, so it could be argued that paid work is not voluntary servitude since man is free to make this decision and not coerced in anyway.
I shall also be investigating the Sexual Contract by Carol Pateman to compare other views of servitude by woman to men, patriarchy and other themes in this particular presentation.
paid work is voluntary servitude#3
This blog is based on reflections of my second source ‘On Liberty’ by John Stewart Mill which is relevant to the presentation title. There are two parts of particular relevance; the first portrays the importance of the liberty of thought and discussion, the second is of individuality as an element of well being.
Liberty of thought and discussion is the means to uncover truths. Truths can be understood in three ways; 1) reason understood from another may replace existing truths. 2) In demonstrating the error of another’s reasoning you make more solid your own truths. 3) part of the truth is contained between perspectives. This exercising of reason is important as one cannot be told the foundations of their opinion, there opinion is formed from understanding why and demonstrating this meaning which leads to the conclusion espoused. This should be one of the basis of being a human being, humans contain feelings and a rational capacity, so a human being would make use and improve both, ‘should be a balance of feeling and desires and rationality as they are what make a human being’(pg65).
This is Mill’s foundation for the human being or individual which brings me onto the second relevant part. But because many(the masses) do not exercise their rationality in questioning what is customary, but simply use custom as the basis for their reasoning, they make no choice. They make no choice because they have not deliberated why customary actions are justified and therefore do not understand the reasoning for a customary action. Therefore no choice is made to accept what is customary, but one simply acts because it is customary; ‘people do not choose what is customary, in preference to what suits their inclination. It does not occur to them to have any inclination, except for what is customary.’ (pg68).
The point from Mill is that to act voluntarily one must have deliberated as an individual exercising their rationality as to volunteer implies a choice made as an autonomous being. If we do not exercise our individuality we merely act from custom which is a mechanised response rather than a voluntary response which Mill describes as; ‘we act like cattle rather than human beings.’ (pg72).
This compliments Fight Club very nicely as Fight Club describes how the masses have fallen into consumerism where much of why we work (apart from survival in society) is to satisfy this way of life. This suggests that instead of acting as human beings we act below this form, instead as consumers where our choices are already made and we just satisfy them.
Liberty of thought and discussion is the means to uncover truths. Truths can be understood in three ways; 1) reason understood from another may replace existing truths. 2) In demonstrating the error of another’s reasoning you make more solid your own truths. 3) part of the truth is contained between perspectives. This exercising of reason is important as one cannot be told the foundations of their opinion, there opinion is formed from understanding why and demonstrating this meaning which leads to the conclusion espoused. This should be one of the basis of being a human being, humans contain feelings and a rational capacity, so a human being would make use and improve both, ‘should be a balance of feeling and desires and rationality as they are what make a human being’(pg65).
This is Mill’s foundation for the human being or individual which brings me onto the second relevant part. But because many(the masses) do not exercise their rationality in questioning what is customary, but simply use custom as the basis for their reasoning, they make no choice. They make no choice because they have not deliberated why customary actions are justified and therefore do not understand the reasoning for a customary action. Therefore no choice is made to accept what is customary, but one simply acts because it is customary; ‘people do not choose what is customary, in preference to what suits their inclination. It does not occur to them to have any inclination, except for what is customary.’ (pg68).
The point from Mill is that to act voluntarily one must have deliberated as an individual exercising their rationality as to volunteer implies a choice made as an autonomous being. If we do not exercise our individuality we merely act from custom which is a mechanised response rather than a voluntary response which Mill describes as; ‘we act like cattle rather than human beings.’ (pg72).
This compliments Fight Club very nicely as Fight Club describes how the masses have fallen into consumerism where much of why we work (apart from survival in society) is to satisfy this way of life. This suggests that instead of acting as human beings we act below this form, instead as consumers where our choices are already made and we just satisfy them.
Friday, 30 November 2007
paid work is voluntary servitude #2
In choosing the title for our presentation ‘paid work voluntary servitude’ the first source which sprung to mind was ‘Fight Club’ by Chuck Palahniuk. The reason for this is that Fight Club explores how the middle class have been conditioned by society to work for things that aren’t important to human beings but have made these things seem important through a constant barraging of advertisement and how to make it in society, and what gets left out is yourself as an individual (how you feel what you want and why). We are conditioned in a way to make us all similar, to think the same ‘like so many others I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct’.
A demonstration of how society grips us through a conversation between Jack and Tyler which shows how we give value to things which don’t matter;
(T) ‘do you know what a duvet is?’
(J) ‘a comforter’
(T) ‘it’s a blanket…just a blanket. Why do guys like you and I know what a blanket is? Is this essential to our survival in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word? No. what are we then?
(J) ‘consumers’
(T) ‘right, we’re consumers, we are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guys name on my underwear’
To emphasise the slavery perception in this Tyler gives a speech;
‘an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and cloths, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need’
Society gives us a reason to work for cars and cloths, but this is just deceit so that a service will be provided so that society can function.
When considering how society manipulates the masses one has to think, how voluntary is my act to work?
From Tyler’s point of view not much at all if any because once you buy into consumerism and work for it, you decrease as a free person ‘the things you own, end up owning you’
A demonstration of how society grips us through a conversation between Jack and Tyler which shows how we give value to things which don’t matter;
(T) ‘do you know what a duvet is?’
(J) ‘a comforter’
(T) ‘it’s a blanket…just a blanket. Why do guys like you and I know what a blanket is? Is this essential to our survival in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word? No. what are we then?
(J) ‘consumers’
(T) ‘right, we’re consumers, we are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guys name on my underwear’
To emphasise the slavery perception in this Tyler gives a speech;
‘an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and cloths, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need’
Society gives us a reason to work for cars and cloths, but this is just deceit so that a service will be provided so that society can function.
When considering how society manipulates the masses one has to think, how voluntary is my act to work?
From Tyler’s point of view not much at all if any because once you buy into consumerism and work for it, you decrease as a free person ‘the things you own, end up owning you’
Thursday, 29 November 2007
A Meeting of Deviants 3
Deviant Meeting 3
Our third group workshop was a total success, we managed to create an idea for our presentation scenario and also finally came up with a respectable bibliography.
We’re going to base our research on Rousseau’s Social Contract, Hobbs’s Leviathan, Pateman’s Sexual Contract, Mill’s Essay on Liberty, John Locke and we just might find room for Chuck Palahniuk. I’ve decided to write a presentation script, which will allow us to better organize our trail of thought. I will also develop the slides for the power point, I’ve already found some neat photos that will spice things up a little. We’re going to present our work in Week 11 so time is short, we’re working brilliantly as a group, we exchange emails with latest updates and in urgent matters contact each other over the telephone. It is hard to meet outside lecture times as we all follow different schedules but we’re hoping to get together and practice a bit in week 10.
Our third group workshop was a total success, we managed to create an idea for our presentation scenario and also finally came up with a respectable bibliography.
We’re going to base our research on Rousseau’s Social Contract, Hobbs’s Leviathan, Pateman’s Sexual Contract, Mill’s Essay on Liberty, John Locke and we just might find room for Chuck Palahniuk. I’ve decided to write a presentation script, which will allow us to better organize our trail of thought. I will also develop the slides for the power point, I’ve already found some neat photos that will spice things up a little. We’re going to present our work in Week 11 so time is short, we’re working brilliantly as a group, we exchange emails with latest updates and in urgent matters contact each other over the telephone. It is hard to meet outside lecture times as we all follow different schedules but we’re hoping to get together and practice a bit in week 10.
1st In-class Meeting for Group Presentation: "Is paid work voluntary servitude?"
Upon forming our group: Alexi Budaj, David Kynaston and Nick Danvers" it was decided that tackling the issue of "paid work as voluntary servitude" would serve us well regarding the module on Deviant Behaviour.
After deciding the the presentation topic it was noted that issue of servitude covers a large number of factors such as morality, liberty, freedom and divinity and involves philosophy from the works of Nietzsche, Mills, Rousseau, and Locke to answer this complex debate. Tasks were allocated to the team members to research a particular author and the relevant texts need to answer the question.
Alexi chose to look into Carol Pateman's text, The Sexual Contract, to understand the ideas of women in servitude to men in such professions as prostitution. David chose to research Rousseau into his views of servitude; that no sane man would be bound to servitude should he choose so. Nick chose to analyse the works of Mills; his view being that man is not bound to servitude and makes his choices on the basis of free thought: work is acceptable for society; jobs are chosen and not allocated and, therefore, not servitude as such.
I was allocated the task of investigating Locke and his views on divine servitude: that man is free to express himself and not be bound to servitude. God had created man to have intelligence, rational thought and expression and of course freedom to do as he should choose; not to be bound by servitude to the Creator. These different aspects , we hope, should provide a balanced and in-depth insight to servitude and whether it is or is not applicable to paid work in the modern day.
Other ideas covered in the initial discussion on servitude were to use books from well known authors and music lyrics. Examples of these were Generation X by D.Coupland, Bob Dylan's lyrics to You Gotta serve Someone and Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik.
With these aspects covered by the group: the appropriate texts have been found and thorough and authoritative research and notes taken by each member. We hope to analyse, interpret and piece together a suitable answer to our presentation to the best of our abilities.
Further meetings have been planned on the follow-up to the deadline.
After deciding the the presentation topic it was noted that issue of servitude covers a large number of factors such as morality, liberty, freedom and divinity and involves philosophy from the works of Nietzsche, Mills, Rousseau, and Locke to answer this complex debate. Tasks were allocated to the team members to research a particular author and the relevant texts need to answer the question.
Alexi chose to look into Carol Pateman's text, The Sexual Contract, to understand the ideas of women in servitude to men in such professions as prostitution. David chose to research Rousseau into his views of servitude; that no sane man would be bound to servitude should he choose so. Nick chose to analyse the works of Mills; his view being that man is not bound to servitude and makes his choices on the basis of free thought: work is acceptable for society; jobs are chosen and not allocated and, therefore, not servitude as such.
I was allocated the task of investigating Locke and his views on divine servitude: that man is free to express himself and not be bound to servitude. God had created man to have intelligence, rational thought and expression and of course freedom to do as he should choose; not to be bound by servitude to the Creator. These different aspects , we hope, should provide a balanced and in-depth insight to servitude and whether it is or is not applicable to paid work in the modern day.
Other ideas covered in the initial discussion on servitude were to use books from well known authors and music lyrics. Examples of these were Generation X by D.Coupland, Bob Dylan's lyrics to You Gotta serve Someone and Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik.
With these aspects covered by the group: the appropriate texts have been found and thorough and authoritative research and notes taken by each member. We hope to analyse, interpret and piece together a suitable answer to our presentation to the best of our abilities.
Further meetings have been planned on the follow-up to the deadline.
Week Ten Meeting (Blog #4)
Deviant Philosophy.
Group Topic – “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”
Week Ten Meeting:
Today we had our last classroom meeting before next week’s presentation. Aleksy had prepared a rough draft of the presentation which all have all been given a copy of to look over and amend / expand upon. I’ve requested that all personally amended copies of the transcript be uploaded to this blog so that we can have an open debate about the content / structure etc in a format which allows us to see everyone’s opinions – something which isn’t possible via email.
The first thing that myself and Nick have decided to change is the order of speakers for the presentation and the handling of particular content. As Nick read about Mill’s approach to servitude/slavery and I read about Rousseau we have decided that the work and views of these two philosophers should be presented together as a form of structured debate. Since both philosophers approach the subject with different opinions but under the impression that the final results will ultimately be the same.
Nick has put together a rather useful list of ‘main points’ that Mill makes about slavery and I will be endeavouring to make a kind of sister list to it so that we can bother look over the two lists and then agree on a transcript and structure for presenting the two separate theories along side each other.
We also discussed how the conclusion and ultimately the main theme of the presentation is going to hang highly over the word voluntary and how “choice” and how we define it will have a big impact upon this. It is through this theme that we will try to bring the opposing concepts of Mill and Rousseau succinctly into the debate that can be formed by Carol Pateman’s Sexual Contract. Where we will raise issues about male control over females, our patriarchal society and then, subsequently the impact of ‘class’ in daily life.
All work on the transcripts are aimed to be completed by the end of the coming weekend and our last meeting before the presentation has been arranged for this coming Tuesday – We are aiming to quickly look over the complete presentation and ensure we are all happy with it, we will then run through the script and iron out any kinks or problems and confirm who is saying what and when.
Group Topic – “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”
Week Ten Meeting:
Today we had our last classroom meeting before next week’s presentation. Aleksy had prepared a rough draft of the presentation which all have all been given a copy of to look over and amend / expand upon. I’ve requested that all personally amended copies of the transcript be uploaded to this blog so that we can have an open debate about the content / structure etc in a format which allows us to see everyone’s opinions – something which isn’t possible via email.
The first thing that myself and Nick have decided to change is the order of speakers for the presentation and the handling of particular content. As Nick read about Mill’s approach to servitude/slavery and I read about Rousseau we have decided that the work and views of these two philosophers should be presented together as a form of structured debate. Since both philosophers approach the subject with different opinions but under the impression that the final results will ultimately be the same.
Nick has put together a rather useful list of ‘main points’ that Mill makes about slavery and I will be endeavouring to make a kind of sister list to it so that we can bother look over the two lists and then agree on a transcript and structure for presenting the two separate theories along side each other.
We also discussed how the conclusion and ultimately the main theme of the presentation is going to hang highly over the word voluntary and how “choice” and how we define it will have a big impact upon this. It is through this theme that we will try to bring the opposing concepts of Mill and Rousseau succinctly into the debate that can be formed by Carol Pateman’s Sexual Contract. Where we will raise issues about male control over females, our patriarchal society and then, subsequently the impact of ‘class’ in daily life.
All work on the transcripts are aimed to be completed by the end of the coming weekend and our last meeting before the presentation has been arranged for this coming Tuesday – We are aiming to quickly look over the complete presentation and ensure we are all happy with it, we will then run through the script and iron out any kinks or problems and confirm who is saying what and when.
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
paid work is voluntary servitude #1
These series of bloggs discuss the progression of understanding the statement 'paid work is voluntary servitude'. I am in a group of 4 people (Dave, Blair, Aleksy, and myself), and our task is to plan and produce a presentation on the above statement.
First thoughts discussed between myself and Aleksy was to try and offer certain thoughts which relate to the statement which we can follow up on. These are; to analyse the history of servitude and how it has developed and changed, this will offer insight into whether some kind of freedom or choice has been encorporated over time. What is the effect of the system within which we operate? Or in other words are we forced or influence by external forces. And finally it is worthy to note that voluntary servitude is a paradox, so to understand how this phrase could be legitimate an insight must be made into what we mean by voluntary as there are many ideas of freedom.
After discussing these thoughts we came up with sources to help us in our quest. Aleksy came up with Generation X by D.Coupland, Heavy Weather by P.G Warhouse, and You Gotta Serve Someone by Bob Dylan. I came up with Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik as this describes how society can condition human beings into instrumental means which takes away from a human being as a thinking, deliberating creature which then chooses based on his own understanding, therefore acting voluntarily. Meena(lecturer) then helped us further offering sources which were; The Sexual Contract by Carol Pateman, On Liberty byJ.S. Mill (which I will look into), and also to look into Hobbes and Rousseau.
So, this our starting point, my first job will be to analyse Fight Club and then move onto Mill to see what can be uncovered.
First thoughts discussed between myself and Aleksy was to try and offer certain thoughts which relate to the statement which we can follow up on. These are; to analyse the history of servitude and how it has developed and changed, this will offer insight into whether some kind of freedom or choice has been encorporated over time. What is the effect of the system within which we operate? Or in other words are we forced or influence by external forces. And finally it is worthy to note that voluntary servitude is a paradox, so to understand how this phrase could be legitimate an insight must be made into what we mean by voluntary as there are many ideas of freedom.
After discussing these thoughts we came up with sources to help us in our quest. Aleksy came up with Generation X by D.Coupland, Heavy Weather by P.G Warhouse, and You Gotta Serve Someone by Bob Dylan. I came up with Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik as this describes how society can condition human beings into instrumental means which takes away from a human being as a thinking, deliberating creature which then chooses based on his own understanding, therefore acting voluntarily. Meena(lecturer) then helped us further offering sources which were; The Sexual Contract by Carol Pateman, On Liberty byJ.S. Mill (which I will look into), and also to look into Hobbes and Rousseau.
So, this our starting point, my first job will be to analyse Fight Club and then move onto Mill to see what can be uncovered.
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
First Group meeting - or lack of. (Blog #3)
Deviant Philosophy.
Group Topic – “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”
First group meeting (outside of lectures).
The first group meeting was somewhat of a failure. Some realised (at the last minute) that they couldn’t make it and others weren’t entirely sure where we were meant to meet. This wasn’t a completely waste of time however as I managed to meet up with almost everyone over the course of two days and we have shared the following information:
Aleksy has gone rogue and covered work by the authors which other group members were supposed to be covering. Which is fine as we may all interpret the theories of different philosopher’s differently.
I met up with Blair and have filled him in on what he missed at the last lecture. I also gave him some suggestions of what philosopher’s and theorists he could look into – Locke and Voltaire being the most important ones; I also suggested that if he could find anything (primary or secondary) about Nietzsche's “Slave and Master Morality” that it might help as Meena had suggested it may be useful in the last lecture.
My reading on Rousseau is going well, I’ve managed to find several books; two which are primary texts by Rousseau Discourse on Inequality (1994), The Social Contract and Discourses (1993) (as suggested in the last lecture) and Rousseau and Liberty (1995) which is a secondary text dealing with aspects of The Social Contract and Discourses (1993) and contextualising Rousseau’s work. The last book I picked up was Selected Writings (1995) which focuses on the work of Voltaire.
I’ve focused on reading the primary texts of Rousseau to begin with and found the section in The Social Contract (1993) about ‘Slavery’ and ‘The Right of the Strongest’ has been particularly informative. I can also see Discourse on Inequality (1994) being useful but due to the book lacking a concise contents page I’m having to read through the length of the book to find the information which is of particular relevance.
We have agreed to stay in contact on Wednesday via email and will be bringing all our idea's, suggestions etc to the next lecture on Thursday.
Bibliography
BOOKS:
ROUSSEAU, J. (1994) Discourse on Inequality, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
ROUSSEAU, J. (1993) The Social Contract and Discourses, London, Everyman.
VOLTAIRE (1995) Selected Writings, London, Everyman.
WOKLER, R. (1995) Rousseau and Liberty, Manchester, Manchester University Press.
Group Topic – “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”
First group meeting (outside of lectures).
The first group meeting was somewhat of a failure. Some realised (at the last minute) that they couldn’t make it and others weren’t entirely sure where we were meant to meet. This wasn’t a completely waste of time however as I managed to meet up with almost everyone over the course of two days and we have shared the following information:
Aleksy has gone rogue and covered work by the authors which other group members were supposed to be covering. Which is fine as we may all interpret the theories of different philosopher’s differently.
I met up with Blair and have filled him in on what he missed at the last lecture. I also gave him some suggestions of what philosopher’s and theorists he could look into – Locke and Voltaire being the most important ones; I also suggested that if he could find anything (primary or secondary) about Nietzsche's “Slave and Master Morality” that it might help as Meena had suggested it may be useful in the last lecture.
My reading on Rousseau is going well, I’ve managed to find several books; two which are primary texts by Rousseau Discourse on Inequality (1994), The Social Contract and Discourses (1993) (as suggested in the last lecture) and Rousseau and Liberty (1995) which is a secondary text dealing with aspects of The Social Contract and Discourses (1993) and contextualising Rousseau’s work. The last book I picked up was Selected Writings (1995) which focuses on the work of Voltaire.
I’ve focused on reading the primary texts of Rousseau to begin with and found the section in The Social Contract (1993) about ‘Slavery’ and ‘The Right of the Strongest’ has been particularly informative. I can also see Discourse on Inequality (1994) being useful but due to the book lacking a concise contents page I’m having to read through the length of the book to find the information which is of particular relevance.
We have agreed to stay in contact on Wednesday via email and will be bringing all our idea's, suggestions etc to the next lecture on Thursday.
Bibliography
BOOKS:
ROUSSEAU, J. (1994) Discourse on Inequality, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
ROUSSEAU, J. (1993) The Social Contract and Discourses, London, Everyman.
VOLTAIRE (1995) Selected Writings, London, Everyman.
WOKLER, R. (1995) Rousseau and Liberty, Manchester, Manchester University Press.
Friday, 23 November 2007
Third Group Lecture / Discussion (Blog #2)
Deviant Philosophy.
Group Topic – “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”
Third Lecture as a Group.
Week Nine’s Lecture (Thursday 22nd) was informative. Blair, unfortunately, couldn’t make the lecture but we have all decided on what reading we should do for the presentation and have arranged to meet on Monday 27th to discuss progress and any thoughts/idea’s our reading gives us for the presentation.
Nick is going to be reading work by Mill and Baudrillard. Aleksy is going to be reading Carol Pateman’s The Sexual Contract, I will be researching into Rousseau and if I can find any Locke or Voltaire them as well; Blair should be asked to focus on either Locke or Voltaire (thus sharing my work-load).
During the lecture Meena made some suggestions to our group – one of which would be to look into Nietzsche’s Slave/Master Morality theory which suggests that “Promise keeping is an expression of slave morality”. Further reading would need to be done before we’ll know if it’ll fit into our presentation or not.
Group Topic – “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”
Third Lecture as a Group.
Week Nine’s Lecture (Thursday 22nd) was informative. Blair, unfortunately, couldn’t make the lecture but we have all decided on what reading we should do for the presentation and have arranged to meet on Monday 27th to discuss progress and any thoughts/idea’s our reading gives us for the presentation.
Nick is going to be reading work by Mill and Baudrillard. Aleksy is going to be reading Carol Pateman’s The Sexual Contract, I will be researching into Rousseau and if I can find any Locke or Voltaire them as well; Blair should be asked to focus on either Locke or Voltaire (thus sharing my work-load).
During the lecture Meena made some suggestions to our group – one of which would be to look into Nietzsche’s Slave/Master Morality theory which suggests that “Promise keeping is an expression of slave morality”. Further reading would need to be done before we’ll know if it’ll fit into our presentation or not.
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
2nd Meetings of the Elite Deviant Group
Deviant Philosophy
3.Paid Work Is Voluntary Servitude
2nd Group Meeting
This week we looked at our materials and tried to figure out how will we introduce other student to our topic. So far we managed to obtain only a limited amount of texts needed for the week 12 presentation. We have Carol Pateman’s Sexual Contract, Douglas Coupland’s Generation X and Bob Dylan’s lyrics. What we must still find is something from Locke, where he would discuss the topic of paid labor and how it affects people. We also came up with the idea to search the works of Voltaire for a similar text.
Currently we have two definite elements of servitude, corporate and sexual. We will elaborate on these more during our third meeting and hopefully will have more texts. Next Thursday we also plan to set up the skeleton of our presentation, which means we will know what we will discuss at the opening, middle and final stage of our presentation.
3.Paid Work Is Voluntary Servitude
2nd Group Meeting
This week we looked at our materials and tried to figure out how will we introduce other student to our topic. So far we managed to obtain only a limited amount of texts needed for the week 12 presentation. We have Carol Pateman’s Sexual Contract, Douglas Coupland’s Generation X and Bob Dylan’s lyrics. What we must still find is something from Locke, where he would discuss the topic of paid labor and how it affects people. We also came up with the idea to search the works of Voltaire for a similar text.
Currently we have two definite elements of servitude, corporate and sexual. We will elaborate on these more during our third meeting and hopefully will have more texts. Next Thursday we also plan to set up the skeleton of our presentation, which means we will know what we will discuss at the opening, middle and final stage of our presentation.
First Lecture as a group. (Blog #1)
Deviant Philosophy.
Group Topic – “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”
First Lecture as a Group:
The presentation group consists of four members; Aleksy Budaj, Blair Cumming, Nicholas Danvers and myself (David Kynaston). By short listing the topics we most favoured from the list of five we randomly selected the topic of “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”.
We have decided to go away and over the next week try to find some books which we can use to guide our discussion and shape some form of an argument for the presentation. Some of the ideas suggested so far include ‘Heavy Weather’ by P.G. Wodehouse and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk; the latter of which I think will be mostly irrelevant as it focuses mainly on materialism.
We have also agreed on the basic structure of the presentation which will be formed much like an essay; beginning with an introduction, then two opposing/contrasting views towards the topic and then finally a conclusion. To make the argument as convincing as possible at least one source or citation will be used at each of the four stages of the presentation.
Group Topic – “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”
First Lecture as a Group:
The presentation group consists of four members; Aleksy Budaj, Blair Cumming, Nicholas Danvers and myself (David Kynaston). By short listing the topics we most favoured from the list of five we randomly selected the topic of “Paid Work is Voluntary Servitude”.
We have decided to go away and over the next week try to find some books which we can use to guide our discussion and shape some form of an argument for the presentation. Some of the ideas suggested so far include ‘Heavy Weather’ by P.G. Wodehouse and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk; the latter of which I think will be mostly irrelevant as it focuses mainly on materialism.
We have also agreed on the basic structure of the presentation which will be formed much like an essay; beginning with an introduction, then two opposing/contrasting views towards the topic and then finally a conclusion. To make the argument as convincing as possible at least one source or citation will be used at each of the four stages of the presentation.
Friday, 16 November 2007
1st Group Meeting
Deviant Philosophy
3.Paid Work Is Voluntary Servitude
1st Group Meeting
During our first group meeting we tried to create a plan of our actions, decide which argument points to bring up and how best to introduce other people to the discussion.
Working with the idea of contemporary society and the basic need to exist by earning money we came up with a few ideas for the texts we might use. 1. Generation X by Douglas Coupland 2. Heavy Weather by P. G. Wodehouse 3. ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’ by Bob Dylan 4. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Generation X takes up the issue of young people stuck at Mcjobs, underpaid jobs with no future and low expectations. Heavy Weather introduces Monty Bodkin a young popinjay who coming from the heights of society has to take on a job to ensure he will be allowed to marry a girl he loves. Lyrics from Bob Dylan’s song show that no matter what social position a person has he will always serve someone. And finally there is Fight Club, first half of the book gives us a description of an individual trapped in a corporate and disillusioned world, his feelings of being a slave to the modern society and standards of living which the same society sets.
Our Lecturer also suggested reading about the Social Contract by Carol Pateman, also Locke and Hobbs. Next week we will try to choose the best materials and start working on the scenario.
3.Paid Work Is Voluntary Servitude
1st Group Meeting
During our first group meeting we tried to create a plan of our actions, decide which argument points to bring up and how best to introduce other people to the discussion.
Working with the idea of contemporary society and the basic need to exist by earning money we came up with a few ideas for the texts we might use. 1. Generation X by Douglas Coupland 2. Heavy Weather by P. G. Wodehouse 3. ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’ by Bob Dylan 4. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Generation X takes up the issue of young people stuck at Mcjobs, underpaid jobs with no future and low expectations. Heavy Weather introduces Monty Bodkin a young popinjay who coming from the heights of society has to take on a job to ensure he will be allowed to marry a girl he loves. Lyrics from Bob Dylan’s song show that no matter what social position a person has he will always serve someone. And finally there is Fight Club, first half of the book gives us a description of an individual trapped in a corporate and disillusioned world, his feelings of being a slave to the modern society and standards of living which the same society sets.
Our Lecturer also suggested reading about the Social Contract by Carol Pateman, also Locke and Hobbs. Next week we will try to choose the best materials and start working on the scenario.
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