Final Reflections on PH2004 Presentation - "Is paid work voluntary servitude?"

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.