Critical Reflection 2012

‘WINOL’ has been a great success this semester; we have all worked well together as a team of second years and third years.  I think the biggest achievement of the semester has been the website. At the start of the semester our Alexa ranking for the ‘WINOL’ site was 1.9 millionth in the UK but now we have achieved 10,424^th position in the UK (11/12/12) which isn’t all, we also have a global ranking of 477,045 (11/12/12) which is an enormous achievement in such a short space of time. Our current Alexa ranking proves that we have gained an audience, which means that we are now competing with local news sources for Winchester and the surrounding areas. This can be proven as ‘The Hampshire Chronicle’s Alexa ranking is 43,856 for the UK (11/12/12) and has a global ranking of 894,774 (11/12/12).

However, we’re still not the best of local news sources just yet, ‘The Daily Echo’ has a Alexa ranking of 1,792 (11/12/12) in the UK and a global Alexa ranking of 56,651 (11/12/12). This means that we still have something to aim for, although we have beaten a local newspaper in terms of Alexa rankings there is still more that we can do as a team to improve our Alexa ranking even further. I believe this can be achieved by continuously promoting the site and asking other well respected sites to link ‘WINOL’ on their own site. I have seen a couple  examples of this but I think that once a reporter has arranged an interview and filmed it they should contact the interviewee and tell them to watch ‘WINOL’ and promote the package which they appeared in.  

I believe that the ‘WINOL’ website wouldn’t have achieved their Alexa rankings without every member of the team playing their part. For example, the features department on ‘WINOL’ has completely transformed this semester. This is proven by the fact that the website is now ‘sticky’. This means that the audience are drawn to the ‘WINOL’ site for the news and then remain on the site for an average of 6 minutes to read the features on the site.  

‘WINOL’S feature department relentlessly promoted their features through social media such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’. The features team did this better than the news team. The news team should have been promoting their packages by enticing people to watch by using social media more. Although the news team did start to do this, it wasn’t until the end of the semester. The features department also used competition ideas as a way of capturing their audience’s attention. Promotion is something that the news team can only improve on in the next semester and I’m sure the result will be a further decrease in ‘WINOL’S overall Alexa ranking. I think maybe a preview of what to expect in the bulletin should be released on a Monday to act as an advert so that people will be left wanting to know more and will therefore definitely watch the bulletin. 

The features department really put lots of focus onto what ‘WINOL’S audience want to read and because of this the fashion magazine ‘Absolute:ly’ was created. I think this has encouraged more of a female audience to be attracted to the site and therefore read the online features. The fashion magazine has given ‘WINOL’ features a feminine appeal.  Currently, the balance is just right whereas before it was slightly more male orientated. There is a feature for everyone. For example there are car reviews, investigative journalism interviews and also fashion and gossip articles.

The features team are evidently capable of attracting an audience but just need to consistently produce more editions of their features. For example, the ‘caught on camera’ feature is a great way of attracting fellow students to the site yet only one of these was produced. Therefore, the audience who are attracted to this particular article may have seen it on the site for a few weeks and could give up checking for any more updates of that particular feature.

The news team have consistently produced a weekly bulletin of good quality news. The news team have pushed themselves to the limits in some weeks by producing the regular weekly bulletin as well as the 99 second news which went out live every working day of the week. I think the 99 second news was a fantastic success and proved that as students we are capable of working as a team to produce daily news snippets as well as a full length weekly bulletin.

The news team also took responsibility of submitting news articles onto the website. This was a challenge as reporters were forgetting to take their own photographs when they were out filming for their package. We all learnt that a written news story, even if it is a good story, won’t be published on the site if there isn’t a high quality photograph of a face or an action shot to go with the story. Therefore, pictures to go along with the written stories on the website can always be improved.

 The change from Joomla to Wordpress on the site also temporarily confused things as this meant that we changed the website from being a tabloid layout to a broadsheet layout. Therefore, the style of the website changed dramatically and so the written stories had to be written to accommodate this change too. For example, the headline length and style of language used.  At least one story a day was being published on the site but I still think that next semester there is chance to continue updating the website even more and there should be no limitations to who can write news stories for the site. For example, a member of the features team who is interested in the written stories should get involved too.

Every Monday we had a news meeting which enabled the reporters to discuss with the news editor their plans for their package and then the news editor could query the reporter’s ideas. I felt that this was a good way of communicating with the whole team as everyone chipped in with their opinions on each person’s story ideas and gave advice on how to make it more visual. I thought that the news meeting could be held earlier than it currently is just so that it doesn’t feel rushed and that every reporter can have the chance to discuss their story in length if need be.

This semester I was given the role of News Planner for ‘WINOL’. My first task of the year was to make sure that the WINOL Gmail account was up to date and clear of press releases from the previous year. I then asked this semester’s News Editor to put together a list of contacts of people that I should contact to ensure that I could provide the reporters with the latest local stories. The list of contacts included all of the local councils and all local political parties. I found that all press offices responded quickly to my email and agreed to send me the latest press releases in order to produce a regular, up to date, weekly bulletin. In some instances when I didn’t receive any press releases in a while I decided to phone up the press office to ask why we hadn’t been provided with any press releases.

By the third week of ‘WINOL’ a constant flow of press releases were being sent to the ‘WINOL’  Gmail inbox which I organised into different folders within the inbox which I labelled based on where they were sent from  or what they are about E.g. I organised all the press releases from Hampshire Police into a folder called Hampshire Police. I continued to do this because I received positive feedback in the news meeting held on Mondays. The ‘WINOL’ reporters agreed that labelling the folders in the Gmail inbox according to where they’ve been sent from enabled them to browse through the press releases easily.

However, simply having the press releases filed away in the Gmail inbox still limited the ‘WINOL’ team’s accessibility to the press releases so with the help of Jason and Chris ‘The Week Ahead’ page on the website was created.

This meant that when I received a press release in the Gmail I then would summarise it in a sentence and write it on ‘The Week Ahead’ page so that the reporters could easily look on the website for news story ideas to see what was happening in Winchester and the surrounding areas.  Then if they thought that one of the press releases sounded good they could log into the Gmail account and find the relevant press release to find out more details about the story.

This was a really good idea to incorporate my news planning onto the website as it meant that I could use ‘The Week Ahead’ as a way of talking about local events happening in Hampshire as well as including the latest University campus and Winchester Student Union news. This enabled my news planning to attract not only traffic from the ‘WINOL’ reporters but also from ‘University of Winchester’ students. I updated ‘The Week Ahead’ page every day with summaries of press releases which I believed to be news worthy.  I arranged the summaries of the stories in date order, putting the most recent press releases at the top of the page and putting the sentences into sections stating the general topic of the press releases. E.g. The Council. Obviously not every press release which I received was able to be made into a news story but the majority of press releases were very useful.

The change from Joomla to Wordpress did affect my ‘Week Ahead’ page, but in a positive way because Wordpress enabled me to try out different layouts for ‘The Week Ahead’ which on Joomla I hadn’t been able to. The page can still be improved by making it look more attractive, there are so many press releases to manage on a daily basis that the page looks like a structured list. It would be a good idea to improve the layout of the page in the next semester.

 I also used ‘Twitter’  to promote ‘The Week Ahead’ which didn’t work out to start with as I was only really appealing to our course members so didn’t really create more traffic to the site. WINDEALS was then created this was the idea that we would use ‘Twitter’ and ‘The Week Ahead’ page to advertise deals on our University campus at the shop and student union etc. This therefore is working as word spreads amongst the campus that our ‘WINOL’ site is the place to go to see what the latest deals are on campus.

I volunteered for it to be my responsibility to update the website on Sundays. Therefore, I had to use ‘The Week Ahead’ to find a decent news story and put it onto the website. I think in order to improve ‘The Week Ahead’ it needs to be moved into a section on the website’s front page as then visitors to the site will then have no choice but to read it. This is currently an on-going discussion as there is just so much that needs to be fitted onto the front page.

Overall what I’ve enjoyed the most has been the fact that I have been able to assist different people in a variety of jobs for ‘WINOL’ such as doing some filming for the feature’s student fashion show and helping out filming with the ‘WINOL’ reporters on a weekly basis.

Freud

• Similar to Descartes, Freud was concerned with the misery of human condition. Our unhappiness means that we are undivided and therefore alienated from ourselves this is the same starting point as Marx. We don't know what we want, unhappy inside. Freud therefore came to the conclusion that we're all troubled and so Freud's career was an attempt to answer why the human condition is the way that it is. Freud says we are controlled ( psychoanalysis) even if we don't realise we aren't as rational as we believe to be. Therefore it can be said that Freud discovered the unconscious mind- says he discovered in psychoanalysis the archaeology of the human mind.
• Dreams, Freud said, are the road to your unconscious.
• Seen as sexual renegade- sex is at the centre of our motivation this causes humans to be damaged ideas of ourselves as noble creatures. This is a challenge to the Enlightenment because we aren't the type of people the Enlightenment would want us to be- we're not ran by our rational mind (Newton part of the brain).
• Overall Freud was very pessimistic about human beings. He described his philosophy as being: 'full of darkness but with a little light'.

Attack on Plato

• Freud followed Plato's idea of the tripartite self E.g humans are made up of reason spirit and desire ( the allegory of the chariot). Plato stated that our rationality, our ability to control our mind is of the most importance. However, Freud believed rationality to be our weakest point because we are driven by our desires and we don't realise (alienated-Marx term).

Attack on Marx

• Marx thought of the self as the tripartite self: natural, alienated, species self. He believed that we progress towards a better, happier self. We have the ability to evolve therefore it is possible to overcome the state of unhappiness. Freud rejects this idea by calling it idealistic. Unhappiness is part of us,  the most dominant part of us is aggression which is caused by unhappiness. Unhappiness is a state which will always find ourselves in, can't escape it- consistent with Hobbes.

The Freudian Personality

• Pain is what it means to be human. We are divided, we cannot find peace because we are at a constant war with ourselves. Divided into 3 distinct parts- always in dispute with each other:

1. The Id
2. The Ego/Self
3. The superego

 The Id is the most dominant part of us- at our core from birth. A reservoir of the unconscious, 'a cauldron of seething exoitations'. The Id demands fulfilment, full of aggression an sex- there is an instinct to gain pleasure and avoid pain. The Id dominates our personality even though we don't know that we are dominated by feelings of aggression and sex.

The Ego or Self - reality principle, the least powerful part of the personality- the voice of reason. Moderation, commonsense. It is turned towards reality- the real world. It is hopelessly embattled and besieged. We are all born with the ego.

The Supergo - internalised rules of parents or society, therefore we are not born with the Superego. It is gained and developed from wider society eg external influences. It is irrational just like the Id and is constantly fighting against the Ego.

• Society is full of suffering because it is full of pain:

1. We are decaying, nature.
2. Nature- the external world- the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
3. The greatest pain is our everyday interaction with other people. Other people are out to get us, to hurt us but we are irrational beings and so we are inclined to hurt others.

• Freud thinks the answer is psychoanalysis- but not open to everyone ( needed to strengthen  the Ego) the masses will continue on their destructive path.
• He outlines some ways to contain these urges- the Id is so powerful that it needs distracting but you cannot control it, too dominant, can only contain it.
• Coping mechanisms are:

1. Intoxication- only a temporary chemical solution.
2. Isolation- also temporary as only for a few people.
3. Religion - a type of sublimation- a way to control constant demands of the Id.

Sublimation is finding socially acceptable ways to release our aggression eg through sport or by working hard. This is the only thing he believes is to give you real satisfaction is to be aggressive.

• Imposing moral limits on the Id ''Love our neighbour as ourselves''. Men are not gentle creatures, they're aggressive forces. Religion puts impossible demands on us, all animals can't reach level of divinity.
• The key to psychoanalysis is that you are hiding something from yourself. Freud claimed he had found a way to deal directly with the unconscious- this is the Id.

Attacks on Freud

• Popper - Freud was vague so Karl Popper believed that his theories couldn't be proven.
  Schopenhauer spoke of similar things such as controlling sexual urges and being controlled by internal, irrational forces therefore it is possible that Freud was actually not the first person to raise these theories.
• Reich believed the complete opposite- the unconscious forces inside the mind are good and it is their suppression by society that distorts them and made people dangerous ( similar to Rousseau). He believed that the underlying energy was sexuality and if this was released then humans would flourish.

27/11/2012 Channel 5 News

I thought the layout of the news was different, I like the fact that Channel 5 thought of a a different way for the presenter to be on screen. Although it was strange to see her stood up at first, I soon got used to it and thought it made the bulletin stand out from any other news bulletin usually shown on TV.

There was a good mix of stories but I got the impression that celebrities usually feature in this bulletin as there was two celebrity stories in tonight's bulletin. This also indicated to me that this news bulletin is aimed at women. I could be wrong but it was just the general overall feel I get from the language and wording used in the links and also, as I previously explained, from the choice of VTs.

The footage from the RNLI of an elderly woman being rescued from her flooded home was really interesting feature in this VT because we have been bombarded with flooding stories over the past few days so it was a refreshing idea which I liked alot. I also thought there was a good variety of interviews. However, I thought the VT went on for just abit too long and also I didn't feel that it was necessary to have two correspondents, one in Yorkshire and  one in Wales. I felt that they took up too much time of the bulletin when both correspondents were talking about the floods.

The David Cameron interview was a good angle to take in the 2nd VT though, as it showed the viewers what the government are planning to do.

The interview in the Norovirus VT included an interview with someone from the Health protection agency. I thought the positioning of the interview was odd, I don't know why Channel 5 prefer to have their reporters in shot but slightly blurred in this case. To me it seems unnatural as you can't see the reporter's face and also the reporter detracts from the interviewee. I did think that there was a good use of graphics in this VT though.

Before the adverts and also before the credits the presenter winked to the camera which I thought was really cheesy and made the bulletin informal. To me it just seemed like an odd thing for a news presenter to do.

I also didn't like the fact you could see the gun mic in the Vox Pops in the last story about Sports Personality of the year.

Modernism

• Kant's influence on aesthetics was to study the emotional sense to beauty. Artists are the closest to the beauty form of real objects. All of us 'normal' people can only see the shadows of the beautiful, perfect forms.
• The most powerful aesthetic response is to music according to Nietzsche etc. Materialists believe that our reaction to music is our neurons responding, however, Nietzsche believed music to be a tool that can be used to overcome 'the will'.
• Nietzsche concerned himself more with art than with beauty and Wagner was one of his greatest influences.
• Schopenhauer and Nietzsche's ideas of 'the will' are very similar. They both agreed that every human is a function of power which must be embraced.
• Similarly both men stated that the two ways to successfully escape misery is:

1. Intoxication
2. Dreaming

• Schopenhauer was strictly Kantian but the main difference between the two philosophers is that Schopenhauer believed that is only one noumena in the world which is the universe. We have the 'will to survive'.
• Human happiness is created by controlling 'the will'. This can be done through intoxication and music can be used as a tool to overcome desire as well as 'the will'.

Aesthetics

• According to Plato and Aristotle believed that happiness is supreme good. Kant challenged this because he believed that duty was the supreme ethical motive.
• Bentham believed that the greatest happiness principle was pleasure. Aristotle made distinctions between pleasure and pain as he refused to link happiness with the pleasure of the senses.
• Bentham promoted the Utilitarian motto: 'Greatest amount of good (happiness) for the greatest number of people'. This motto was open to criticism since people argued how you measure happiness or the greatest number of people? Also is it just people that should be considered to be happy? Recent Utilitarians have included animals.

• Kierkegaard observed aesthetics as ethical rather than an aesthetic category. An aesthetic person searches for immediate pleasure whether this is from a natural source or an artistic source.
• He believed that there are three modes of life:

1. Religious
2. Ethical
3. The aesthetic

• Life is the progress through these modes of life onto the most important mode, the religious mode.

Economics

In the 18th-19th Century economics was a popular subject amongst philosophers such as Nietzsche, Freud, Ricardo, Malthus and Smith. Economics claims to be a science and came about in the period of anti-enlightenment.

All of the following are Economists:

• Adam Smith wrote the book 'The Wealth of the Nations' which explored the reasons why one country is richer than another country. He believed that one of these reasons is Racism, wealthy countries are characterised by free individuals. Countries find themselves poor when there is too much government intervention.

Another one of his books which he wrote had a similar moral philosophy to Hume. For example, people always looking out for themselves- giving to charity to give yourself a good feeling, an ego boost. Therefore he believed in a philosophy which says that we are constantly weighing up what will give us the most pleasure by avoiding pain.

The law of unattended consequence - trying to help people but then you end up damaging them more in the process. You must allow people to be completely free economically.

• David Ricardo believed that all money comes from trade- reveals in a scientific way its true value. This is a metaphysical view. A spirit of value of things which is in things. According to Ricardo a world of contingent objects is worthless and is only valuable once humans apply conscious effort. This therefore can be described as the labour theory of value, a theory that states that the more labour that is put in to an object, the more value something has.

• Tom Malthus was associated with the Victorian period and had an outlook on life which believed that humans will always starve to death, since we always eat everything. To be man is to be on the brink of extinction. This is true since agriculturally we cannot make our own food.

Another theory of his was that marriage and no sex means that there will be no starvation. This is because in the 19th Century the human race almost bred itself into extinction, there just wasn't enough  resources to satisfy the vast population. Modernists disagree with this statement since they believed that with every mouth brings another pair of hands.

• Karl Marx believed that labour is the only real source of value. However, the more workers there are the more of a decrease in worker's wages.  Profit and capitalism consequently causes a large fatal flaw in the system. People won't be able to buy aggregated food. It is the workers that make objects valuable.

• Keynes Philosophy Keynes solved the Marxist problem of wages. Keynes offered the 'trade cycle' which means that if wages were so low people could be employed again.  The great depression of the 1930's was solved by World War 2 because men went into the army and this allowed women to work in factories. Everyone then stopped worrying about the superstition of gold as now people were able to use money in everyday life. 

Logical Positivism- Seminar Paper

Logical Positivism

Logical Positivism essentially combines empiricism (the belief that knowledge is only truly derived from experience) and rationalism. It is a type of analytic philosophy.

In 1929 Wittgenstein travelled to Cambridge and the ‘Vienna Circle’ was formed. The ‘Vienna Circle’ was a discussion group of philosophers who raised various propositions such as the idea that metaphysics is an out-dated system.  The ‘Vienna Circle’ also led to the creation of Logical Positivism. The members of the ‘Vienna Circle’ believed that a scientific perspective of the world was more suitable. The philosophers, on the whole believed in the same philosophy and one of their common beliefs was the ‘Verification Principle’ which was used as a device to attack the issue of metaphysics. The ‘Verification Principle’ means that if something cannot be verified, it is therefore meaningless. For example, metaphysical statements have no meaning because they cannot be verified. We cannot prove notions that help us understand the world such as existence, cause and effect.

The creation of the ‘Verification Principle’ led to disputes because people argued about the formulation of the ‘Verification Principle’. Not even Science could provide a satisfactory answer to these disputes.  Wittgenstein was amongst those who opposed the ‘Verification Principle,’ however, he was still against metaphysics.

Karl Popper did not support the Logical Positivists either and was therefore given the name ‘The Official Opposition’. His book ‘Logic of Scientific Discovery’ attacks the ideas of Empiricism and as I previously mentioned, Logical Positivists. He believed that the ‘Verification Principle’ could not be verified and nor could scientific theories be proven to be true because of the Theory of Induction. The thing that marked out all science is its potential to be falsified. Induction cannot be a reliable source because according to Hume’s ‘Rising Sun’ just because things have happened in the past doesn’t mean that the same will definitely happen again in the future. Popper realised that everything in the world is potentially untrue and this is why he disagreed with the Logical Positivists.

The philosophers of the ‘Vienna Circle’ believed the method of clarification showed how empirical statements were truths derived from protocol statements. Protocol Statements are statements that report the results of observations and provide the basis for scientific confirmation.  Experiences recorded by protocol appear to be private to each individual, but this caused people to question how can we can ever begin to understand everyone else’s own meaning? This is because meaning depends on verification. Verification is a private process and therefore no one else has access to this. Schlick responded to this argument by insisting that a distinction must be made between form and content. Content of experience is what you enjoy or live through life. For example, to see something a certain way such as the grass is green. This is private. However, the form of experience may be common to many of us. For example, many people can experience the same sunset although we can’t be certain it’s the same thing we’re experiencing  but as long as everyone agrees that what they are witnessing is the same then everyone is able to communicate with each other and construct the language of science.  Wittgenstein didn’t agree with this solution and so he distanced himself from the ‘Vienna Circle’.

 Wittgenstein’s later Philosophy                                                              

In the 1930s Wittgenstein became a very influential teacher. Descartes and Schlick had striven to show how knowledge of the external public world could be built up from immediate private data of experience. Wittgenstein however, showed that private experience is something that itself presupposed a shared public world. He also believed that we do justice to the private within a social context rather than the public to be constructed from the private.  

After his return to philosophy, Wittgenstein ceased to believe in logical atoms and he also chose to not believe in a connection between language and the world. This contradicts with what Wittgenstein stated in his work ‘Tractus’. Wittgenstein reassessed his beliefs and established that he now believes that language is interwoven with the world in many different ways which he expressed as ‘language games’.

The Language games are a point of speaking whether it is expressing sensations or reporting an event etc. He doesn’t mean it’s trivial, they are simply linguistic activities. The meaning of the word is its use in a language game, if you want to give an explanation for the meaning of a word we must look for the part it plays in our life. For example, the meaning of a table.

Wittgenstein never abandoned his view that philosophy is an activity, not a theory. We need philosophy if we are to avoid being entrapped by our language.

After Wittgenstein’s death in 1951 at the age of 62, many considered Quine, to be the most respected English speaking philosopher. Quine spent time with the ‘Vienna Circle’, his aim was to provide a framework for a naturalistic explanation of the world in terms of science and physical science. All the theories that we use to explain the world are based on our sense receptors. Sense receptors account for our ability to see, hear, taste, smell, touch, sense pain and temperature.

Wittgenstein and Quine despite being considered two leading analytic philosophers had very contrasting views. On the whole they disagreed about the nature of philosophy. Wittgenstein firmly believed until his death that philosophy is not one of the natural sciences.

The Open Society and Its Enemies

During the Second World War Popper developed the idea of political philosophy in his book ‘The Open Society and its Enemies’. Popper explained that in order for a political organisation to flourish, its institutions must leave maximum room for self-correction. The two things that Popper believed are important for an Open Society to exist are:

1.       That the ruled should have ample freedom to discuss and criticise policies proposed by rulers.

2.       That it should be possible without violence to change the rulers if they fail to promote citizen welfare.

 

Popper didn’t rule out a government as he believed that we need a government that worries about trying to protect their state from the economically strong.  A Utilitarian view, the greatest good for the greatest amount of people.

Popper attacked Marx and Plato because he considered these two philosophers to be enemies of the Open Society.  In an Open Society there would be no secrets just an authoritive figure with supreme knowledge of all and all citizens would also have equal rights and be trusted with knowledge too.  

Year Two First HCJ Lecture-Science and Certainty

Science is the search for the truth, you can never know the absolute truth about anything. Kant supported this idea by expressing that you can never possibly know truth but you can always have an honest opinion about what you believe to be the truth. The Universe is ultimately unknowable. This statement can be applied in journalism since you can possibly never know the real truth of a story but you can be honest in what you write.

Kant also believes that the truth can be split up into two categories:

1.  A Priori truth. 'Truths before experience'
2. A Posteriori truth. 'Truths found out through experience so that facts are known.

Before Kant people supported the idea of of 'Mirror theory of the mind'. Plato also shared a similar theory of Forms. Plato believed that though forms of the world existed independently of human consciousness.

The Empiricists Bacon and Newton thought that the Cosmos was the sum total of many things. Some of these things are very remote or very large or small and therefore are difficult to see but they are 'there' as objects whether we can obviously see them or not. Therefore the same theory can be applied to Science just because we can not see microscopic molecules in a material this does not mean that they don't exist. Barclay opposed this view by stating that perception equals existence. No existence if an object has not been seen or witnessed.

Kant's view is that the Cosmos is more like a computer game where the object (space and time) is created in consciousness and then fades away again first into the apparent distance and then disappears entirely again. However, Kant wasn't a pure idealist and therefore didn't believe that objects were really there, but only existed in a Noumenal Form.

Humanity will always have the ability to strive for more, to learn more (this is similar to Nietzsche's 'Will of Power') .

Logic- Deduction vs Induction

1. Inductive logic is moving from a particular proposition.
2. Deductive logic is moving from a  general proposition, usually mathematics and geometry.

Deduction :  

 All things are created.

The Universe is a thing.

Therefore the universe was created.

From Newton to Einstein

The Copernican Revolution in 1543 was the eruption of Science. It was the idea,that is now known as fact, that the Earth and the planets revolve around the Sun.
This created a clash of Science and the traditions.

The Verification principle

The truth of any proposition is the way in which you verify it. Therefore, if a proposition cannot be verified, then it is neither true nor false. Arguably, the verification principle cannot be verified itself.

Schopenhauer and Nietzsche's 'The Birth of Tragedy'

Schopenhauer was a member of the generals school of German Idealism in the 19th Century and his ideals were similar to Hegel, whom he disliked. His position is that of immaterialism. The apparent world does not exist independently of perception. In many ways Schopenhauer is similar to Kant as well as Hegel, for example, they both believe that you can deduce by reason that there is a necessary pre-existent formless 'something' which is a necessary condition of the existence of anything at all.

Schopenhauer believed there is only one undifferentiated 'thing in itself' this 'thing' he describes as 'will'. This has the same meaning as Nietzsche which is the will power or the will to be/ to exist/ to live. This concept of will is the same according to Nietzsche as 'eternal fire' in Heraclitus (a pre-Socratic). Nietzsche hated Socrates and believed that the Socrates were only trying to think their way out of things and this method would never work.

Nietzsche believed in the saying: 'god is dead' and that violence would end humanity which must be overcome. The future is full of violence and he was anti-Christian believing that humanity is simply a passing phase.

Life is pain- the cause of pain is desire- achieve denial of the will is intoxication- the best type of this is music. If you are a moral person then you can overcome your desires and also get these desires out which ensures that you won't worry about these things. Nietzsche doesn't believe in Schopenhauer since he believed him to be a bad Christian. He said you should follow your desire as then you will be without regret when you die.

Nietzsche's first book was called 'The Birth of Tragedy' that talks about Greek political organisation.Nietzsche believed that art and music can carry out the same functions a religion because it can express the 'Nature of Humanity'. He believed that true tragedy had not been achieved since the time of the Greeks due to an imbalance between 2 key themes. This true form of tragedy transcended pessimism and nihilism by allowing the audience to look at human suffering and allow them to affirm their own existence.

These two key themes centre on the Greek Gods Dionysus and Apollo. Dionysus was the God of wine, ecstasy and intoxication. Apollo was the God of sun, reason and dreams. Nietzsche believed that a fusion of these artistic impulses create the perfect drama.

Nietzsche hated Euripides for 'destroying' art since he disposed of any Dionysian aspect of tragedy. For example, Euripides introduced plays which were much more realistic and a good representative of reality. This coincided with the Socratic movement of rationalism. He believed that by rationalising everything it would reduce people's ability to engage with art. Nietzsche found all types of form or structure to be Apollonian sculpture since it relies entirely on form. Rational thought enables distinctions to be made between the good and the bad.

He also believed will to be vital. Socrates, however, did not agree. Nietzsche believed the only way to rescue modern culture from self destruction is to restore the spirit of tragedy.

Elections

Parliament can run for a maximum of 6 years, once these 6 years are up the current parliament is dissolved by the Queen before an election. It can be dissolved at any time if the government no longer has the majority. Also an election can be triggered if the government loses a vote of confidence in the Commons.

The Queen is the head of the State. The Coalition government passed a law fixing the date of elections to be held every 6 years, the next one occurring on the 7th of May 2015. Up until the law was passed it was the Prime Minister's decision to fix the date of elections. It has been tradition to hold them on a Thursday since 1935.

In order to vote you must register and therefore be put on the electoral register in your constituency. You are not automatically put on the register even though you may already pay council tax.

Those who can't vote are:

• Lords
• Under 18s
• Members of the European Union
• Any Citizen from any country apart from Ireland and the Commonwealth countries.
• Prisoners

Whoever gains a majority in the constituency is elected and this means that national voting percentages are not reflected in the amount of seats. This means the election comes down to marginals because most voters in safe seats are wasted.

Each candidate must put down a deposit of £500 which is returned if they get at least 5% of the votes cast.

Spoilt ballots are disqualified and there will be a recount if the votes are very close.

The Growth of Political Parties

19th Century

During the 19th Century 'rotten boroughs' saw a change in population and demographics. It was the time of the rise of the industrial north. For example, Manchester and Liverpool became factory or mill orientated which caused these two places to be at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. There was no representation (MP) at all. The Reform Act 1832 was brought into action in hope that it would shift representation towards the towns and the north. The reason for this Act was to prevent the misrepresentation of voters occurring. Issues of unfair treatment were therefore dealt politically with no need or violence.

The creation of the Reform Act meant that the repeal of the Corn Laws was passed which meant the end of the Tory Vs Whig system and so the Liberals and the Conservative Party were created. Sir Robert Peel's Conservative Party Vs Gladstone's Liberals.

Towards the end of the 19th Century, came about Electoral reform which meant competition for the Urban Working Class vote. There was also a steady increase of the Franchise Acts such as Education, Housing and Health. The Working Class were no longer satisfied by merely getting by, they wished to earn more money to invest into their future. This consequently saw the growth of the Middle Class.

World War One

Post war introduced Socialism and the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s. However, there was also a resurgence of Conservative Politics in the depression years.

The Second World War

1945 was the year of the first 'proper' Labour government with a secure majority, this meant that there was also many social democratic reforms. For example, the NHS, Keynesian Economics, Trade Union rights etc. Also after the war Britain began to regain their original resources which caused the dismantling of the British Empire which gave India its Independence.

Despite Churchill being pronounced a War hero having won Britain another war, the public turned against him and so a new prime minister was announced. This was to be Attlee who belonged to the Labour Party. The 'Beveridge Report' which was created by William Beveridge, was introduced by Attlee and provided Britain with a social welfare system. This set the foundations for the welfare system which we still use today.

The 'Beveridge Report' was very popular amongst the public due to claims that the report will act as a national insurance, 'protecting you from cradle to grave'.

Keynes introduced the idea of the government managing the economy aiming for full employment. This was called 'Managed Capitalism'.

The 1970's

The 1970s was a disaster for Labour during the 'Winter of Discontent'. This was a period of time where everyone was demanding to be paid more money and regularly went on strikes. The Trade Unions were gaining too much power which needed to be cut back urgently. With the Conservatives back in power with Margaret Thatcher she was determined to pull Britain out of its current depression.

The 1980-1990s saw the rise of Thatcher she put a stop to the Trade Unions which were still growing in power. She knew that she had to go for the biggest Trade Union to kind of 'show them who's boss'. The biggest Trade Union was in fact the mining Trade Union. After she conquered the Trade Unions she sold off all national attributes in order to gain complete privatisation. This encouraged vast consumption in Britain and so the depression was a thing of the past.

However, the rise of Thatcher did cause a very polarised clash between the left and the right. The right wing were living by the theory: the 'best will achieve' but the left wing viewed this as unfair. Labour challenges nuclear and nationalisation.

Major and Tory Sleaze

Major's cabinet were 'torn apart' by various tabloids by printing conclusive evidence of bribery, prostitutes and irresponsible behaviour from Tory Cabinet members. This was a 'boom' time for tabloids due to the public interest to have an insight into politics. Jonathon Aitken head of the Military finances was reported for taking bribes by the Guardian. However, Aitken denied the claims, using the line 'Sword of Truth'. He was jailed for not only for taking bribes, but for lying on Oath.

Weber and Bureaucracy

• Marx ( class ideology, economics)- no absolute right/ wrong ideology
• Nietzsche (morality, culture)
• Weber ( power, legitimacy, domination)
• Freud (sexuality, irrationality, sub-conscious)

After there was no revolution and there was also the fail of the Paris Commune which saw the rise of Germany and social democracy, imperialism and militarism dominated in various countries.

Bismarck formed many of the German speaking nations into one state in the 19th century by imposing new laws. The 'built from above approach' introduced bureaucracy which consequently created a middle class.

Weber like Marx, is a kantian- humans can not know the objects in themselves, no absolute reality; we only have a mental picture- the ideal types of social organisation ( socialism, nationalism and liberalism etc).

Weber analysed social action into 4 fundamental types:

1. Instrumental- rational action ( social status and security factors)
2. Value- rational action
3. Affectual- emotional affirmation/disaffirmation (orientation)
4. Traditional ( rational inheritance- anticipating orientation)

Domination is authority and legitimacy according to Weber. He also analysed what he believed to be the different types of authority:

1. Traditional eg families, ceremonies, titles etc.
2. Charismatic
3. Legal rational ( bureaucratic)

Weber on Bureaucracy

Weber used bureaucracy as a way of referring to the way in which a government rule. He believed that a bureaucracy was the most efficient way of achieving 'the rule of law'. This law is rational and therefore demands respect. Consequently, there should be no resistance to authority and followers should remain loyal to their leaders.

The Prussian government was the key institution of the German Empire.

He believed the ideal type of bureaucracy was to consist of a hierarchical division of labour and also be patrimonial in allowing the buying and selling of property.

Bureaucratisation created inevitable capitalism which meant it was a more efficient method, a more bureaucratic way to develop modern civilisation.

Politics

National Politics

Journalists are named the '4th Estate' in National Politics, this is their constitutional position. ''Must not only be done but must be seen to be done.'' Therefore, it is a journalist's job to hunt around and check that politicians are doing their job properly. Journalists also have the legal right to report if a politician is not doing his job due to Privilege.

John Wilkes is a hero for all journalists since his paper 'The North Briton' attacked the current MP of the time,Lord Brute and king George III. They wanted to put him in prison due to this and him also commiting contempt of Parliament. He was exiled a number of times and even spent some time in prison because of his protest for the right of free speech.

It is because of Wilkes that Journalists are now able to report about what happens in parliament on the constitutional basis of free speech. This is called Qualified Privilege. However, you must avoid the Sub Judice rule which is contempt. Although you're allowed to report what you want you cannot say anything which is defamatory and therefore puts you at the risk of being sued for libel. Also note that you're not allowed to mention the Royal family too.

In America USA officials are not allowed to sue for libel at all. On TV and radio you must have a balance of arguments ( Broadcasting Act section 6/ Representation of the people Act) in newspapers you are allowed to be one sided as you're not watching or listening to something and arguably isn't as influential.

Voting in the Commons is formally called a 'Division' the parties try to control the way in which MPs vote through 'whipping' unless there's a free vote on matters of conscience. Whipping is when people terrorise others into voting for them. The 'whips' are usually MPs themselves.

House of Lords

Years ago people weren't elected into the House of Lords, you were born into parliament, when you die your son or daughter takes your place. This is no longer the case as in 1999 being able to inherit this status was stopped and 'peers' became people of a professional job such as surgeons and bishops etc.

Members of the House of Lords don't represent constituencies and are also not paid a salary but can claim expenses.

All new laws have to be approved by both houses except when it comes to tax- raising measures which are for MPs alone to decide. Members of the House of Lords also are not allowed to vote on changes to taxation or finance, they never have the final word.

The Hansard is the official report of the proceedings of Parliament which is published daily.

Analysing the Neil Warner Case

 The CCRC rejected the case of Neil Warner to not take his case to the Court of Appeal. The CCRC pass a conviction if there is a real possibility that the conviction will be overturned. There must also be new evidence that was not mentioned before at the previous trial or appeal. Therefore, they believed that Warner's case didn't match with this criteria.

For example,a series of fingerprints belonging to Warner were found at the point of entry on the dining room window at the Pool's house, on the dining room door and on the kitchen draining board above the draw where the knife was taken to murder the Pools.

The footprint which was found on the chair in the dining room also matched the footprint of Warner.

Warner claimed in his statement that first of all he did not enter the house but then he changed his statement and admitted that he had actually entered the house with the intention to steal after he noticed that the front door was open. He claims that he did not go upstairs and only remained in the house for 5 mins until he noticed someone approaching the house. This statement turns out to be another lie, since fibres of the blue pullover which a witness had described seeing Warner wearing, shows contact with items which belong upstairs in the Pool's house.

However, no blood was found in Warner's caravan when it was searched later by Police, there was no blood in the pipes or anywhere which would have indicated that Warner has washed the blood away. A checkered shirt belonging to Mr Pool was discovered at Warner's caravan. Warner's caravan mate, Mr Knox, states that he returned to the caravan at 2:45am despite Warner claiming he returned home at 1am, wearing the checkered shirt, and Warner's jeans that he wore on the night in question were on the washing line. Therefore indicating they had been washed.

Warner claims that he left his pullover at the scene because he used it to wipe his fingerprints off the window frame and then left the jumper behind. He doesn't however, give a reason as to why he took the checkered shirt, he just states that the shirt was in the dining room and didn't have to go upstairs to retrieve it. I can't help but be sceptical about this, I don't see why the shirt would be in the dining room and why Warner would be so worried about wiping his fingerprints off the window frame but then leave his easily identifiable jumper behind, with his hairs on.

To conclude I believe that Warner has lied a number of times and therefore his account of what happened isn't reliable. Although he attempted to mention other witnesses such a Miss Lawson, a taxi driver, who claimed to take a man with blood on him home on the 21^st of July. However, the murder was carried out on the 22^nd of July therefore proving this evidence to not help his case. There is clear evidence that Warner went upstairs and that he was in the house longer than he has stated. Taking all this into consideration, I believe the CCRC were right to deny his appeal.

Radio Assessment- Final News Bulletin

Third news story without audio

Second News story with audio

HCJ- The Dreyfus affair and 'J'accuse'

Background Information

During the Franco Prussian war in the 19th Century, was a growing power and a great influence on Prussia under the rule of Bismarck. Bismarck wished to unify Germany. France was ruled by Napoleon and France was forced into war with Prussia without any allies. This continued until Napoleon was captured and France was therefore defeated. This was a great humiliation for France and for Napoleon. Due to Napoleon's capture Paris declared the Third Republic- siege of Paris by Germans.

Germans were fantastic in war and so it was inevitable that France would lose. This means that because the French lost the war they therefore have to pay compensation (a huge indemnity) and also the French Provinces of Alsace and Lorraine had to be handed over to the Germans. There were 2 million people who remained in Paris and refused to give up to the Germans. The Germans had Paris surrounded and acted in a vicious/ savage manner to the Parisians. They were starved and even had to slaughter horses for food. The Parisians attempted to use pigeons to send messages to others outside of Paris but the Germans brought in hawks to eat the pigeons. The Parisians gave up in 1871 and the Germans now have a victorious nation.

The Paris Commune

Landlords returned to Paris and demanded rent and interest. A new National Government consisted of mainly Royalists and so there was a fear of a new monarchy. The Commune was created in March 1871 and then was abolished in May 1871, so only last 2 months. The Commune gave the Parisians a chance to rebel against the government by setting up their own rules: ''Festival of the Oppressed'' ( Lenin). This also gave women the chance to be equally powerful in the Commune as they to set up their own rules. Activists, Socialists, Anarchists and Jacobins were all in the Commune. Marx supported the Commune: ''the dictatorship of the Proletariat.''

The Commune introduced social reforms such as setting up nurseries so that women could work. Night working was also abolished and consequently all working conditions were improved. People had the right to run a business, separated Church and State.

The Commune was ruthlessly destroyed, somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 people were executed. ''In Paris everyone was guilty'' Especially women were shot since women were vital to the leadership of the Commune, they undermined the confidence in the army and so had to be put in their place.  Despite the Commune being short lived it had a huge impact on European Politics.

Dreyfus Affair

In 1894, the defeat of the Franco- Prussian War just cast a shadow over France. The French built an overseas empire in Asia/Africa but were concerned about everything that might effect their power/reputation/greatness once more. Politicians were bribed by Jewish people to stay quiet about financial problems.

France was very militaristic and the army were seen as a symbol of French identity, they were still however, worried about there being another war with Germany. There was a huge increase in spying in all European Countries.

There was evidence of secret French information being found in a wastepaper basket in the German embassy. The Army decided to pin the blame on Captain Dreyfus for passing this information onto the Germans since he was intelligent and from Alsace, so therefore a Jew. He remained adamant that he was innocent.

In 1894 Dreyfus was found guilty for a crime he did not commit and was sent in exile to 'Devil's Island'. Later on an officer looked into the case again and discovered that the real culprit was a man called Esterhazy. The French government were reluctant to believe this was true but if it did turn out to be true they believed that if a Jew rots on 'Devil's Island' it is a good thing. Esterhazy was put on trial but found innocent (wrongly convicted) A famous French journalist called Emile Zola was furious about this miscarriage of justice and wrote an article called 'J'accuse' which named the men who he believed to be corrupt in the government and he stated that Dreyfus was wrongly convicted. This was a very brave thing to do. Zola was convicted of Libel and fined and sentenced to prison, he fled to London.

Anti-Jewish riots broke out and right wing papers campaign for Jews to lose their citizenship. The army recognised the weaknesses in their case and so forged documents in order to provide more evidence which will keep Dreyfus on 'Devil's Island'.The man who forged these documents committed suicide in prison after he was caught and was seen as a martyr/ a hero. After Dreyfus was retrialed and was found guilty with ' extenuating circumstances', Dreyfus was trailed again and prenounced innocent not until July 1906.

First News Story with audio

The Paradigm of Change- Seminar Paper

The Paradigm of Change: Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer

Kant

·         A Paradigm is a way of connected thinking across all fields of thinking. After the enlightenment and Romanticism there was a Paradigm shift.

·         Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer were three German philosophers who were idealist and were also mainly against Hume and his empiricist approach. Empiricism was previously influenced by the Romantic Movement which occurred after the French Revolution.

·          During the 18^th century Britain was mostly occupied with empiricists such as Locke, Berkeley and as I previously mentioned, Hume.

·         Their philosophy led to subjectivism (subjectivism was fundamental of all measure and law). This was not a new tendency since it existed previously at the time of St. Augustine.

·         Leibniz believed that everything in his experience would be unchanged if the rest of the world was annihilated.

·         German idealism incorporated the idea that the mind was believed to be more important than matter and so many of these idealists believed that only the mind exists and that knowledge isn’t always the best way to reach a philosophical conclusion. This is due to their rejection of empiricism and also Utilitarian ethics.

·         Rousseau influenced Kant more than Hume since he often read Rousseau’s work.

·         Kant was brought up as Pietist (Stress on the emotional and personal aspects of religion) and so he was liberal in Politics and theology and also sympathised with the French Revolution until the ‘Reign of Terror’. He was also a believer in democracy.

·         Kant’s principle was that every man is to be regarded as an end in himself. This was a form of the doctrine of the Rights of Man. Kant’s love of freedom is shown in his saying: ‘’There can be nothing more dreadful than the actions of a man should be subject to the will of another.’

·         Kant was more concerned with science in his earlier work, than with philosophy. For example he wrote a treatise on wind and he wrote ‘General Natural History’ and ‘Theory of the Heavens’ (1755).

·         Kant’s most important book ‘The Critique of Pure Reason’ was written 26 years later in 1781. It was written to prove that although none of our knowledge can transcend experience, it is in part a priori and not concluded inductively from experience. The part of our knowledge which is a priori embraces not only logic but much that cannot be included or deduced from logic.

·         Kant separates two distinctions:

1.      Between analytic  and Synthetic Propositions

2.      ‘A Priori’ and ‘Empirical’ propositions.

·         Analytic reasoning is based on contradiction. For example, ‘a tall man is a man’ you know that this is true because to say that ‘a tall man isn’t a man’ is contradictory.

·         Anything learnt through experience is always a synthetic proposition, not analytic. For instance ‘yesterday was cold’ there is no evidence contained within the statement to prove someone to be right or wrong.

·         Unlike Leibniz, Kant refused to accept that all synthetic propositions were discovered through experience. Instead he made the distinction between the knowledge that we know empirically from what we know ‘a Priori’.

·         An empirical proposition is knowledge derived from our senses either on our own or that of someone else whose testimony we believe.

·         A Priori proposition is to have a basis other than experience. A general proposition is that 2+2=4 this proposition has a certainty which induction can never pass on to General Law. Therefore all propositions of mathematics are a Priori. Once we’ve understood this general principle, there is no need to keep using evidence to reinforce the idea, it’s just always true.

·         Kant therefore accepted that it is synthetic and still a Priori. This raised the problem: ‘how are synthetic judgements a Priori?’ Kant spent 12 years answering this question. The outer world is a matter of sensation, the world we see is what we perceive because of our brain sorting the world into space and time in a way in which we can understand. 

·         Things in themselves which are caused by our sensations are unknowable; they’re not in terms of space, time or substances. Nor can they be described by any general concepts which Kant calls categories.

·         Space and time are a subjective part of perception. Therefore, a synthetic proposition can be a Priori because we perceive the world through time and space and can therefore be sure that everything we see has to remain close to the parameters (limits) set by time.

·         Space and time are not concepts, they are forms of intuition.

·         Within ‘The Critique of Pure Reason’ Kant also included a section where he chose to demolish all the purely intellectual proofs of God’s existence. He had other reasons for believing in God.

·         The only 3 proofs for God’s existence are:

1.      Ontological proof

2.      Cosmological proof

3.      Physicotheological proof

·          Ontological proof defines God as the most real being. For example, the subject of all predicates (the answer of new knowledge/ a technical word for logic) that belong to being absolutely. Existence is such a predicate that he must exist. Kant however, objects that existence isn’t a predicate.

·         Cosmological proof states that if anything exists then a necessary, Supreme Being must also exist in order for everything else within the universe, and the universe as a whole to exist. Eg this Being is God.

·         Physicotheological proof is similar to the design argument but in a metaphysical sense. The universe exhibits an order which displays evidence of purpose. Kant argues that it only points out an architect, not a creator.

·         ‘’The only theology of reason which is possible is that which is based upon moral laws or seeks guidance from them’’

·         The three ideas of reason were:

1.      God

2.      Freedom

3.      Immorality

·         Kant had no input on doctrines which gives to morality a purpose outside itself such as Utilitarianism.

Hegel (1770-1831)

·         The peak of movement in German philosophy was carried out by Hegel but undoubtedly stemmed from the work of Kant. Hegel often criticized Kant but was a major influence on himself and also on Germany.

·         In the 19^th century, two major countries: America and Britain were Hegelians.

·         Marx was a disciple of Hegel.

·         In later life Hegel was a patriotic Prussian, a loyal servant to his state. In his youth he despised Prussia but admired Napoleon.

·         Hegel retained a belief in the unreality of separateness.  The world in his view wasn’t a collection of hard units whether they are atoms or souls. This idea was unlike Spinoza. The world is one large organism and the separate things that make up the world are only real in the sense that they make up the world, when they are all put together.

·         A disbelief in the reality of time and space.

·         ‘Whatever is, is right’

·         The absolute is the whole (when referring to the world)

·         Two things distinguish Hegel from others of a similar metaphysical outlook:

1.      Emphasis on logic

2.      The triadic movement called the Dialectic.

·         Logic, according to Hegel is the same as metaphysics. His system is based on these two forms of logic which are essential to prove the nature of reality. He began by stating that the absolute is ‘Pure Being’ because it doesn’t have any properties other than simply existing to contain all that is within (the thesis).

·         The absolute cannot exist without properties otherwise the absolute is nothing. This is antithesis.

·         His nature of reality is an ever changing cycle of errors being corrected which he believes will eventually lead to some kind of perfection. This meant that Hegel believed the world was changing constantly even though we can’t see it changing. This is the same logic that can be applied to atoms since we know they are constantly moving even though we can’t see them moving. Change is the only constant, yet despite this change everything remains its being. This being is its ‘Geist’ (soul /appearance). The universe as a whole must have a Geist as it is changing constantly and therefore must be some sort of surrounding thing.

·         The purpose of the Geist is for an object or thing to understand themselves. He stated that ‘the fall’ (when Eve ate the forbidden fruit) caused alienation so the Geist no longer knew itself and is now constantly changing in order to return itself to the Perfect State.

·         The nature of the Geist is to know itself.

Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

·         Born in Danzig, Germany, Schopenhauer was a pessimist. This was a peculiar characteristic to possess for a philosopher. He was also not fully academic unlike Kant and Hegel but was interested in art and ethics.

·         Schopenhauer preferred Hinduism and Buddhism to Christianity.

·         He placed great emphasis on will because will is metaphysically fundamental but ethically evil. Therefore pessimistic.

·         The three sources of his philosophy were:

1.      Kant

2.      Plato

3.      Upanishads

·         Schopenhauer valued peace more than victory and rather hated German morals so in his youth moved to Paris for 2 years.

·         Later he became a clerk in Hamburg in order to please his father but he hated it since he desired a literacy, academic life.

·         His father later died of suspected suicide and Schopenhauer disliked his mother. It is suspected that his low opinion of women was a contributing factor to his dislike for her.

·         During his time in Hamburg, Schopenhauer became influenced by the romantics especially Tieck, Novalis and Hoffmann.

·         In 1809 whilst attending the University of Gottingen he discovered Kant’s philosophy.

·         He hated the revolution of 1848 and instead supported spiritualism and magic (Kant a Buddhism).

·         ‘The World as Will and Idea’ was published in 1818 and Schopenhauer believed this book to be of great importance and even claimed that some paragraphs were dictated to him by the Holy Ghost.

·         It wasn’t until in later years that the book got the recognition which Schopenhauer felt it deserved.

·         His system is an adaptation of Kant’s system but emphasises different aspects of the ‘Critique’ and made knowledge metaphysically fundamental.

·         He also agrees with Kant that time and space belongs only to phenomena; the thing in itself is not in space or time.

·          ‘The principle of Individuation’

·         Cosmic will is wicked since it is a source of endless suffering. Suffering is essential to life however, and is increased with every increase of knowledge. There is no fixed end. The less we exercise will, the less we suffer.