- Mary Wollstonecraft asserts that the social subjection of women was partly due to nature, and partly due to the system of education given to men and women. Why might she have thought this? (20 marks)
This is linked to Romantic views of nature and the fascination at the time with human nature. This state of nature was looked at by Rousseau, Hobbes and Locke. Wollstonecraft accepted that women are physically weaker and is part of the romantic movement, appreciating and celebrating nature, accepting that it is in women’s natures to be submissive. However, she rejected the system of education at the time, which was Aristotelean.
Aristotle has been seen to be as influential as Christianity itself. He saw women as and inferior species, akin to animals, with no role in reproduction. He also believed in “natural slavery”, that some people are naturally meant to be directed and that it is cruel to give them freedom. Women were included in this category. He also thought that the best sort of rule is Aristocracy.
Wollstoncraft’s work was a reaction against these Aristotelean ideas. She was part of the general radicalism movement, politically liberal, like Shelley. She agreed with Locke’s idea that we begin with tabula rata and so education is very important. She was inspired by Rousseau’s anti-elitism, but their ideas clashed in his attitude towards women and education. In Vindication on the Rights of Women, she said that women are partly at fault for accepting their role in society, which is then reinforced by the education that they receive. She thought that we are human beings first, and should be treated equally in the public sphere, with no difference in rights etc, and that gender should come second. She saw it as not important in the public sphere, only in private, personal relationships.
- Compare the epistemological stance of Keats in the “Ode on a Grecian Urn” to that of Kant in the “Critique of Pure Reason”. (20 marks)
Epistemology is the philosophy of knowledge, or the theory of theory; thinking about how we can be certain about what we know. Aesthetics is the study of beauty itself. Both of these men had interest in both of these areas.
Keats was a poet in the Romantic movement, along with Shelley, Byron and Wordsworth, and had an interest in the nuomenal; possible worlds that exist beyond what can be expressed in words. In “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, he wrote that “truth is beauty, beauty is truth... that is all you can know”, which is a very strong philosophical statement (something you would not hear from an actual philosopher) and has all the trappings of romanticism.
Kant talked about the division of the universe into nuomenal and phenomenal. The nuomenal is objects in themselves, even when they are not being perceived. Phenomenal is the object when it is perceived. The aesthetic response when you, as a subjective being, see something beautiful, for Kant, is a proof of the existence of the nuomenal world. Any subjective, blissful, sublime feeling or emotion gives a glimpse of the world beyond ordinary perception, hence beauty is truth, truth is beauty.
- Define and very briefly discuss the following terms as used in logic before the innovations of Frege;
- Axiom (2 marks)
Axiom comes from Euclidean geometry and syllogism. An axiom is the starting point of absolute truth, beyond doubt and argument. Aristotle’s example “all men are mortal” is axiomatic, in that a syllogism can be constructed from it. This is often known as syllogistic or deductive logic. e.g., all men are mortal, Aristotle is a man, therefore Aristotle is mortal.
- A priori (2 marks)
This means knowledge that is know without experience, without any verification from the external world. Hume rejects this idea and Locke’s theory of tabula rata says that there is no such thing. However, Hegel thinks that most things are known a priori, such as the rules of logic. This originates in Aristotle’s work.
- A posteriori (2 marks)
This is knowledge that only comes from experience. Empiricists and materialists depend primarily/absolutely on this kind of knowledge.
- Deduction (or analysis) (2 marks)
Deduction is the syllogism; we derive a conclusion from the original premace, e.g. we can deduce from the fact that an oak tree is an oak tree that it is a tree. Kant’s example is that if a man is a bachelor, we can deduce that he has no wife. Therefore it is a statement that is true by definition, a certain/analytic truth.
- Induction (or synthesis) (2 marks)
This is synthetic logic, the opposite of deductive logic, because you add knowledge that is not in the deduction. It is similar to jumping to conclusions, which journalists have a perpetual dislike of. It is a method of science and therefore most scientific theories are inductive; based on adding information in. For example, deductive logic is that aeroplanes can crash, this is an aeroplane, therefore it can crash. The inductive would be that plane crashes are rare, which requires gathering data and calculating the odds.
- In the Essay on Human Understanding, Chapter X (On Miracles), it might be said that David Hume asserts that every observable phenomena is a miracle. If this is true, why does he assert this? (10 marks)
Hume said that every observable phenomena is a miracle because certain knowledge is impossible by deduction. For example, there is no reason to say that because the sun sets, it will rise tomorrow. He is skeptical about any kind of truth statement, or taking a leap of faith. It is very difficult to live by his way of thinking because it means questioning everything and being sure of nothing. He says that when someone tells you that they have seen a miracle, you should compare the likelihood of the miracle occurring and the likelihood that he is a “knave” or a fool. We live in a world of logic.
- Contrast your understanding of Philosophical “materialism” with philosophical “idealism” with particular reference to Hegel and Marx. (20 marks)
Materialism is an epistemological stance, that the world is made up of sensible matter; objects, atoms etc. Idealism says that everything you see is a mental phenomena, in the abstract. For example, the statement “love makes the world go round” is idealistic because it says that the spirit or geist of love causes the world to be. Hegel was a transcendent idealist, believing that nothing at all is matter but everything is spirit or manifestation of geist. Geist, according to Hegel, has a purpose and therefore this theory is teleological; saying that everything has a purpose and everything happens for a reason (Aristotle). It also says that everything is logical and conforms to dialectical rules.
Marx was Hegelian and professed that “I have stood Hegel on his feet” (which is often mis-quoted). He said that the world creates ideas. He was not a materialist in the sense of John Locke, an English Empiricist that believed in mechanistic materialism. Marx was essentially materialist, but saw that ideas do play a role in the world.
- Discuss the economic, demographic, political, technological and sociological factors influencing the development of newspaper and periodical journalism in the period 1815 to 1915. (20 marks)
This is between the end of the Napoleonic wars and one year into the First World War, in a century when the world became the world we know today. There was no radio or television, so they were dependent on newspapers. Economic factors include the introduction of free trade and capitalism, allowing people to make money and getting rid of mercantilism, corn laws and protectionism. Cobbett and Dickens explored these factors in their writing, looking at the new liberal way that individuals could make money through newspaper businesses, creating the golden age of profits.
Demographic factors include urbanisation, which Cobbett wrote about, with people moving to towns to make densely populated areas, which aided distribution and created a concentration of people with similar interests. The markets that emerged also aided distribution, for example New York. Malthus was involved in this; the country was no longer rural, urbanisation had begun.
Political factors included the rise of the radical press, the repeal of stamp duty, the end of censorship and the liberal political regime that was in place, allowing much more freedom of expression.
Technologically, the steam driven printing press of the 1820s led to tens of thousands of copies in a night compared to the dozens of the old Gothenburg press. Railways were also important in that distribution was vastly improved. The telegraph also had an impact, meaning that news could be transmitted in the same day, for example the news of the Crimean War.
Sociological factors such as class and language also influenced the growth of journalism, as many more people could read and access papers, especially in urban environments such as New York where people were living on top of each other. This was also the time of William Randolph Hearst who transformed the journalism industry with images and cartoons and attention grabbing headlines.
Economically, the reforms of liberalism and free trade were very constructive for the market and meant that many people were able to start up newspaper businesses. It was also useful that in cities, people spoke the same language, therefore making news more easily spread.
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