After my post on The Distorted Simulation of Reality I thought I would take a look at the philosophical teachings of the man who inspired my thoughts on the advertisement campaign of John Lewis. Firstly, Baudrillard can be described as a dystopic postmodernist, a man who seemingly felt as though we had already lost to the current cultural implications of having disassociated ourselves from the real. In other words, Baudrillard believed that we had so far sepatated ourselves from true reality, that we were now dependent and obsessed with our separation from it - he expressed this in a number of ways.
Baudrillard was a cultural observer in many ways and his ideas of postmodern society are bleak, suggesting the real is irretrievable. The real is, essentially reality, and Baudrillard argued that postmodern societies had disengaged with what is real by it having been manipulated by media and the systems we now associate with. In the process of having lost the real we have replaced it with a hyperreality, something that continues to shape the way we see the world.
An example of hyperreality would be video games, television dramas, internet dating and artificial intelligence - any system that replaces or simulates reality. One of the problems with mass media, and living in a world full of systems and images that seek to represent reality is that we have become increasingly disengaged from what is real. The hegemonic system which has replaced reality seeks to rebut any attempt to reengage with the real, and one of the consequences of the system is that it enables us to perceive everything nihilistically, and encourages meaningless.
Let me explain, being a twenty-something year old I have been subject throughout my life to the systems Baudrillard talks about, but I am still old enough to remember the frustrations of dial-up internet! I grew up on video games, television and alcoholic-infused evenings throughout my teen years, as well as the expanding prominence of the internet. Exposure to video games, the internet and emotional melodramas has desensitised me to a number of different examples of what would have previously be seen as despicable and ghastly. Here are some examples:
Video games and films: Having played zombie games, GTA, Manhunt and seen a number of gory films like Saw, although disgusting, depraved and wrong, I have always met crime, death and horrific plots with indifference, being able to watch and play these games/films without feeling any real disgust or seeing any real significance in the acts they are simulating. Sixty years ago these video games and films would not have been sold/aired, and any films like The Exorcist or Psycho are not movies I find particularly scary or terrifying because society has moved to new levels in the horror and terror genres. In other words, I am more desensitised to violence, crime and death as a result of the systems I have engrossed myself in.
Consumerism: We have become disenfranchised from the true values of life, and these true values are being represented by products that we are corn-fed into thinking will bring us happiness. We have become engulfed by the worlds of currency and wealth, we now think about everything in terms of exchange and value, whether that be sustenance, sex or time - we have replaced farms and natural produce with large buildings filled with non-nutritious food and drinks, sex and communication are now things we can readily find on the internet in forms of social networking and porn - sex becoming an image of objectification and control rather than one of compassion and love. Time is, of course, given for the sake of earning money - 'how much is our time worth?' has become a cultural form of Capitalism.
Baudrillard believes that these elements are byproducts of the societies we now live in, but these simulations show an obsession with the real that preceded them, further distorting the real. Historical films are a perfect example, events such as the holocaust have been replaced to an extent by the images, melancholy music and sounds that are played through movie showings. This is a part of the system because we are constantly reliving events through systems and images/signs - showing that we have a connection to the past, which is even now being distorted by misrepresentations of those events.
As a result, Baudrillard believes that we are permanently melancholy, and we cannot break out of the cycle which the systems keep us in. The systems' representation of the real are hyperbolic, melodramas on television being an example of what we all aspire our lives to be like - dramatic and action-packed, however this is unrealised. Even reality shows convey misrepresentations of the reality they are supposed to be showing; shows such as The Only Way is Essex and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here all seek to distort reality in a way that it is now unrecognisable.
So that's my profile on Baudrillard (as well as me going off on a tangent about systems...). I hope you enjoyed this and found it informative. If you'd like to know more about Baudrillard I would recommend this book on Amazon, an introduction into some of Baudrillard's ideas on Simulacra and Simulation. Please comment below to let me know your thoughts, thanks. :) Feel free to share any of my posts as well!
Showing posts with label Philosopher Profiles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosopher Profiles. Show all posts
Saturday, 31 January 2015
Saturday, 17 January 2015
Philosopher Profiles - Aristotle
My recent post about Aristotle's views on God, which can be found by clicking here, proved to be pretty popular with readers, so continuing along the same strand of thought, I've decided to start a new series, starting with the famed Greek philosopher Aristotle. The series will be called Philosopher Profiles and will take a detailed look into some of the ideas and motivations behind the makings of these great philosophers.
So, a bit about that Aristotle philosopher. Many see him as one of the greatest of all philosophers, let alone one of the defining thinkers of the ancient Greek period. He studied under Plato whom many of you will be well acquainted with, who in turn studied under Socrates, another one of Greek's great philosophers. However, Aristotle was a man of logic, an idea which we'll see in a number of his concepts, and because of this he was inherently different from the likes of Plato, someone who perhaps wasn't as empirically-minded as the father of all logic. In particular, Aristotle was largely known for his contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, all forms of science, politics, ethics and the arts; not only this but Aristotle's contributions to many of these subjects actually changed the way people thought at the time.
Of course Aristotle was influential during his time, but many of his ideas have survived up until modern day, ideas such as euidaimonia define the way human beings think in the modern world. Euidaimonia is the idea of flourishing, fulfilling one's potential; The Greek philosopher Aristotle, believed that each specie has its own nature, and a perfect life is fulfilling that nature. Seems simple enough, but what does that mean exactly? Well, Aristotle believed human beings to be political animals, and our natural drives were for society/community, happiness and knowledge. He believed that it was the pursuing of these principles that allowed human beings to reach their full potential, and the rational mind was the intrinsic distinction in which we tried to improve ourselves, pushing towards an identifiable human development.
Where do we find examples of self improvement within society? Well, overtime it has been common for human beings to seek fulfillment from a spiritual point of view, many people point towards different religions, all of which expound ideas of self-discipline with the prospect of getting into heaven; not murdering and loving thy neighbour are both principles that contribute to a decent and working society. Whether or not you believe in God is irrelevant, the motifs set down in the bible, man-made or divinely inclined, produce feelings of compassion and love, which I think we can all agree help in achieving happiness or a sense of companionship among people.
Away from religion we find science, Aristotle was a pragmatic man and differed from Plato in that respect. Plato believed that philosophy was purely for contemplation but Aristotle rejected this concept by saying we live in a physical world, and knowledge should come from rigorous testing and understanding our place within the world - Plato thought that understanding came from beyond the material world and was found in spiritualism. Philosophical teaching however, was very much a narrative of contesting ideas and, more often than not, speeches were given to try and persuade the public to think a certain way.
Does any of this sound familiar? Maybe not, David Cameron was never very good at convincing me of anything! Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, a concept which was coined by Aristotle when he lay down a number of techniques on the arts of debate and argument. Rhetoric is still in use today and I actually wrote an essay whilst at uni on how rhetoric had been used in the world of modern politics. Winston Churchill and Bill Clinton are both examples of men who used rhetoric in different ways, Clinton in how he made it seem as though he was reigniting J.F.K's golden boy reign 30 years after his assassination, and Churchill in how he managed to motivate a nation, and made it plausible to convey the loss of life as a small price to pay for freedom. The ideas of rhetoric are designed to bring people together to form one single idea, an idea which you have planted in their heads!
Aristotle's logic is embedded in the ideas of rhetoric, syllogisms in particular, or deductions as we can call them, are the process of taking two points to form a third point - or, creating a valid argument. This is a loose representation of what Aristotle's logic is, and syllogisms are just one example of derivations from the ideas themselves, however this is just a profile and if you would like to read about these ideas more in depth, I will gradually get to each of them.
I hope I have given you an idea of what Aristotle was all about but to contain his ideas in a single blog post would be unfathomable. Over the coming weeks I will be looking at a number of Aristotle's ideas but if you would like to request any specific analyses, then please do so below. Bear in mind this was just a taster of things to come, I hope you enjoyed.
So, a bit about that Aristotle philosopher. Many see him as one of the greatest of all philosophers, let alone one of the defining thinkers of the ancient Greek period. He studied under Plato whom many of you will be well acquainted with, who in turn studied under Socrates, another one of Greek's great philosophers. However, Aristotle was a man of logic, an idea which we'll see in a number of his concepts, and because of this he was inherently different from the likes of Plato, someone who perhaps wasn't as empirically-minded as the father of all logic. In particular, Aristotle was largely known for his contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, all forms of science, politics, ethics and the arts; not only this but Aristotle's contributions to many of these subjects actually changed the way people thought at the time.
Of course Aristotle was influential during his time, but many of his ideas have survived up until modern day, ideas such as euidaimonia define the way human beings think in the modern world. Euidaimonia is the idea of flourishing, fulfilling one's potential; The Greek philosopher Aristotle, believed that each specie has its own nature, and a perfect life is fulfilling that nature. Seems simple enough, but what does that mean exactly? Well, Aristotle believed human beings to be political animals, and our natural drives were for society/community, happiness and knowledge. He believed that it was the pursuing of these principles that allowed human beings to reach their full potential, and the rational mind was the intrinsic distinction in which we tried to improve ourselves, pushing towards an identifiable human development.
Where do we find examples of self improvement within society? Well, overtime it has been common for human beings to seek fulfillment from a spiritual point of view, many people point towards different religions, all of which expound ideas of self-discipline with the prospect of getting into heaven; not murdering and loving thy neighbour are both principles that contribute to a decent and working society. Whether or not you believe in God is irrelevant, the motifs set down in the bible, man-made or divinely inclined, produce feelings of compassion and love, which I think we can all agree help in achieving happiness or a sense of companionship among people.
Away from religion we find science, Aristotle was a pragmatic man and differed from Plato in that respect. Plato believed that philosophy was purely for contemplation but Aristotle rejected this concept by saying we live in a physical world, and knowledge should come from rigorous testing and understanding our place within the world - Plato thought that understanding came from beyond the material world and was found in spiritualism. Philosophical teaching however, was very much a narrative of contesting ideas and, more often than not, speeches were given to try and persuade the public to think a certain way.
Does any of this sound familiar? Maybe not, David Cameron was never very good at convincing me of anything! Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, a concept which was coined by Aristotle when he lay down a number of techniques on the arts of debate and argument. Rhetoric is still in use today and I actually wrote an essay whilst at uni on how rhetoric had been used in the world of modern politics. Winston Churchill and Bill Clinton are both examples of men who used rhetoric in different ways, Clinton in how he made it seem as though he was reigniting J.F.K's golden boy reign 30 years after his assassination, and Churchill in how he managed to motivate a nation, and made it plausible to convey the loss of life as a small price to pay for freedom. The ideas of rhetoric are designed to bring people together to form one single idea, an idea which you have planted in their heads!
Aristotle's logic is embedded in the ideas of rhetoric, syllogisms in particular, or deductions as we can call them, are the process of taking two points to form a third point - or, creating a valid argument. This is a loose representation of what Aristotle's logic is, and syllogisms are just one example of derivations from the ideas themselves, however this is just a profile and if you would like to read about these ideas more in depth, I will gradually get to each of them.
I hope I have given you an idea of what Aristotle was all about but to contain his ideas in a single blog post would be unfathomable. Over the coming weeks I will be looking at a number of Aristotle's ideas but if you would like to request any specific analyses, then please do so below. Bear in mind this was just a taster of things to come, I hope you enjoyed.
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