Critical Review - WINOL Semester One

Critical Review – Sam Sheard

WINOL OVERVIEW

This semester can be considered a successful one for WINOL after a number of challenging projects were completed, alongside our weekly news and sports bulletins.

The aspect of WINOL which has seen the most progress over the course of this semester is undoubtedly the website, which has seen a complete overhaul in the space of the past twelve weeks. We have changed platforms from Joomla to Wordpress, which, despite somewhat restricting the website’s functionality, has created a more structured site. The front page has been made to resemble a modern broadsheet, reminiscent to some extent of the ‘i’ newspaper, with a strong focus on high quality pictures and our most recent stories. The latest bulletin no longer features permanently on the front page, it now only appears on the front page on the day of broadcast. A team has been assembled to continually update the website with news stories throughout the week, so that the website is as up to date as possible. This change in design and approach to our website has improved it dramatically, creating a more professional site and ensuring that the content of the site is always relevant, to increase circulation throughout the whole week. We have also experimented with hosting a twitter feed on the front page, to integrate the site with social media, keeping WINOL as modern as possible.

The Features department has also seen great improvements, with many high quality pieces being submitted throughout the term. This has contributed to a rise in the average visit time on the site, which is now roughly six minutes per user. As a wise man once said, they come for the news and they stay for the features. The quality of work by the features team this semester has ensured that our site has many interesting pieces to grab the attention of the reader, and keep them on the site.

Another of the great successes of this semester has been the special events and programs produced and coordinated by the team. This year’s BJTC awards were hosted at the university, and were filmed and photographed by the WINOL team. The footage featured in that week’s bulletin, as well as a highlights package on the website and a written article. The event was a huge success and the coverage was of a very high quality, giving the team a strong piece very early on in the semester. We also produced a multi camera live stream of the Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner debate, which was hosted at the University, and organised, filmed and edited by members of the WINOL team. This event demonstrated the ambitions and capabilities of the team, and gave us another high profile piece with which to attract people to the site. Arguably the most ambitious special production of the year was America Decides, our US election program which aired live on the site. This piece brought together pre prepared packages assessing the two candidates, footage from the US embassy Election Night Party, live in studio discussion with a variety of guests, and a live transatlantic Skype conversation with University students in Illinois. The program was incredibly challenging, and we came across a number of problems throughout the preceding weeks, but these problems were overcome and we were able to produce a live, three hour program with a variety of good quality content.

Such ambitious projects undoubtedly benefited the team and the site, creating a high pressure environment in which to work and teaching us a lot about how to produce such programs. The content also was of great public interest, and was always audience focused. This, along with the high quality weekly bulletins and an impressive website, helped to improve our Alexa ranking greatly.

Our ranking is now significantly better than any other student journalism, with us well within the top 500,000 worldwide and narrowly outside the top 10,000 in the UK, beating our nearest student competitor, eastlondonlines, by 15,000 places in the UK at the time of writing.  We have also significantly outperformed the website of the Hampshire Chronicle in Alexa rankings. The Daily Echo, however, remains far ahead of us, both in the UK and worldwide. Our Alexa position, comparative to our direct competition, underscores the success that WINOL has seen this semester.

My personal role on WINOL this semester was as a sports reporter, specifically covering the home matches of Winchester City FC.

My first package was on the game between Winchester and Yate Town. The footage of the match was average; there were no glaring errors, but a lot of room for improvement. At times I zoomed in too close to the players and so found myself losing the ball in shots, as the play moved quickly. I also framed my post match interview with the manager poorly, centring him in the frame and speaking to him from too close to the camera, so at times he was speaking directly into the lens. Henry showed me how I could edit the footage of the interview on Final Cut to improve the positioning, but also taught me how to correctly frame and conduct interviews to get the best possible footage.

My next package was a profile of the University Rugby team, in which I filmed shots of the players training, held an interview with the captain and did two pieces to camera. As I was filming alone I had trouble filming the PTC’s as I could not be sure where I was positioned in shot, whether the gun mic I was using was visible, and whether the sound was being picked up. As a result I learnt that PTC’s are far more successful when there is someone behind the camera, to ensure everything is working correctly. Fortunately, I managed takes that I could use for the package, where I was framed correctly and the sound quality was good. I also failed to conduct the interview at the same time as I filmed the training footage, and so had to conduct the interview at the next training session. This made the package feel inconsistent as the footage of the training session was at night, while the interview was conducted in broad daylight. I had trouble with the brightness of the interview, and was shown how to edit colour and brightness on Final Cut, which improved the footage greatly, however it was still of a lower quality than I had hoped it would be. The sound quality on the interview also suffered, as the sound of wind was picked up by the microphone. I was advised to attempt to conduct future interviews somewhere more sheltered if the sound was being affected by wind. I

My next involvement was to film second camera for an AFC Totton match, where I was asked to zoom in on players and stay tight. This was challenging, but from the previous Winchester match I had attended I had learnt how to keep tight to players while not losing track of the ball. The footage I got was much improved from the Winchester game. I also framed Liam’s PTC’s for his package, which were also much improved on my previous efforts, obeying the rule of thirds.

I filmed two further Winchester matches during the semester. The camerawork was much improved, however in both I had some issues.

In Winchester’s match against Mangotsfield United I had accidentally left the camera on automatic settings, which caused the camera to fail to focus in time for one of the goals as I zoomed on the player. This was very disappointing, as other than focus I felt the shot was good and it also meant I had to leave out a goal from my package, which I felt made it incomplete. My footage of Winchester vs Didcot Town was very dark as it was an evening kick off, and the floodlights at Winchester’s ground are not strong enough. I managed to brighten the footage in final cut, however this negatively affected the quality, and it was not as sharp as I would have liked.

With each package of football highlights I struggled with my voiceovers. The quality of the track was consistently good, but I found myself describing the action too much, the words simply showing exactly what the footage did. Angus advised me that I need to be less descriptive, and could afford to speak less, with the commentary being sparser to allow the pictures to tell the story. For each game I submitted a written match report, which overall I was pleased with, however I lacked still photos to compliment the words.

As well as sport, I got involved in a variety of other areas and projects. On multiple occasions I helped in the gallery filming the bulletin on Wednesdays, predominantly working on the sound desk, but also behind the camera and on the autocue. I initially struggled with keeping the autocue moving at the right speed; however with Graham’s assistance I quickly mastered this. I felt comfortable behind the camera and on the sound desk, and was pleased with the job I did in those roles.

I was also involved in the US election program that we produced, both scripting a package and filming at the US Embassy Election Party. The lessons I had learnt from my sports coverage meant that my framing of interviews and pieces to camera was much improved, with the subject well focussed and framed, and the sound quality was strong in a difficult room. I was disappointed not to have managed to get a better shot of Russell Watson singing The Star Spangled Banner however, as I failed to get a spot on the raised podium in the room, and so the quality of the footage is weak. The package I scripted for the program eventually got divided into four separate packages, and as such my script was edited by others. I felt that my original script was fairly strong, however I was told that it was slightly too complicated, and that it would be better if I simplified the wording. This helped me with future script writing, as I developed a different style when writing for video, as opposed to purely written work.

Aside from this I also presented the Sportsweek show on Sound Radio, helped film a feature with Ben Hatton, and worked on production for the WINOL super bulletin. 

ECONOMICS - HCJ YEAR TWO SEMESTER ONE

So the catch up continues... Economics!


The first real economic text was Adam Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations'. In this, Smith claimed that too much state intervention caused Nations to become poorer, and claimed "the hidden hand of the market will make everybody richer". Smith believed that free trade and free individuals boost the economy.

David Ricardo - claimed that natural resources or objects have no intrinsic value, but that value arises when humans apply conscious effort towards an object. For example, a diamond attracts far more value than a matchstick, as it requires significantly greater human endeavour to create a diamond than a matchstick.

Thomas Malthus - The iron law of population - claimed that humans will always starve to death, and that civilised society is permanently on the brink of starvation. Claimed that marriage and chastity were solutions to this problem.

Karl Marx - Marx believed that the only source of value was labour, and that wages would decrease as the population increased, as a higher population leads to a higher demand for each job. This leads to the iron law of wages, which states that as this happens, workers wages will become lower than the price of the item they create. For example, if a 'widget' is sold for £10, then £5 will be taken as profit by the factory owner, and £5 will be given to the worker as wages. The worker then cannot afford to purchase the 'widget', and if the price is reduced, the wages must also be reduced to account for profit. If this is allowed to continue on a grand scale, it can result in over production and under consumption.

Keynes - Keynes' solution to Marx problem of the iron law of wages was to simply print more money. Doing so allows greater investment, and companies to pay higher wages. This of course meant moving away from the gold standard, the system by which the amount of money in the economy was directly proportionate to the amount of gold the country possessed.
However, printing more money is not a risk-free solution. It can lead to inflation and stagflation, as well as an increased role of the state, which by Smith's theory would cause the nation to become poorer.

Of course if everyone just keeps spending, no-one has a problem...

ETHICS AND AESTHETICS - HCJ YEAR TWO SEMESTER ONE

Now, this particular topic was my seminar paper. It was also slightly baffling. So here is my attempt to make sense of it all, hold on tight.

ETHICS

"The greatest happiness of the greatest number"

BENTHAM

Happiness is commonly seen as the key motive behind human behaviour, and an incredibly important concept in moral philosophy, from Plato and Aristotle onwards. Bentham considered pleasure to be the most important motive.

Bentham aligned pleasure with happiness, whereas Aristotle had drawn a distinction between them. Bentham regarded pleasure as simply a sensation, that could be accessed in a number of ways, and believed the relationship between an action and pleasure was one of cause and effect. 

From a Utilitarian point of view, quantity of pleasure/pain must be considered before any actions or decisions are taken. 

Bentham was aware that quantification was not easy, and made suggestions of how to quantify pleasure, relating to duration, certainty and immediacy, to decide what makes one pleasure greater than another.

When making personal decisions we must consider whether the decision will trigger further occurrences of pleasure or pain. When deciding public policy, it must be considered how widely the pleasure or pain will be spread.  This is the principle of greatest happiness of greatest number.

This is a very ambiguous phrase however, not specifying what is meant by the greatest number.

It is likely that Bentham mean the greatest number of PEOPLE, however others have extended it to sentient beings, as they are also capable of experiencing pleasure and pain.

This also raised further questions, such as should we try and increase the population so a greater number may benefit? When measuring happiness, do we consider the total or average happiness.

Bentham is a  consequentialist, believing that morality is based on consequence and that no action cannot be justified. This is the opposite of the absolutist view, where some actions are completely unjustifiable.

MILL

Mill was also a consequentialist, but he somewhat toned down Bentham's work.

Mill distinguishes between pleasure not only in quantity but in quality also.

He claims that universal happiness is the ultimate moral standard, but need not be the motive force behind each and every action. Also acknowledges that all moral systems leave room to justify evildoing to some extent, no moral system is completely flawless. 

SCHOPENHAUER

Schopenhauers ethics are tied to his metaphysics, that the true reality is the universal will, and that human nature is dictated by necessity, that motives arise out of individual character through necessity. Believes if the character and motives of a person are completely known, his decisions can be calculated and predicted, as it is character and motive that influences all a man does. 

Schopenhauer suggests that no person can ever be truly content, as the will is never satisfied, and can never be truly overcome. This is because the only way to overcome the will is through complete renunciation, however renunciation is a gesture of will.

Schopenhauer's ideal is an ascetic perspective; “he compels himself to refrain from doing all that he would like to do, and to do all that he would like not to do”.

NIETZSCHE

Nietzsche believed that the values of Christianity needed to be overturned, essentially believing in a sort of philosophical survival of the fittest, where the weakest are brushed aside.

He believed that we are progressing towards the highest form of life, the Superman (not the comic book hero). To reach this we must have a will and desire for power. He claimed “humanity must be surpassed, it is a bridge not a goal”

Condemns traditional virtues believing they hinder rather than help progress towards the superman, which must come through seeking increased power, not promoting the weak.

AESTHETICS

Baumgarten is seen by many as the father of aesthetics. He believed that beauty exists to give pleasure, and that the highest form of beauty is nature, therefore art aims to replicate nature.

Burke suggested that achieving the sublime can also be the aim of art, as well as achieving beauty.

Hume claimed that beauty is interpreted by each individual, it is what satisfies our souls, dependent on our mood, nature and social conventions. Essentially, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, here 'satisfaction' is a term that needs some clarification. 

Kant describes two kinds of satisfaction – sensual delight as gratification, and enjoyment of beauty as pleasure. Sensual delight is personal, whereas beauty is considered universal by Kant.

Kant went on to describe two kinds of beauty, free beauty and derivative beauty. Free beauty is beauty without purpose, it may not have a function but is still beautiful, derivative beauty is based on its purpose, it cannot be beautiful without fulfilling its purpose.

SCHOPENHAUER

Schopenhauer believed that beauty must be admired without desire influencing our opinion. A desire to possess the beautiful object or letting others convince us of its beauty corrupts our opinion. 

He considered art to be representations of beauty, attempts to recreate beauty, to capture something perfect, and holds poetry and drama as highest form of art, because it comes the closest to perfectly representing beauty. 

Got that?

HCJ YEAR TWO, SEMESTER ONE - FREUD

I am well aware that this blog has been cruelly neglected. Now is the time for that to end.
ALL of this years HCJ lecture notes will be along shortly, working in reverse order (apologies) from my most recent and well remembered lecture, all the way to the first week of the year, way back in September. Wish me luck.


SIGMUND FREUD

Brian chose not to hold a banana for the whole of this lecture. I found that marginally disappointing. On the plus side, I was reminded just how good a film 'A Dangerous Method' is, and will be watching it again once this blog is fully updated.

Freud attempted to create an all encompassing theory, based on his observation of the misery of the human condition. Freud sought to understand why people are essentially miserable beings, and the method he devised to answer this question was psychoanalysis.
Through psychoanalysis, Freud believed he had uncovered the archaeology of the mind.
Freud claimed that the reason behind our misery is that we are at war with ourselves, that our mind is divided into three different parts. This theory draws some slight parallels with Plato and Marx, both of whom had stated that the mind consists of three parts, however, Freud's remarkably pessimistic view is very different from either of their views.
Freud believed the three parts of the mind were as follows:
- The Id
- The Ego
- The Super Ego

Id
Freud described the Id as "a cauldron of seething excitations". A wonderful phrase, but what does that mean?
Well in essence, Freud considered the Id to be the our core, where all our desires lie. According to Freud, these desires revolve largely around Sex and Violence, a point more recently supported by well respected East London rapper, Dizzee Rascal.
The Id can be compared to a spoiled brat, an irrational toddler who knows only what it wants, and is likely to lash out if it does not get its way. The key word there is 'irrational', the Id is unreasonable and passionate.

The Ego
The Ego is the voice of reason, the part of our mind that engages with reality. The part of your mind that stops you pushing that pregnant lady in front of the train, a sentiment echoed by a young comedian by the name of Eric Lampaert.
The Ego, while the voice of reason within our minds, is also the weakest by Freud's reckoning. He described the Ego as constantly "embattled and beseiged", almost as though the Ego is the perennial victim of the school bully.

The Super Ego
While the prior two elements of the human psyche are ever-present, the Super Ego develops after birth, it is nurtured by its surroundings.
The Super Ego is the internalised rules of your parents, teachers, law enforcement and society at large. The rules, laws and social conventions that you absorb as you develop. The Super Ego is an irrational aspect of your mind, it seeks perfection, and punishes you with guilt, not unlike Religion.


This vision of a three part mind draws sharp contrast with Plato's tripartite self, where reason is the strongest in the eyes of Plato, but clearly considered the weakest by Freud.
Freud's views are far more similar to those held by Hobbes and Machiavelli, we are violent beings, ruled by desire.

Freud observed that society is full of pain, that we are a decaying species that is constantly suffering. He believed that the greatest pain was other people, that others are the greatest root of suffering for an individual. Freud's answer to all of this was psychoanalysis, a solution that he openly admitted was not for everyone, as it was incredibly pricey. With the benefit of hindsight we can also safely say it lacked any scientific merit. Not a bad get rich quick scheme though I suppose, when you're a cocaine addicted celebrity psychoanalyst, but that is an aside.

For those not blessed with the required riches to indulge in psychoanalysis, Freud outlined a number of other, temporary solutions, to help control your Id.
Intoxication - Obviously not a permanent solution, and also relatively costly depending on your tolerance to alcohol/other substances.
Isolation - Again, only temporary, staying isolated for extended periods of time can do far more harm than good.
Religion - Essentially for Freud this is a mass delusion, but one that may help in calming your Id.
Sublimation - By which Freud meant socially acceptable ways of releasing the pent up aggression of your Id, such as sport and work.

If you could afford psychoanalysis however, Freud believed it was a means to deal directly with the Id. Freud did this a variety of ways, including hypnosis, dream analysis and free association. Free association is essentially the patient talking continually in a stream of consciousness, until they eventually reveal their inner desires.

Freud also stated that Civilisation is a collective Super Ego, imposing moral limits and expectations on the masses. Freud considered such phrases as "Love your neighbour" and "Love your enemy" as completely unrealistic expectations, claiming "man is a wolf to man".

Freud's theories contrasted greatly with a number of other philosophers, particularly Karl Marx.
Marx believed in humanities ability to progress and develop, and that eventually a change in system would change society and humanity. Freud had no faith in the ability of humankind to develop and progress, believing the Id is far too strong for us to overcome. Freud believed that regardless of changes in society and structure, we will always be ourselves, we cannot escape our own minds, a belief supported by Russell Brand in his stand up show 'Doing Life'.

In the end of course, Freud's theories have been largely discredited, with no evidence or scientific suggestion that psychoanalysis works, and proof that Freud did not, as he claimed, discover the unconscious mind, a concept which had actually been discussed in academic circles far before Freud. This aside, however, Freud's impact on modern society and thought cannot be denied, as illustrated by the occasional comparisons to modern day entertainers. Even Dizzee Rascal has a little Freud in him.

OH NO!

I have abandoned this blog like some despised offspring! Shortly, very shortly, there will be many, many updates. Time to get to work.

The Warner Case - Innocent?

The Innocence Project - Warner Case

We've been looking into this case as part of the course and have been left to analyse the evidence we've been given and come to a decision as to whether we believe the verdict to deny Mr Warner an appeal was safe.

Mr Warner was accused and convicted of the double murder of an elderly couple, Mr and Mrs Pool, stabbed to death upstairs in their home. Mr Warner admitted to breaking into the house, but claimed it was "on a spur of the moment intention to steal".
After much investigating, this case was rejected grounds to appeal. This means Mr Warner will remain in prison, while some doubts still remain over his guilt, due to a few issues with evidence.

For Warner to have had a case strong enough to successfully appeal, there would have had to be new evidence that either had the potential to implicate another, or could disprove Warner's involvement. The original case was described as 'formidable', and as such for the conviction to be overturned any new evidence would have had to be of great significance, to compromise this 'formidable' case against him.
The main outstanding evidence that the defence had hoped may enable his conviction to be overturned were multiple sets of unidentified fingerprints around The Pools home, the fingerprint of Mr Smith on the front porch, and an unidentified bloody man seen by a taxi driver on the night of the murders.
Mr Smith was a neighbour of the Pool's and a known 'peeping-tom',  however the only fingerprint belonging to him was found on the outside porch, and so it seems unlikely he had any involvement in the murder, as there is no evidence linking him to the inside of the house.
The unidentified prints and the bloodied man are certainly suspicious, and ideally would have been investigated and their relevance to the incident established. The evidence against Mr Warner, however, is so substantial that these unresolved pieces of potential evidence were unlikely to have the power to free Mr Warner, had they been resolved.

The evidence used to convict Mr Warner included multiple sets of his fingerprints within the Pool's home, including at the window, the suspected point of entry, and the kitchen drawer, where the murder weapon was believed to be kept. A jumper of Mr Warners was discovered in the house, while a shirt belonging to Mr Pool was found with Warner, who had also disposed of his trainers at his wife's house and was seen washing his jeans the following day. This combined evidence proves that Mr Warner entered the house, something he initially denied, and shows multiple incidents of suspicious behaviour.
Later, it was discovered that fibres from Mr Warner's jumper were found to have been in contact with five items upstairs in the Pool's house, near where the bodies were found. The forensic scientist investigating claimed it was unlikely that the fibres appeared on these items by chance. This further compounds the evidence against Warner, and is the first piece of evidence to suggest that Mr Warner did in fact go upstairs, contrary to his story.

With this further evidence providing an even greater link between Mr Warner and the murders, and no evidence to the contrary, the decision to deny Warner a further appeal is certainly safe. There is no evidence of any substance to prove his innocence, and a great deal against him. Therefore, the denial of the appeal is the correct decision.

Radioactive - The Final Cut

A female student from the University of Winchester was sexually assaulted last night as she walked home.  The incident took place between 10.30 and 11.30 pm on Stanmore Lane. Police are investigating the incident. Seb Miell, President of the Student Union for the University of Winchester urged students to stay safe as they walk home late at night.

Audio cut – Seb miell

In “incidents such as these…”

Out “…be safe and make sure you are walking in groups”

Length: 0:19

Police Officer David Rathband has been found dead in his home, in a suspected suicide. PC Rathband was shot and blinded by gunman Raoul Moat in one of this country’s biggest manhunts, and has been blind since.  He had been struggling to come to terms with his blindness and leaving the police force, and it is has been suggested this may have caused him to kill himself.

A murder suspect has been found hanged in his cell in a Manchester Prison.

Barry Morrow, aged 52, was awaiting trial for double murder, accused of killing his landlady and her mother last year.

This is the second high profile prisoner to be found dead at Manchester prison in recent weeks.

A post mortem is due to take place later.

Householders across the UK are being called to restrict water usage after one of the driest winters on record.

Drought is expected this summer after little rainfall through the winter months, and Hampshire residents will be affected. Southern Water have asked customers to conserve water, despite saying hosepipe bans are unlikely.

With the need to conserve water, the idea of timed showers has been suggested. I asked Winchester residents what their recommended shower length would be.

Audio Cut - VoxPops of Winchester Residents.

In: “you should only need about 5 minutes…”

Out: “…normally about 4 minutes.”

Length: 0:20

Above is the script, separate audio cuts, and then the final bulletin. Hope you enjoy it, feel free to let me know how I could improve if you've got any suggestions.

Radio, Live Transmission - Radio Assignment Week 2 Piece

Householders across the UK are being called to restrict water usage after one of the driest winters on record.
Drought is expected this summer after little rainfall through the winter months, and Hampshire residents will be affected. Southern Water have asked customers to conserve water, despite saying hosepipe bans are unlikely.
With a possibility of restricted shower times, we asked Winchester residents how long a shower should be.


Audio Cut - VoxPops of Winchester Residents.

These Voxpops will be added soon, as equipment was not available to conduct them this week.

Philosophical Idealism: Kant and Hegel

Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer emerged from the German Idealist movement. This school of Philosophy was partly influenced by post-revolution French Romanticism, and partly a reaction to British Empiricism, which they despised, believing it had damaged Metaphysics as a worthwhile pursuit.

KANT

Wrote 'A Critique of Pure Reason', in which he discussed how humans acquire knowledge. He argued that knowledge comes both from logical reasoning and also ideas with no foundation in logic, but all knowledge comes from experience.
Logical knowledge comes in two forms - 'synthetic' and 'analytic'.
Synthetic knowledge is that which we only know to be true by experience, which can be stated without evidence other than experience. Analytic knowledge is that which is known to be true based on the concept of contradiction, for example "an equilateral triangle is a triangle" is true, as to say it was not true would be self-contradictory.
Kant then divided synthetic knowledge, into that which we know 'empirically', and that which we know 'a priori'.
Empirical knowledge is that which relies upon sensory data, whether our own or that of another. History, Geography and the laws of Science all are examples of such knowledge, as they have been experienced through senses and recorded. A priori knowledge however may be first understood through sensory perception, however need not be every time, knowledge which can be learnt through the senses but has a certainty which surpasses the need for assurance. Mathematics is an example, as 2 + 2 = 4 is true, regardless of whether there is a physical example of it.
Here we return, as we always seem to in HCJ, to issues of causality.
Kant accepted Hume's proof that the law of causality is not analytic, and as such its truth could not be guaranteed. Kant accepted it to be synthetic, but also believed it was a priori, and so set about trying to prove that something could be both synthetic and a priori. It took him 12 years, but he cracked it.
Basically, it is the world itself which causes sensation, but we interpret it through our mental apparatus. It is our eyes and our minds which interpret what we experience and order them into space and time, concepts which we understand. The things which themselves cause our sensation cannot be truly known, as they are not in space and time, it is our interpretation which places them there. The example Russell uses is that if you always wore blue glasses, everything would appear blue, however the objects themselves would not necessarilly be blue, that would simply be ones interpretation and perspective. Kant says that space and time are not concepts, they are forms of intuition. There are also a priori concepts, which comprise Kant's 12 'categories'. Theses categories are divided into four sets of three
1 - of quantity: unity, plurality, totality.
2 - of quality: reality, negation, limitation.
3 - of relation: substance-and-accident, cause-and-effect, reciprocity.
4 - of modality: possibility, existence, necessity.
Kant maintains that, if we attempt to apply space and time, or the categories, to things that have not been experienced, we are troubled by 'antinomies' - mutually contradictory propositions, each of which can apparently be proved.
Kant gives four examples, each of which consists of a thesis and an antithesis.
1 - Thesis - 'the world has a beginning in time, and is also limited as regards space'
      Antithesis - 'the world has no beginnings in time and no limit in space; it is infinite as regards both time and space'
2 - proves that every composite substance both is, and is not, made up of simple parts.
3 - Thesis - there are two kinds of causality, one according to the laws of nature, the other of freedom.
Antithesis - there is only one causality according to the laws of nature.
4 - proves that there is, and is not, an aboslutely necessary Being.

This is the part of the Critique that greatly influenced...

HEGEL

Hegel is in many ways a bridge between Kant and Marx, two of the most influential philosophers of the 20th Century. This is not to say that Hegel was not himself important.
Hegel believed that we were not viewing the world in its truest sense as it must be viewed as a whole.
Hegel's system relies on two forms of logic:
- that which is not self-contradictory.
- that which fits in the dialectic triad.
The dialectic triad was used by Hegel to discover the true nature of reality, and was composed of three elements: the thesis, the antithesis and the synthesis of the two.
In this case, the thesis was that the whole is a "pure being" because it has no purpose other than containing all that is within it.
The anithesis is that the absolute cannot exist without properties, so the absolute is nothing.
The synthesis is that, as the whole is both 'pure being' and 'nothing', it is 'becoming'.
In Hegel's view this makes the whole of nature "becoming", and lead to him saying "change is the only constant".
Scientifically speaking, Hegel was bang on, as our cells are constantly dying and being replaced. Despite the constant change though, everything retains its "geist", the soul or being of an object. As an example, if you took an existing ship and replaced every single plank on the ship, it would remain the ship, even though all constituent parts had been replaced. Similarly, the Universe must have a geist, despite its constant change. According to Hegel, the purpose of the geist is to know itself.

Right, that seems to be the important bits covered.

Radio Ga Ga

Here is my radio piece on Memphis and the Elvis obsession. Listen, or don't, your choice. Cheers



And here is a written piece for my radio assignment:

A murder suspect has been found hanged in his cell in Manchester.

Barry Morrow, 52, was awaiting trial for double murder in HMP Manchester. He was accused of killing his landlady and her mother last year, and his the second high profile prisoner to be found dead at Manchester prison in recent weeks.

A post mortem is due to take place later.

HCJ Semester Two - Playing Catch Up

As anyone reading this blog will have noticed, it's been all quiet on this particular front for far too long. A mixture of being busy and a lack of motivation means that i've been radio silent for about 3 months. This is despicable behaviour for which I apologise, and I intend not to let this happen again.
So now to the real business of blogging my notes and observations from a month of HCJ lectures this term.
It's been interesting stuff, and we started off with William Cobbett, Charles Dickens, and a tale of two Revolutions.

The two revolutions in question are the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution, two major turning points in the formation of the modern world. The French Revolution changed the face of European politics, with a variety of political systems implented in a short period. The Industrial Revolution meanwhile completely changed methods of production and distribution of goods, beginning a culture of mass production.
These two revolutions allowed the British Empire to flourish into the great power of the world, however the British Empire almost failed to exist at all, as Scotland attempted Central American colonisation in the late 1600's.
The attempted Scottish colonisation of Darien - New Caledonia was a disaster, with one fifth of Scottish wealth invested in a malarial swamp, where the settlers suffered from starvation and fever, and soon fled. This failure led to a bankrupt Scotland surrendering their sovereignty to England in the 1707 Act of the Union, the first step towards a powerful British Empire.
An attempted uprising at Culloden in 1746 was the final straw for Scotland, defeat by the English resigning them to English rule.

The French Revolution
The French Revolution arrived at the end of the 18th Century, and the UK was incredibly successful throughout, their aboslute naval power allowing blockades of French ports, leading to a boom in British exports as French trade was destroyed. The British even manufactured the uniforms of the French army, such was their industrial dominance. With Europe in turmoil and the armies of other major European powers occupied, Britain set about constructing a worldwide empire, claiming the territories of India, South Africa, Singapore and Sri Lanka, and building a trade monopoly which continued to boost the UK economy. The Transatlantic Triangular Trade was also established, a hugely profitable trade route moving goods and slaves across the world, further compouding Britain's global dominance.
With the end of the war came the end of the boom, the Corn Law was introduced in 1815, placing a tariff on imported grain to protect the UK economy. These laws were widely unpopular, as combined with high unemployment and low wages it made basic food unaffordable for the working classes. The Law was repealed in 1846.

The Industrial Revolution
As unbelievable as it may seem now, in the mid 1800's Manchester was the most important place on earth. It had become the centre of the Industrial Revolution, its population soaring from 17,000 in 1760 to 180,000 in 1830. It became the 'workshop of the world', as Industry thrived and factories appeared in great numbers. Despite the importance of the city it was essentially hell on earth, the quality of life was incredibly poor, with overcrowding, low wages and awful pollution, many fell ill, with cholera common. Such conditions are described often in the work of Charles Dickens, particularly in Bleak House.
Cotton was the key to the revolution, harvested by slaves in the American South, and brought to the UK by the transatlantic triangular trade, it was the raw material used in the mass production factories.
The horrible conditions, combined with a flawed political system caused uprisings and protests, as the people of these newly established great industrial cities sought political representation. Violent repression was utilised by the state to quash such protests, as seen in the Peterloo Massacre and the Tolpuddle martyrs. These tactics were effective in the short term, however the growing dissatisfaction lead to the Reform Act of 1832.

Farming
The idea of landholding peasantry disappeared with the introduction of enclosures. This meant that all farmers became essentially labourers that could be easily transferred from the country to the city, to join the industrial workforce. As the industrial revolution brought advanced technology to farming, workers rioted in the 1830's. With the repeal of the corn laws came cheaper food, however the lower price of bread meant lower wages, as the cost of living decreased.

The Poor
Workhouses were introduced as part of the 1834 Poor Law, which stated no able bodied person was to receive any support from the poor commission outside of a workhouse. These workhouses were developed with a Utalitarian view by Bentham. He believed that as people sought pleasure and avoided pain, the best way to keep the poor from entering workhouses was by making them as repulsive and horrific places to live.

Cobbett - The Rural Rides
Cobbett was an anti-radical who became radical, believing that rapid industrialization was destroying traditional ways of life, observing the plight of 19th Century farmers.
Claimed "When farmers became gentlemen, labourers became slaves."
Opposed the government, the army (whom he had served with) and the Church, as he resented their greed.
Wrote the Political Register, which was read by the working class and had a circulation of around 40,000.
He was imprisoned for sedition and fled to America to avoid further prosecution. On his return he was accused of libel three times.