Preparation and Questions for unseen class test!

Here are the questions for the unseen class test. Following the questions I have identified some revision I feel is helpful for them: also including my notes taken from the lecture.

1. Mary Wollstoncraft asserts that the social subjection of women was partly due to nature and partly due to the system of education given to men and to women. Why might she have thought this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R34FwuCXq6o

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/bl_vindication004.

- nature and education
- Rousseau 'emile' said that women should be educated differently to men.
- 'Vindication to the rights of women' published in 1729, she stated in her book that women should not be subjected into a role and critizes those that do. (links to society, how women are placed through society)
- Aritotle: 'Men are different species' she rejected aritotle but she was fond of Rousseau (love hate relationship)
- Nature link to romantics ideas- mary shelley who wrote 'Frankenstein' (equality)
- 'Man is born free before society' Rousseau

2. Compare the epistemological strance of Keats in the ode on a Grecian urn to that of Kant in the critique of pure reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nU-6EdNe5M

- Epistemological means the catagory of philosphy of knowledge. How can we know what we know? Keats 'Truth is beauty, beauty is truth' according this is all we can and need to know.
- Nominal worlds: the sublime, things within themselves, something ia known once it is percieved and becomes the phenominal. (Romantics)
- Romantic period was about discovery- asking what is life about?
- Aesthetic: the study of beauty
- Keats and Kants believed in the nominal world, an Aesthetic response is evident of Kant's theory and proves it.

3. Define and very briefly discuss the following terms as used in logic before the innovation of Frege:
(A) Axiom: Starting point of absolute truth 'all men are mortal'
(B) A prori: Knowledge without experience (innate ideas) 'I think therefore I am'
(C) A posterori: Knowledge with experience
(D) Deduction: gain conclusion from original information (byclicle)
(E) Induction: Opposite to deduction, jump to conclusion, scientist method. 'Sun set or sun rise'.

3. (b) In the essay on human understanding chapter X it might be said that David Hume asserts that every observable phenomena is a miricle. If this is true why does he assert it.

- Faith
- example of train going through tunnel


4. Contrast your understanding of philosphical 'materalism' with philisophical 'idealism' with particular reference to Hegel and Marx.

- Materalism is the theory of knowledge or sensible matter
- Idealism is everything we see is a mental thought
- Hegal and Marx

5. Discuss the economic, demographic, political, technological and sociological factors influencing the development of newspapers and periodical journalism in the period 1850 - 1915.

- Economic: free trade, newspapers being printed for money
- Demographic: people moving from the country into towns- bigger audience to sell to.
- Political: Stamp duty
- Liberal: changes in sensory and no high taxes
- Technology: steam press, railways, papers can be distrubted further
- Sociology: Langauge/ gender, examples Hearst san fransico examiner (25 languages spoken in one country)

Seminar paper: Citizen Kane

Orson Welles ‘Citizen Kane’ was released in 1941 and from many critics has been described as one of the greatest films to date. In an article from the ‘News and property cinema’ published the same year 1941. One critic wrote ‘The story of a newspaper genius, an egotist who had everything the world had to offer, it compels attention and admiration through its vital camera work, scarifying dialogue, blunt realism, freedom from sentimentality, unique technical treatment and flawless portrayals’. The film has had a major impact on many people and therefore so many have discussed and written about it. The film is a success and shows true originality through the development of imaginative themes. With the use of these themes it allows to build an image of the character of ‘Kane’, the audience are shown his power and his falls due to his weaknesses which are discovered throughout the film. Welles expressed that he tried to use techniques to create the sense of ‘realism’. Although his attempt was more of an experiment it worked and it made the audience more aware of what was appearing on the screen, and therefore the audience can interoperate or identify with the film in their own way.

The main story line of ‘Citizen Kane’ is the story of Kane’s life and his experiences told through the people that knew him. A reporter aims to find out what Kane’s last word ‘rosebud’ meant before he died, which is seen in the opening moments of the film. As the reporters meets those who were important to Kane through his life he gains a better understanding of who Kane really was, although he does not discover what ‘Rosebud’ means it allows the audience to discover a meaning for themselves.

A few themes appear strong in the film. Love is the most present in the film and how Kane wants everyone to love him which can link to the theme of loss, as he may have felt that the need of love was due to the lack of childhood he had.

It had been rumoured for sometime after the film was released that Welles had based his character of ‘Kane’ on William Randolph Hearst a newspaper tycoon who was still alive at the time of the film. However Welles completely denied ever basing his character on ‘Hearst’ and stated that the character of Kane was a typical person of the first half of the twentieth century and also based on many different icons through history but not ‘Hearst’. However it would seem that there are a few similarities between the character of ‘Kane’ and William Hearst. Like Kane, Hearst became a powerful newspaper man and inherited a fortune of money. Hearst was famous for developing a new style of journalism. Both Kane and Hearst show failures in politics, Hearst tried to stand for mayor of New York however failed similarly Kane failed as an election candidate. A final similarity to the two men is that they both lived in magnificent homes. In the film Kane creates his home, his fantasy castle which he calls Xanadu. Just like Kane, Hearst lived in a huge palace.

The film can be taken to have many interpretations and it may be true or false that the character of Kane had been based on William Hearst however some critics and close friends of Welles state that the ‘Unhappy’ character of Kane shows characteristics of Orson Welles himself.

The struggle!

As it comes to the end of my first year at university, apart from the fun I have had and meeting new friends, it is clear that for a student at university it is such a struggle. I am really disgusted how students are treated, and I had my fair share in the first two weeks of my university experience. After waiting weeks and weeks for my letter telling about what room i would be in west downs, i recived a letter one week before i was due to start lectures stating that i would be staying in a hotel for two weeks. Not exactly how i imagined my first few weeks at university. We were told that they did not have enough rooms for all students and therefore 50-60 of us will be re-placed into student accomadation in two weeks time. The two weeks at the hotel were not the most enjoyable, the fact that it was no where near the univeristy was one issue and another that we had to go all the way to the uni to get food. The hotel's food was expensive and therefore many of us could not afford it.

Eventually when the two weeks were up we all got into a van and were taken to a student accomadation. It was not what we expected. We had been placed in an old people's home. No joke. As we arrived there were photographers who were hanging around and thrusting microphones in our faces. For me was quite upsetting and made me incredibly mad, as if it wasn't bad enough we had been through so much but we would not be left alone by reporters. On one occassion I and a friend were followed from our accomadation and down bereweeke road shouting at us. Once they stopped following us, we had to try and find another way back to our accomadation, unfortantly we couldnt so they were stil there waiting for us when we returned.

However as it is coming to the end of term, being at woolverston we have made the place our own. Decorating our rooms and enjoying university life as much as we can. It will be sad when we have to move out as it feels much more like our home now.

Back to the point of student struggle, being through this really mucked up my first month at uni and with making friends at university and feeling apart of any group. The treatment we got from some members of the university was not right and did not help with us fitting in. If it hadn't been for the SU supporting us we would have never gotten the help we needed. Although the university did not get us the help, we got up and went directly to the SU president and asked for help. I am so happy that we went to them, they defiently are a great SU and without them we would have struggled alot more than we did.