These three giant names written above are the three greats that were considered to have founded modern hermeneutics. In case you are wondering what on earth that big long word means, it is the word used when talking about the science of interpretation.
The first of the three greats I shall talk about is Nietzsche. Nietzsche, a philosopher from Germany, was a subjectivist. Subjectivists believed in the fundamental experience of something to believe it actually happened. For example (the best example given by none other than Chris Horrie);
· INCIDENT : A tree has fallen
· THE SUBJECTIVE: Well it can’t have fallen because I didn’t hear it.
· THE OBJECTIVE: Well, ok, it would still make a noise and could have still fallen even if I didn’t hear it.
Nietzsche used this subjective system of looking at things by combining it with Epistemology to question theories made by philosophers of the enlightenment such as Kant. Epistemology focuses on the nature and scope of knowledge and Nietzsche believed that in life there was no universal truth, just impressions of truths which have a relative value. Unlike that of the Enlightenment where they believed things were discovered and justified through reason and science. Other than rejecting ideas from previous philosophers, Nietzsche suggested that nothing in life is certain and as humans, we are unsure whether we will see a specific object or person more than once in our lives.
Marx on the other hand was not a subjectivist. Marx focussed his studies on human social development or the differences in Hierarchy. He claimed to have discovered the universal law of human social development. That just shows how certain he was that his theory on this matter was correct. He was a firm believer in that the ideology of the oppressed is different to that of the oppressor. For example; the conservative party, actually, David Cameron, being the egotistical idiot that he is, believes that further education needs a higher price tag whereas the students, who initially voted for the liberal democrats, believe in the exact opposite because it costs us enough as it is. Marx believed, which I completely agree with, is that humans have different values and truths dependent to their upbringing and the society around them. To those from a third world country, things that we seem very everyday day, normal things, would amuse and amaze them for possibly hours at a time, giving us the impression that they are still stuck in this very tribal state of mentality.
I am afraid, however that I am now at the point in my blog where I must talk about Freud and yet again I have to talk about his theory of the tri-conscious mind that we all have. He believed that mental unhappiness came from this tripartite mind and that mankind is on a slow decline to death. Oh Freud, another one of your happy-go-lucky theories for us. According to Freud, humans copy each other and follow each other like a pack of animals and are born and will die in a state of depression. Thanks Freud, for making my life seems so worth it. Freud’s theories were however criticised by other theorists. Hardly surprising, if I must say so myself. Nietzsche argued that each individual person has a will which allows them to do as they please rather than follow the crowd. If they choose to follow society it is because they are doing so according to their own mental or physical choice/will. The seven deadly sins play a big role in this theory of Freud’s, as people of the time were particularly religious, regardless of their religion status. The seven deadly sins are virtues and we should all just express ourselves freely and evil is just what we as individuals disapprove of.
Following the lecture we watched a short operetta named “The Seven Deadly Sins” composed by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in 1933. The operetta follows the story of Anna, a schizophrenia sufferer. Her split personality is her Anna 1 and Anna 2, her white sister who tries to be reason but often influences her to the wrong. As operetta states in its genre title, there is no spoken word, the story is told through song. This operetta really captured how Freud’s tripartite self can work on an individual with the ego and the id and how they are in constant conflict with each other.
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