Philosophers and the After the Bomb (1 Viewer)

j12onuzim

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I have an assessment task for After the Bomb where we have to give a talk to the class relating to how a philosopher's way of thinking relates to the ideas of the Cold War era. I am confused about this and how I go about relating a philosopher to after the bomb. They seem completely separate and I have trouble making the connection. I heard that this is what we do in the essay but again, how do we compose an essay that focuses on the thoughts of philosophers rather than the techniques?

For example, I am doing Merleau-Ponty, a phenomenologist who stated that we experience through touch but I have no idea how this would relate.

Also, if possible, could anyone give me some presentation tips? I am naturally quite introverted and not great at presentations (actually, I suck) but I want to do well in this. Another problem: my 8 minute presentation is next Thursday but I haven't started. A bit screwed?
 

strawberrye

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This is almost like an identical assessment task I did for extension English-except ours was a bit tougher, it was like a 7 minute talk on a related text and another 7 minutes on creative-seriously the hardest assessment task of the year-but having said that, it is not impossible:)
well, I am not sure about the philosopher you are doing and I am not aware of the prescribed texts you are doing as well-but arguing the point 'we experience through touch' is definitely impossible to relate-after the bomb, at the heart of it, it is ways of thinking-philosophical, scientific, religious, economic-and your philosopher must relate to one of these areas and of course, must have a valid relationship to having influenced these thinking in Cold War era-i.e. it is no use proposing a Romantic philosopher like Rosseau because that is totally out of the context of the module
-I think a very good philosopher to do, but unfortunately, is also one that is likely to be done immensely by your classmates, are Jean Paul Satre-related to philosophical ways-you might potentially find a philosopher who influenced religious ways as well-but for Satre-basically had a very famous lecture called 'existentialism is humanism'-where his definition of existentialism had an immense influence on the Cold War literature-another philosopher you can consider is Albert Camus who wrote the famous short story/essay 'The Myth of Sisyphus'

existentialism is basically the philosophy that individuals confront a sense of confusion and disorientation in a meaningless/absurd world-meaningless because of the destructive nature of scientific developments such as nuclear weaponry which could destroy human existence in seconds-and as such, individuals must self-construct a significance for their existence-i.e. rationalise their existence-and one of Satre's most famous quotes 'existence precedes essence' encapsulates the existentialist philosophy(Hope I didn't get the quote the wrong way around-off the top of my head-might want to google it to make sure:)) -and you can kind of interrelate this disorientation with the religious aspects-i.e. people lost faith in God-many did, some fervent believed-so there is like a strong secular divide, many questioned if God exist, why would he have led so many people suffer-and this compounded the anxiety to search for life-affirmation rather than deriving such affirmation through the simplistic belief in the existence of a benevolent divinity which has been destroyed by the amoral atrocities in WWII and in preceding conflicts

-So if you want certain marks-I significantly suggest even if you don't do the two philosophers I have suggested-you do a different philosopher-I think the fact you are not confident how this can relate heavily suggest you shouldn't do it

-presentation tips would depend on whether you use things like Prezi or you want to go with the more traditional power point presentation(I went for the latter one since I had only like 2 weeks to do the given assignment), regardless-particularly for the latter-my top tips are
1)make sure you have a consistent background or formatting-don't try to use different backgrounds for each slide and don't try to have different fonts for each slide-you can have variation on your transitions, but don't make it too diverse-otherwise people will get dizzy watching your presentation
2)make sure you have less text on the screen than you talk about in your speech-your screen should be an outline of your points-you are not supposed to put a speech transcript-but exceptions are when you put extract from philosopher-and you can talk about different parts of it in your speech
3) make sure you have a catchy opening and conclusion-better if they link-perhaps consider a long quote from the philosopher you are using that relates to the ways of thinking of after the bomb-so that you can have the first part at the start of your presentation and last part at the end...just an idea
4)remember to have pictures whenever possible-keep the audience engaged-whether it is clip art or actual pictures related to after the bomb...
5)make sure there is a strong contrast between your text colour and background so it is easy to read-also make sure you don't have curly text-far too difficult to read

tips to relieve your stress
1)you have plenty of time so don't stress-stop panicking and avoid procrastinating
2)anymore questions-welcome to pm me to ask
3)don't ask around to see what philosophers other people are doing-it will panic you unnecessarily-just focus on your choice and make sure you are doing the best you can
4)you will have an edge if you have a clear title for each of your slides-as well as illustrating some actual examples from the texts you have studied in class of examples where this philosopher has actually influenced literature of the time-and technique analysis might be considered-brief if it is a part of marking criteria
-for now, stop thinking about the essay, focus on your presentation-pm me for further details-but summarising, essentially in after the bomb essays you are focusing on how composers reflect, critique, respond to their context-expressed through different ways of thinking and techniques-so context is actually slightly more important than cramming techniques in-might want to check out my other recent post in after the bomb to help you further:)
Best wishes-don't panic-you will be fine:)) I know you can do it-but you just have to start doing it:)
 
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essayqueen

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you can consider is Albert Camus who wrote the famous short story/essay 'The Myth of Sisphus'
Overall GREAT advice, Straweberrye!! Just a typo that may prevent a google search... It's 'The Myth of SISYPHUS' (with a 'y' in the middle) :)
 

strawberrye

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thanks for pointing it out-will fix it in my post now:)
 

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