Emma Rixhon - Philosophy
Emma Rixhon – Philosophy
When choosing what to write my Extended Essay on, I had initially been
interested by the extent to which individuals – people willing to step
out of the norm of their contextual society – affected the growth and
development of a society and its culture. This however proved to be
much too broad a topic to tackle and with the support of my Extended
Essay supervisor and JS Mill’s On Liberty, I narrowed my attention down
to individual acts of rebellion and their influence on social progress. By
comparing Mill’s high regard for individuals, whom he calls ‘geniuses’,
with contrasting and complementary views from the likes of Camus,
Nietzsche, and Marx, I explored how individuals and their rebellions can
lead to positive social change. Though I never reached a conclusive
answer to my essay question, I perused various philosophical thinkers
and their essays which had reflected on its various implications. I
thoroughly enjoyed researching the topic and then arranging my
reflections into a somewhat cohesive argument, as well as the challenge
of deciding exactly what, and in what way, to write about in the subject of
my choice.
Supervisor: Andy Waldron
Emma addresses a particularly urgent question that is familiar to
students of political philosophy: what exactly is our obligation to
ourselves, and how much do we owe to our society? Emma’s essay
is unusual in that she combines two very different approaches − the
Victorian liberalism of JS Mill, and the existentialism of Camus and
Nietzsche. Both are concerned with the role of the solitary, exceptional
individual and the impact such individuals have upon society, and Emma
uses the essay to clarify these concepts of individualism and rebellion in
perhaps unexpected ways. The essay therefore offers a conceptual model
which allows us to understand modern acts of rebellion − from Rosa
Parks to the naked rambler − as effective but not necessary conditions
for social progress.
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