First lectures on History of Western Philosophy

The epoch we were talking about was Renaissance, which differs to the modern one. Christianity had a very important role at that time. The culture of modern times is more lay than clerical. The Church started being replaced as the governmental authority that control the culture. The feudal aristocracy which was able to hold its own against central governments, started losing its political and then economical importance.

According to Wikipedia Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historic era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe, this is a general use of the term. As a cultural movement, it encompassed a resurgence of learning based on classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform.

Florance was the strongest and the richest city in Italy. The reformations took place there, as it was a modern city with kings and nobels. Theybelieved that philosophy, maths and medicine was more important than religion. Therefore, they tried to convince people to believe in science rather than in the Bible because Philosophers made more sense.

We also talked about Russell. He was a liberal. His main work was in mathematics. He was a specialist in demostrating the logical basis.

A term SYLLOGISM is a kind of logical argument in which one proposition (the conclusion) is inferred from two others (the premises) of a certain form.

eg.

All men are mortal
Socrates is a man
Therefore, Socrates is mortal

First lectures on Media Law

I can finally manage to get an access to the internet which means I can write my first proper post about my lectures!

In the morning I had a lecture on Media Law which was very interesting. It gave me an idea of an overview of law affecting Journalism which helped me understand a bit of Journalists' rights and prohibitions. I was introduced to major legal, ethical and policy issues related to the mass media.

'The media are the eyes and ears of the general public'
I think this is definitely true. The media is around us everyday. They work for the general public and 'act on behalf' of them, as The Guardian says. They resposibly publish interesting and factual pieces of information for those who want to read them to find out about their surroundings, because you never know, maybe one day the things Journalists write about might affect you, as well.

We talked about Freedom of Expression which is 'the important right which is a democracy journalists share with other citizens...'
Despite they fact that journalists' freedom of expression has depended on two constitutional bulwarks in law, which are jury trial and the rule against prior restriant, they still have the power to create positive and negative stereotypes and I think this is what people want them to do and what they should do as long as it's not malicious.

Another thing I've learnt about was Divisions Of Law. There are two main devisions of law. One of them is called Criminal Law and the other one is called Civil Law.
Criminal Law refers to offences that are deened to harm the whole comunity and therefore to be an offence against the sovereign.
Civil Law, however concerns disputes between individuals and organisations in financial matters, or about other entitlements, and includes the redress of wrong suffered. Civil law also includes the resolution of disputes between couples, e.g in divorce actions.

GLOSSARY essential for this topic:

-Injunctions - A court order requiring someone, or an organisation, to do something specified by the court, or forbidding a specific activity or act.
-common law - Law based on on the custom of the realm and the decisions of the judges through the centuries rather than on an Act of Parliament.
-Supreme Court- The name originally given to the court of Appeal, the High Court, and the Crown court as a combined system.
-Statutory instruments- Secendary legislation which can be enacted without Parliamentary debate by a Minister to make detailed law or amendment to the law, under powers given earlier by a statute.
-Case law- The system by which reports of previous cases and the judges' interpretation of the common law can be used as a precedent where the legally material facts are similar.
-Claimant- The person who takes an action to enforce a claim in the civil court

I also found an article on The Guaridian's website, which refers to Media Law.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/sep/21/human-rights-act-journalists


Speak sooooon!

My first post!!

Hello there!

Just started my new blog, woop! My name is Justina. I'm from Poland and I live in West Downs House, which is very fun! Before that I lived in Chippenham. I like dancing, writing and foreign languages.

Speak veryyyyy soon!