I'm thinking of giving a philosophy presentation about our hobby.

[bcraig.waciii]

I have this philosophy class I'm taking and I have to give a presentation about something I feel strongly about, and something that has a strong knowledge issue behind it. My immediate thoughts were to B&B, and I was thinking about how I could work in my now almost 3/4 of a year hobby into this presentation. Then I got to thinking about Big Tobacco and how they have scientists who say that, essentially, smoking does not cause cancer. Next my thoughts turned back to Gillette (Big Shave) and how they have a bunch of scientists and engineers on their staff who make these same claims about their products. (I know this is a lot less serious than cancer, but it is still serious.)

I'm not sure. These were just some ideas I was throwing around in my head today, then it occurred to me that I have this great resource full of gentlemen here to help me out. So yeah, I was just wondering how you guys would create a philosophy speech/ presentation/ lecture around shaving. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Gentlemen in advance.

 

[Lion and the Fox]

I think it would make an interesting presentation. You could make a corolation between an product that was perfected years ago but that has been marketed to death with "improvements" that only serve to increase the coffers of the big cartridge makers (not that there is anything wrong with that per se). The relaxing and pleasurable experience of shaving has been replaced with a quick, sterile process that is more a chore than anything else. Where is the love, you may ask. How could we have strayed from perfection? YOu could tie that into the vapidity of society today that values instant gratification over a longer more pleasurable process that produces superior results. Just some ideas...it is a philosophy class right? The key is proper preparation of the presentation with a clear stated theory or thought and building around that with the supporting evidence arrayed in a logical or sequential process.


Side note: Are you studying in Nevada, University of Nevada Reno?

 

[Kentos]

If you let your 8 year old take a stab at shaving unchaperoned, would you give him or her a Fatboy loaded with a Derby or a 5 blade fusion?

I ask that because the modern cartridge HAS made shaving a mindless endeavor with little to no chance of slicing skin from your face. In that regard the technology behind the carts are quite remarkable.

 

[Lmarkow]

Interesting question, Kent. You might give the 8 year ld a fusion, but would he be "shaving"? I'm not so sure that just because you're moving something up and down your face that (may or may not remove whiskers), you are "shaving." I guess in the end, what matters is what do you mean by "shaving"? Merely cutting hairs?

Good topic for a philosopy class, IMH(philo major)O

 

[maxman]

Oh man, I wish I had found this hobby when I was taking my Philosophy degree.
This would have been fun!
Lots you can do here. I think since it has to be something you feel strongly about, the prof is going to be looking at it from that angle.
What class is it exactly?
I'd look a bit at the history of carts and DE blades just to set the stage then jump in on what factors caused people to switch from the old technology to the new technology. You can find lots of reference material to back you up on the idea of why people migrate from older (yet still useful) technology to newer technology.
Add in some marketing stuff and you're done.

So I guess in a nutshell, you'd be exploring the idea of migrating from older technology to newer technology. If that isn't enough, then you can go into why people are abandoning the new technology (which naturally carries with it a presumption that the new tech is better than the old) and going back to the older tech.

The two could be separate topics, but are linked, so I guess it depends on time and how far you want to explore your topic.

 

[oakeshott]

You say you have a "Philosophy" class, but that covers a broad swath of territory. Are you studying logic? Ethics? Metaphysics? political philosophy? Tell us a little more about what/who you've read in the class and that will give some direction.

Some classic themes you could port over to shaving would be:

How do we know we are "shaving". (Hume, Kant)

Are we shaving our mind or body? (Descartes, Leibniz)

Occam's Razor? Is it a straight or a DE? (Occam, of course)

Shut up and Shave. (Ring Lardner and Ouch)

The Eidos of Shaving in Contemporary Literature. (seriously, you could actually do this one)

Beards and Rebellion: A commentary on academic deconstruction and the death of Barbasol.(Foucault)

John Stuart Mill and the Rights of Shavers: My freedom to shave stops at your hairline. (Mill and Bentham good sources for this)

Arko vs MdC: The rise of the proletariat soaps. (Marx, Hegel)

Beards and the Brazilian Wax: Globalization and the marginalization of hirsuteness (The Frankfurt School)

Shaving and Choice (Sartre, Camus)

Hope this helps.

On a more genuine note, I have a paper one of my professional thinker friends got for me on the development of cleanliness in America that might spur some thoughts for you. Drop me a PM if you're interested and I'll email it to you.

 

[ouch]

Now that's funny.

 

[purerockfury]

i am by no means so philosophizer. but what about how shaving has become less "manly" yet commercials for these almost fully automated razors tell us how manly it is to shave with a vibrating, twenty bladed piece of plastic. do i use them, yes i do i had always thought straight razor shaving was something you did once in awhile at a barber shop (if you can find a barber that does it anymore). until recently i did not know all the wonderful accessories that go along with shaving especially using straight or safety razors.

for me it is instant foam, an under one minute shave and a shower. nothing manly about it, just a chore i need to do. i think once i get and learn how to use a straight razor i will be able to take my time and enjoy it.

 

[Kentos]

To Gillette "shaving" means relieving you of your money from your wallet.

 

[Lmarkow]

That's what marketing companies do.

 

[oakeshott]

I have this philosophy class I'm taking and I have to give a presentation about something I feel strongly about, and something that has a strong knowledge issue behind it. My immediate thoughts were to B&B, and I was thinking about how I could work in my now almost 3/4 of a year hobby into this presentation. Then I got to thinking about Big Tobacco and how they have scientists who say that, essentially, smoking does not cause cancer. Next my thoughts turned back to Gillette (Big Shave) and how they have a bunch of scientists and engineers on their staff who make these same claims about their products. (I know this is a lot less serious than cancer, but it is still serious.)

I'm not sure. These were just some ideas I was throwing around in my head today, then it occurred to me that I have this great resource full of gentlemen here to help me out. So yeah, I was just wondering how you guys would create a philosophy speech/ presentation/ lecture around shaving. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Gentlemen in advance.

I gave a tongue in cheek answer earlier to your question, but after that initial burst of whimsy (what my wife calls ill-mannered sarcasm), your question hung with me. I wondered to myself "Self, is there a question in philosophy related to shaving?". Most of the ones I came up with are properly in the field of sociology, anthropology, science, literature and history. There didn't seem to be many in Philosophy. For instance "Why do we shave" which sounds like a philosophy question, can be better answered using an historical or sociological or even psychological explanation. I don't think philosophy proper has anything to say about it.

Then it hit me. There is one classical paradox in Philosophy which can be forklifted over to shaving. It's the the paradox of Theseus' Ship. The question is as follows: Theseus sails his ship around the world. During that trip, every piece of the ship from mast and sail to the timbers of the hull have been replaced. Is the ship he returns in the same or different from the one in which he left? The question was profound enough for Plutach and Socrates and Hobbes and Locke and so it should be satisfactory for us to attempt to answer. In your case, the question is: Each day I shave my beard. Am I shaving a new beard or an old beard?

One hears this all the time casually when a man says "Deer season is coming up. Have to grow a new beard." Except that some men say "Deer season is coming up. Have to grow my beard again" thus suggesting that they have only one beard and when it grows back, it's the same one as 15 years ago.

If you do this and get an A in the class, a single puck of C&S O&C in a simple unmarked package is thanks enough. Of course, should you blow it and lose the respect of your teacher and classmates, that's on you.

oake

 

[mdw15]

We speak of the pleasure of traditional wet shaving, just as we acknowledge the effort required to master the skills and hence experience the pleasure.

I like listening to music, but I don't think I've ever enjoyed it quite as much as the music I heard I when I played on instruments as a kid, or sang when I had a voice.

Using an electric razor all these years, until a few years ago, was like paying some kid to mow the lawn. I was barely involved.

Wet shaving used to require a little work (the work we at B&B still do) and Gillette figured out a way to skip the learning curve. Clever for Gillette, and good for business obviously. I'm agnostic as to the conclusions drawn by the Gillette scientists. They're not wrong because they're from Gillette. It's just that their conclusions are not reliable--no disrespect to them at all personally--and one most go elsewhere for science worth the time and money to conduct on behalf of the public at least. (Gillette scientists can contribute a lot because they know a lot, just as obviously. They don't become uninformed just because they work for Gillette.)

I would love to see Gillette bring back its real de razors and all that, and I think that cartridges are befouling the planet for a number of stupid reasons and for no one particularly good reason, but I don't know, as I think about it at the moment anyway, what the philosophical take on Gillette's current business plan would be. Your thought about traditional wet shaving as a subject for a philosophy talk or speech, though, is interesting and has potential.

I feel strongly about traditional wet shaving for a number of reasons, not least of which is the surprise I still feel when I put myself back about four years, not imagining that I'd be into all this. (Up to then it was just larvae on display cards and unusual makeup--just kidding.)

I've read a lot on this site, I've learned a lot, I want to learn more, so sure I feel strongly about traditional wet shaving. Yet the one time I tried to introduce others to it--my two nephews--neither seemed to go for it. I'm not sure about the one quite yet. Have to check. But I've heard no burst of enthusiasm. (He lives in Califoria.)

In other words, I feel strongly about it, but I don't feel the need to try to persuade others. I'm content to communicate on B&B.

What is the point of the above? Other than the music reference, which may have potential, philosophically speaking, it, along with the rest, consists of my initial reaction to your post. A philosophy worthy of the term should be based on reality--lord knows it doesn't have to be, from what I've observed--whatever your experience with traditional wet shaving may be. Naturally I would seek to fashion a philosophy out of those above experiences, and others. Now that you mention it, I think one's experiences in this art can, at the very least, animate a philosophy. If not of life, then a philosophy of getting to work on time, with a little pleasure thrown into it.

I'm sort of kidding there too. However practical or highfalutin, I say it's a philosophy worth pondering.

Finally, in terms of presentation, how long will the presentation be? Who is the audience? What is it that you know that you can tell them that they don't know. Figure out how best to say that, and then sit down.

 

[bcraig.waciii]

Okay Gentlemen,

After considering the above posts, I offer this in response:

My presentation is required to be 10-15 minutes. The audience is a bunch of college prep high school students. It is supposed to be on what is going on within each of our own little worlds that interests us and is supposed to deal with a knowledge issue. An example of a knowledge issue is: Global warming/ Intensive agriculture/ Reliability of media reporting of science/ What makes a work of art?/ What evidence is there about how dinosaurs looked and behaved? (These are simply examples, and their number is endless. I do not want to spark any controversy on B&B with these.) The only one I would consider doing is the one on the media reporting science, as far as the above list goes.

Another thing I was thinking about was the movement toward more classic timeless technologies. Here on B&B I think we can all agree that there is something about using a fountain pen that was made sometime before ballpoints. We can all agree that there is something about using an NDC 40s SS. Then another thing I began looking into was the manual typewriter, and the larger than expected social movement toward them. Perhaps it is the traditional things that are still around that fascinate me. Of course I have always told people that I was born about a hundred years too late. I think that my focus shall be on the more traditional things in life.

Oh and in response to the first responder, I will be studying at UNR next year.

 

[Viseguy]

bcraig.waciii, good luck with your presentation, and let us know how it goes. I'd love to take a master class with oakeshott sometime!

 

[HoosierTrooper]

To Gillette "shaving" means relieving you of your money from your wallet.

Yep. The $5 price, roughly $125 in today's dollars, of the Gillette double ring is proof of that.

 

[the beav]

You might try something along the lines of: Explore life, learn to be yourself and do what you enjoy, instead of blindly following everyone else.

That would tie into the "what makes a work of art" theme; as they say, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

 

[StillShaving]

@oakeshott nailed it twice (especially post #1) and @mdw15 as well. I can't touch their responses..

I think you might also be egging to come at this at from both an economic/philosophical angle. In that in the modern world of relatively expensive multi-blade razors, what do all those extra blades really accomplish? The last blade which cut the closest to your skin is the only one which mattered. An inexpensive and sharp DE (or straight if you are inclined) can certainly do that with precision, regardless of what the latest 3/5 multi-bladed manufacturer advertisements say. An old school lather which hydrates one's beard/whiskers to reduce their tensile strength is certainly their most important characteristic. Modern canned propellents may provide more glide, but old school soaps/creams provided enough glide and more water to better reduce beard strength.

In short - A sharp steel edge (wedge) attacking a weakened hair follicle is the act of shaving. Which is what old-school shaving is all about.

 

[fortcon]

Philosophy is, at its core, the art of argument. Whether ethics and morals make their way into it comes down the road. There can't be any right or wrong so long as you argue your point concisely and correctly. Shaving has become a hassle, something we have to do in order to get on with the rest of our day. In that way, it's a negative experience. We have to shave in order to get out of the house and to work, and we have to work in order to make a living, and we have to make a living in order to have a house to rush out of in the morning in order to make a living. Already, by looking at shaving as something that has to be done, we'e set the tone for our entire day as a series of tasks to be completed.
I've always enjoyed shaving. Even before I used a double-edge razor, I still used the hot towel, and a nice after shave (usually Old Spice). But it never really clicked until I bought my Edwin Jagger, got a cheap brush and bowl, and started doing it this way. Now, more than before, shaving has become a pleasure, as important in starting my day as my first cup of coffee. I'm up by 4:30, I turn on the hot water, stagger into the kitchen and get my cup of coffee, and return to hot water. I get the towel wet, soak the brush, and let the towel sit for a bit. Then I lather up the soap, get it on my face, let it sit, and proceed to shave. Every couple of stroaks, I have a drink of coffee. By the time I'm done, I've got a cup of coffee down, a pleasing aroma on my face (Old Spice usually, still, but I've started using some Gabels Bay Rum some mornings), and am ready to eat and head to work (starts at six o'clock).
This simple change from "having to" to "getting to" then starts a change in my attitude about my entire day. I get to go to work, have some more coffee on my way to work. Then I get to work a full day to earn a living (I work for a company that paints airplanes for private and commercial customers, mostly Southwest Airlines 737s), then I get to come home and start the process over again. Life suddenly isn't so much a rat race as it is a pursuit of different pleasures, among them shaving, working for a living, driving, drinking fine bourbon, smoking fine cigars (or Lucky Strikes, depending), etc.
Philosophy is the art of argument, and as such, some issues have no correct answers, as there are good arguments made for both sides. That's just my argument for my personal philosophy, and I think it's a pretty damn good one.