Perspectives on the European Videogame

The history of European videogames has been so far overshadowed by the global impact of the Japanese and North American industries. However, European game development studios have played a major role in videogame history, and prominent videogames in popular culture, such as <i>Grand Theft Auto</i>, <i>Tomb Raider</i> and <i>Alone in the Dark</i> were made in Europe. This book proposes an exploration of European videogames, including both analyses of transnational aspects of European production and close readings of national specificities. It offers a kaleidoscope of European videogame culture, focusing on the analysis of European works and creators but also addressing contextual aspects and placing videogames within a wider sociocultural and philosophical ground. The aim of this collective work is to contribute to the creation of a, so far, almost non-existent yet necessary academic endeavour: a story of the works, authors, styles and cultures of the European videogame.

A virtuous circle: Academic expertise and public philosophy

This essay examines the relationship between academic and public philosophy through the lens of Heidegger studies. Specifically, this essay: shows how Heidegger uses technical terminology within the context of the academy to break new philosophical ground; explains how suitably clarified technical terminology can be used to introduce people to Heidegger’s philosophy and to apply Heidegger’s ideas to current affairs; and illustrates how the application of Heidegger’s ideas to contemporary issues results in new forms of academic research. Ultimately, this essay argues that there is a dialectical relationship between academic and public philosophy: i.e., public philosophy translates esoteric ideas developed in the academy into publicly accessible prose and then applies those ideas to daily life; but in doing so, public philosophy inspires new lines of academic inquiry.

Nāgārjunian-Yogācārian Modal Logic versus Aristotelian Modal Logic

There are two different modal logics: the logic T assuming contingency and the logic K = assuming logical determinism. In the paper, I show that the Aristotelian treatise On Interpretation (Περί ερμηνείας, De Interpretatione) has introduced some modal-logical relationships which correspond to T. In this logic, it is supposed that there are contingent events. The Nāgārjunian treatise Īśvara-kartṛtva-nirākṛtiḥ-viṣṇoḥ-ekakartṛtva-nirākaraṇa has introduced some modal-logical relationships which correspond to K =. In this logic, it is supposed that there is a logical determinism: each event happens necessarily (siddha) or it does not happen necessarily (asiddha). The Nāgārjunian approach was inherited by the Yogācārins who developed, first, the doctrine of causality of all real entities (arthakriyātva) and, second, the doctrine of momentariness of all real entities (kṣaṇikavāda). Both doctrines were a philosophical ground of the Yogācārins for the logical determinism. Hence, Aristotle implicitly used the logic T in his modal reasoning. The Madhyamaka and Yogācāra schools implicitly used the logic K = in their modal reasoning.

POSTMODERN SOCİETY AND ITS INDİCATORS: A NEW INTERPRETATİON BYUNG CHUL HAN

Every age has its own crises and illnesses. These crises are the result of general attitudes of people in that age. Concentration of interest and curiosity in one direction and accordingly development of behaviours have led to the loss of the virtue of being moderate and to occur extremism in a different direction. Humankind, having discovered to find the middle way, has often turned into nature. Some philosophers investigating these disorders wanted to explain some mechanisms through this common nature with reference to various similarities or biological and psychological illations. To put it more accurately, these unusual illnesses affecting large numbers of people generally either directly affected social structures or indirectly affected them. This effect has been taken so far by some philosophers that they wanted to organise jointly that structures by means of creating an analogy between these structures to which they establish a relationship. They even thought that these structures could be arranged with similar behaviour and, in particular, they thought the findings which can be extracted from the human organism, the first of these, could be transferred to the structure of the state and society. One of the important philosophers of age, Byung Chul Han, analyzes the process from the detection of these diseases until a solution offer, on the basis of many historical examples. In this regard, the philosopher who made noumenal and appropriate determinations paves the way for a new philosophical ground that will enable the understanding of today's society and politics. Here, in this study, illnesses intrinsic to the age created by the postmodern situation have been discussed with reference to the thoughts of Han and the rich and wide content presented by these thoughts.

The Political Is Personal

The author tried to make sense of the Chinese political world from their point of view. Their narrative of Chinese history was unlike any she had ever encountered and this chapter details her effort to empathically understand how they viewed the world, in particular how they related to democratic ideas. Chinese fears of chaos and disunity, born of their history, are central to their political organization. As the author tried to find common philosophical ground with the Chinese students, they labelled her a Daoist. They understood her approach to therapy as counseling action through inaction and stressing values of compassion, moderation, and humility, all quite similar to Daoist teaching.

Constructivism

In this chapter, there is a philosophical analysis of constructivism, which is the product of postmodern understanding and is the most debated educational trend of the last period. In the first section, constructivism is analyzed in the light of ontological and epistemological foundations, and its relation with the subjectivist understanding of science is revealed. In the second part, the possibilities offered by constructivism in terms of educational practice are discussed. The focus of the study is to identify the intersections of all discourses on constructivism and to explain them based on these intersections. In order to bring the discussion to a philosophical ground, the authors believe that addressing the issue in an epistemological and ontological context will provide the philosophical essence of constructivist theory.

Pomiędzy „integralnym jugoslawizmem” a „chrześcijańskim nacjonalizmem” – projekcje wspólnoty w obrębie serbskiej ideosfery po 1918 roku

Between „Integral Yugoslavism” and „Christian Nationalism”– Projections of the Community Within the Serbian Ideosphere After 1918 In the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (SHS), established in 1918, yugoslavism as a political idea of the integration of the nations was correlated by the Serbian intellectuals with another kind of the idea of community which only preserved terminological appearances of connection with the initial conception. In the interwar reality, unprecised „integral yugoslavism” gradually became the indication of the ethnic exclusivism of the Serbs and their leadership ambitions in the new state (philosophical ground for such a vision layed Miloš Djurić, whereas nationalisation of the community project was continued by Vladimir Dvorniković). The radicalisation of this programme ensued thanks to the ideologists of so called Christian nationalism (above all Dimitrije Ljotić) and led to the affirmation of the values of the native traditionalism. Such a thought with a fascist indication, supported with the politicised Orthodoxy and taking shape of the Serbian national idea from the nineteen-thirties, will be constituted as a primary factor of the disintegration of the (imaginary) community of the Yugoslavs right into the nineteen-nineties. W utworzonym w 1918 roku Królestwie SHS jugoslawizm jako polityczna idea integracji narodów został przez serbskich intelektualistów zestrojony z innym typem idei wspólnoty, który zachował tylko terminologiczne pozory związku z wyjściową koncepcją. W rzeczywistości międzywojennej niedoprecyzowany „integralny jugoslawizm” stawał się stopniowo wyznacznikiem etnicznego ekskluzywizmu Serbów i ich ambicji przywódczych w nowym państwie (filozoficzny grunt pod taką wizję przygotował Miloš Djurić, a nacjonalizację projektu wspólnotowego kontynuował Vladimir Dvorniković). Radykalizacja tego programu nastąpiła za sprawą ideologów tzw. chrześcijańskiego nacjonalizmu (przede wszystkim Dimitrije Ljoticia) i doprowadziła do afirmacji wartości rodzimego tradycjonalizmu. Ta faszyzująca myśl, wspierana upolitycznionym prawosławiem i przybierająca od lat 30. kształt serbskiej idei narodowej, stanowić będzie podstawowy czynnik dezintegrujący (wyobrażoną) wspólnotę Jugosłowian aż do lat 90. XX wieku.

Embodied Genealogies

This chapter shows how Friedrich Nietzsche’s work on genealogy can be read critically and strategically alongside Gloria Anzaldúa’s thought to develop a conception of “embodied genealogy” as a mode of critical, historical, and transformative philosophical practice. Anzaldúa’s thought resonates with Nietzsche’s conception of genealogy, a method of philosophical practice that sheds critical light on dominant ways of knowing by calling into question assumptions about historical necessity and rational progress. Reading Anzaldúa’s work through this lens sheds light on her contributions to philosophical conversations about knowledge, identity, and community. Anzaldúa’s work can also be read as a productive critique and necessary supplement to a Nietzschean conception of genealogical ways of knowing. Considering Anzaldúa’s thought and Nietzschean genealogy together yields a rich philosophical ground for thinking through questions about knowledge, embodiment, and identity in general, and the intellectual and political practice of Latina feminist philosophy in particular.

Pre-Truth Life in Post-Truth Times

Clearing philosophical ground for diagnoses of the contemporary ‘post-truth’-problematic, this article discusses the systematic and ineliminable ambivalence of claims to truth in public discourse and collective life generally, where truth cannot ultimately be disentangled from untruth. Truth becomes a problem in the relevant sense only where matters are morally-existentially charged, so that acknowledging truth threatens, e.g., loss of self-respect, and self-deception becomes tempting, individually and collectively. To the extent that our life is marked by injustice and destructiveness, it is necessarily also marked by systematic falsification, a conspiracy to deny the truth about it, about us. Collective life exhibits pervasive hostility to interpersonal (moral) understanding, which is repressed through collectively established fake ‘understandings’ and regimes of respectability. The fact/opinion and fact/value distinctions function as defences against understanding, while meaning and truth are seen as things to be determined rather than understood, and the concept of representatability, how things can be made to appear, becomes central. However, standard philosophical views on truth, meaning and morality render the problematic sketched here invisible, because they effectively move – as Wittgenstein arguably realised – wholly within the collective perspective that needs to be problematised. Keywords: moral understanding, self-deception, collective life, representation, conspiracy theories, political corrrectness