Ontological Dimensions Research Articles

Digital Games as Media for Teaching and Learning: A Template for Critical Evaluation

Background Videogames can be useful tools for teaching and learning. To plan educational uses, potential benefits and possible problematic aspects of specific titles need to be critically assessed by teachers and school leaders prior to implementation. Theory and Method Based on game ontological models, we identify salient areas of inquiry in games research and use these to structure a template for evaluation. This way we operationalize foundational games research and put key insights to practical use in the planning and preparation of videogame-based teaching sessions. Aims We develop a template for the evaluation of videogames as tools for and objects of teaching and learning to facilitate critical uses of these technologies in schools and other educational settings. Results We present a template for critical evaluation to facilitate the use of videogames for educational endeavors. The template distinguishes between videogames as tools for and objects of teaching and learning and is structured along the game ontological dimensions of 1) sign system, 2) rules and mechanics, 3) materiality and 4) players, and includes aspects of both representation and simulation. This way, we disentangle a complex phenomenon and make its components amendable for critical analysis and constructive intervention. Discussion and Conclusion We offer illustrating examples for how the template can be used to assess the usability of specific titles in education and discuss advantages and disadvantages. Finally, we suggest steps for implementation and further improvement.

Sensation(all) Ontology

It is the praxis of being a subject in the world which enables psychoanalysis to theorise subjectivity. Freud theorised subjectivity from the perspective of desires, those repressed unconscious forces which conflict with the subjects’ need to live in the world. The upshot of this conflict for the subject is trauma and for psychoanalysis such trauma provides a way into a remedy, a cure, the presumption of psychoanalysis being that through its method of transference, it does indeed possess the knowledge to pursue a remedy. Lacan offers a new interpretation of Freud by considering the subject as an ongoing ontological enigma in so far as subjective unconscious desire is not only (potentially) traumatic but necessarily (always) linguistic. How is this an ontological enigma? For Lacan the subject is first and foremost a speaking being engaged in an ongoing struggle to articulate unconscious desire. This is because, claims Lacan, we are born into language which not only pre-exists us but continues after death. In this way subjectivity is inescapably oriented to language as simultaneously intrinsic external to it. The unconscious is therefore a mixture of inside and outside, an enigmatic (pre)ontological space which Lacan calls extimacy. This essay seeks to explore Lacan’s orientation of the subject towards extimacy as the site of subjective conflict where, in its quest for the subject’s desire to know and handle the symptom, transference engages a new ontological dimension in which we can say that the extimate is structured like a sensation.

Basic understandings of possibility

Three basic acceptations of the possible are presented: the epistemological, the ontological, and the metaphysical. The latter two are presented in some details. They could be distinguished as the processual unfolding of conditions (the ontological reading) and the vision of the process as given and fully completed within each present moment (the metaphysical reading). The ontological dimension can be further distinguished into two different unfoldings of real processes: as the horizontal (temporal) accumulation of determinations and as the vertical (through strata of reality) emergence of both higher entities and higher determinations.

On the Problem of the Ontology of a Literary Work on the Ontological Dimension of a Work of Art

The article is devoted to the search for the nature of the ontology of an art work on the example of a literary work. Tradition viewed a work of art as the discovery of a higher truth. Analytical philosophy deprived literature of the status of truth in general, and thereby deprived it of any ontological dimension. Heidegger’s attempt to return this dimension to literature through its relationship with being did not find continuation in philosophy. The author proposes to consider a literary work as a model of the world, primarily the social world. This approach makes liken a literary work to a mathematical theory. A mathematical theory is built as a correlation of simple elements; in a literary work such elements are characters (sometimes things). A mathematical theory is built on clearly defined axioms, a literary work is also built on axioms, but they do not have an explicit expression within the work and cannot always be perceived intuitively. The author shows that the mathematical theory never fully meets the specified conditions, and the mathematicians themselves note that in the future they will largely lose their strength. Thus, a literary work is of the same nature as a mathematical theory, only it presents a more complex case. The problem of truth serves as the way to find the ontological dimension. Analysis shows that in mathematics it is solved not by reducing a hypothesis to axioms, but by recognizing a theory through its effectiveness or applicability. For a work of art, such a criterion is its perception by its readers. In both cases, the ontological dimension is in the mind of the reader

The EU’s Enlargement Strategy at a Crossroads? Redirecting the Debate Toward Acquisition-based Integrative Models

There have been many recurring initiatives for an alternative EU-oriented enlargement process that could provide the Western Balkan region with a credible EU perspective. Several models have been developed conceptually and discussed in a variety of academic, policy and political spheres as potential replacements for the conventional EU model employed in the previous expansion waves. The majority of the proposed alternative models for EU accession of the Western Balkans are non-invasive in nature and essentially align with the one used in the past enlargement waves. Each new proposal adds a differentiated value to the current model, and typically highlights the significance of candidate states’ reform agendas based on the Copenhagen criteria, but with some flexible, specifically targeted, and/or phased approaches to the accession process designed to eliminate the ever-intensifying “integrational fatigue”. This essay intends to purposefully “radicalize” the ongoing discussions on the Western Balkans’ weariness towards the current EU’s enlargement policy by offering a new approach to the normative reconceptualization of the entire process. The model advocated in this essay proposes a “merger and acquisition” (M&A) design as a substitute for the so-called “accreditation-based” integration methodology the EU is presently using in its current enlargement strategy. The proposed model fundamentally questions the democratic essence of the approach that drives the ongoing EU enlargement procedures, reshapes the existing debates on alternative methodologies, and questions some of their fundamental ontological dimensions.

Retrospective analysis of an intercultural paradigmatic shift in the philosophical and educational thought in Ukraine in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century

The article reveals the peculiarities of intercultural paradigmatic shifts in the philosophical and pedagogical thought of Ukraine in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It has been proven that Ukrainian philosophical and educational thought (despite the fact that it objectively bordered with the Russian one and actively fits into the pan-European philosophical and pedagogical algorithm) had a number of specific national concrete-cultural features and colours. Its image was closely related to the formation of the “soul of the Ukrainian people”, which was formed by a combination of mental, cultural and moral characteristics. The matrix of paradigmatic shifts in philosophical and pedagogical thought of this period was focused on the semantic, ontological dimensions of human spirituality, pedagogical factors of personality development, the formation of the national discourse of educational science as a certain theoretical integrity. It has been confirmed that the philosophical and pedagogical thought, which unfolded within the framework of socio-political development of scientific and educational institutions and which performed a human-creating function in culture, was characterized by a tendency to create an intercultural “philosophy of teaching and education”, which became the background for pedagogical constructions of our (that?) time. On this basis, the most important constants in the development of education of this period are determined, which have heuristic significance and are in many respects compliant with modern educational transformations, which require comprehensive understanding, primarily from the standpoint of pedagogical anthropology.

RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM AND THE CRISIS OF INSECURITY IN NIGERIA: A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSE

This paper sets out to discuss the effects of religious extremism and how they breed insecurity in Nigeria. This is apt following the fact that over the years, little or no concern has been given to religion as a major causative factor of insecurity crisis in Nigeria. Today, in as much as the question of insecurity is not exclusively a consequence of economic, political or tribal crisis, religion through extremists has been identified as a major factor. However, in addressing this issue, the paper raises certain questions to include: What end is expected from religion? What should be the primary force driving religion? Nevertheless, at the end of this research, it shall, through the exposition on religious influences in the country, prove that religion is a causative phenomenon to insecurity crisis in Nigeria. The paper shall also proffer solutions to these effects as it takes the discourse through comparative and expository methods in ethical and ontological dimensions.

PARADOX OF VIOLENCE

The article raises the question of the reason for the constant violent actions, primarily military, despite their long-standing universal condemnation. This brings us back to the problem of the ontology of violence. The author proposes an approach based on the understanding of violence as labor with excessive use of force. This is due to the archaic understanding of power as a source of the sacred. Truth is an attribute of the sacred in archaic thinking. Here the connection arises: power - the sacred (deity) - truth. Thus, for the archaic mind, force (and violence), the sacred and truth were different projections-realizations of one essence. The civilizational model of the world suggests a different connection with the sacred and truth. It contains at its core not the principles of a single truth, but the principles of cooperation and coexistence of different positions instead of subordination to one unity. The old model of violence as a way of participating in the truth of the object and confirming the sacred status of the subject is still valid in the modern world. According to the author, violence has an ontological dimension in the old model of a single truth, but cannot have it within the civilizational approach. The modern civilizational model can oppose force only by persuasion or the reasonable use of force. This state of affairs makes it difficult to spread the civilizational approach.

Nationalism, populism or peopleism? Clarifying the distinction through a two‐dimensional lens

AbstractPrompted by recent scholarly debates on the distinction between populism and nationalism, we elaborate on the Laclaudian understanding of populism as an antagonistic form of us‐building/community‐making that relies on the extension of equivalential chains between demands. From this heuristic perspective, populism can be understood as an empty form to be filled with different contents, such as nationalism. Our radically anti‐essentialist stance combines Laclau's formalist conceptualisation of populism and Brubaker's work on nationalism. We highlight the ontological dimension of populism, as a form of us‐building, and the ontic dimension, as an array of discursive repertoires that fill the form, such as ‘the people’ for peopleism. We explore the ontological–ontic distinction through the case of Narodism in Serbia. Conceptualising populism two‐dimensionally contributes both to debates on the ‘core’ of populism and to cases where articulations of ‘the people’ coincide with expressions of nationhood, civilisationalism and culturalism, rather than being entirely the same.

Ethics, Alienation, and Ontology: The impossible is the starting point of each possible

The first quarter of the 21st century is reaching its end, and worldwide crises appear to become ubiquitous. Capitalist forces of destruction have not gone rogue, they merely represent the actualization of capitalist relations of exploitation. Notions of fettering fall prey to illusions, which overlook both particular historical moments and the essence of capitalist relations. In contrast, social emancipation presupposes an ontological understanding of human action. It is not enough to wish for a more humane society; both the limits of and potential for transformation must be understood. Based on Marx and Lukács, the ontological categories of possible and impossible, labour and teleology, are investigated, consequently, creating an opposing prerogative to capitalist naturalization and eternization. Capitalism is instead taken for what it is: a determined social, historical construction, thus, a superable social organization rather than a natural force. Insofar as the historical debacle of Marxism has provoked a methodological vacuum filled with relativism, contemporary critical analyses disaggregate into bourgeois isolated phenomena, becoming liberal assessments themselves. The concrete impact is not irrelevant: for they fight arguments in the fields chosen by capitalism; any perception of totality is rejected a priori; strategies to overcome capitalist challenges reproduce the conditions which create them, because it is assumed what needs to be explained. It appears urgent to reframe social critique within the frame of methodological orthodoxy. Marxist capitalist critique departs from ontological facts, for instance, labour. This means grasping both the totality and the ontological dimensions of particular forms, enabling effective strategies towards emancipation.

The Ontology of the City in the Quran: A Study Based on Ibn ‘Āšūr’s Commentaries in the Book of al-Taḥrīr wa al-Tanwīr

Abstract Ibn ‘Āšūr was an interdisciplinary commentator. His thoughts on the development and civilization of Islam are remarkable and spectacular. This article discusses Ibn ‘Āšūr’s thoughts on the response of the Quran to one of the civilization issues, especially in the city definition. Ontology dimensions of the city still play an essential role and basis for understanding the urban characteristics in establishing civilizational construction. This study is based on the thematic interpretation method (maudū’ī) by explaining six-city terms according to Ibn Āšūr’s interpretation in the Book al-Taḥrīr wa al-Tanwīr. The findings illustrate that city definition is more context-oriented to the region’s functioning than the linguistic explanation, while the function of an area determines the scale of the city. Overall, this study presents the approach of Ibn ‘Ašūr in exegeting the Quran by combining the Quran sciences with urban theories.

Semantic transparency and Oneida morphological parts of speech

Abstract North American languages have figured prominently in discussions about parts of speech. This paper examines more closely the evidence for morphological parts of speech in one Northern Iroquoian language, Oneida, and asks what semantic properties underlie its parts of speech. We make two claims. First, inflected parts of speech in Oneida are semantically transparent in that a part of speech can be determined solely on the basis of well-established semantic distinctions. Oneida parts of speech are, in this respect, canonical, in Canonical Typology’s sense. Second, Oneida morphological parts of speech are organized along two orthogonal dimensions, an ontological dimension, i.e., the sort of entity that members of the category describe, and a semantic type dimension, i.e., the kind of semantic relation conveyed by members of the category. We show that Oneida inflection is sometimes sensitive to distinctions along the ontological semantic dimension, sometimes to distinctions along the semantic type dimension, and sometimes a single inflectional process is sensitive to distinctions along both dimensions at the same time. We then show that our bi-dimensional semantic classification of stems accounts for the mixed properties of kinship terms, i.e., which “noun”-like and which “verb”-like properties they have.

Reprezentări Ale Maladivului La M. Blecher Și Thomas Mann

Abstract The present paper focuses on the ailments of modern man, whether we consider the physiological aspect, or whether we refer to the metaphorical, ontological dimension, and performs a comparative analysis between the work of M. Blecher and the novel The Enchanted Mountain by Thomas Mann. Illness - the overarching theme of the novels - receives numerous valences, from the most noble to the most detestable, but what remains common to these texts advanced for analysis is the existential crisis, the inner void that the characters experience acutely. The universe that both the Romanian and the German author create is permeated by the specter of death, which, without being tragically experienced, rather gives off a strange fascination, and ends up creeping into the thoughts, habits and belongings of the characters, becoming a kind of obsession that convulsively controls everyone, but which they paradoxically ignore, with just as much indifference. On a macro level, the smoldering malaise can be assimilated on the level of all mankind, as if foreshadowing the dire fate of humanity in the upcoming period.

The National Character of Ukraine: Genesis, Essence, Testing, State Subjectivity

The phenomenon of the national character of Ukraine is analyzed as a separate geopolitical reality, socio-cultural integrity and an independent state, which appears as the subject of actions and relations at various levels and dimensions - political, cultural, religious, social, economic, etc. The study is actualized by the phenomenon of Ukraine's insurmountable resistance to Russian military aggression, in the foundations of which are exactly the archetypal mental codes of Ukrainian life. National character is defined as an inherited and habitual set of traits and norms of behavior and value orientations of this integrity, which determine the form and content of reactions/responses to the influence of external factors. At the same time, the reconstruction of the national character involves taking into account empirical criteria and psychological patterns, properties and signs, followed by the identification of its essence. Also important are comparative and typological approaches, which make it possible to identify multiple objects, as well as a historical approach, which enables a retrospective vision of the origins and factors of the emergence of the Ukrainian character over time. Ukraine, as a subject, carries out certain activities aimed at mastering objective and spiritual reality, and is, at the same time, the bearer of certain features that makes such activities possible. Becoming a subject, Ukraine itself is (and should remain) an objective reality, that is, it has an ontological dimension, while possessing certain rational and spiritual and practical means allowing us to understand the world and transform it in the desired direction. Ukraine, as an integral carrier of the national character, must implement the following features into the system of its international communication, both official and non-governmental: persistence, consistency, stability, demandingness and, at the same time, benevolence, mutual understanding, obligation, responsibility and tolerance.

Коммуникативная онтология А. Пушкина в одесской лирике. «Впечатленья бытия» и текст как инобытие автора

A. Pushkin's Communicative Ontology in Odessa lyrics. “Impressions of Being” and the Text as the Author's Otherness. The article is devoted to the study of Pushkin's ontology with application of communicative ontology. The methods of communicative ontology in the works of Yu. Lotman about the Odessa lyrics of A. Pushkin are investigated, the parameters of the ontological dimension of communication are systematized. The substantiation of Pushkin's “Odessa text” as an otherness is carried out as a correlation of the author's text with the system of contexts forming it. This view contributed to Bonapartism contexts’ classification, Orthodoxy and the Faustian text as philosophical and artistic parameters of Pushkin's ontology. The prospects for the development of Yu. Lotman's ideas and methods for the analysis of Bonapartism and its para-doxical meaning for Russian history, Orthodoxy as a philosophy of religious artistry and the Faustian text are shown.

Evangelizing the Church: Soteriology, Liberation, and Transformative Action in Graham Greene’s The Honorary Consul

ABSTRACT Scholarship on Graham Greene has extensively examined the expression of his religious concerns in his work, labelling him a “Catholic writer” but also a schismatic author, due to his paradoxical departures from the catholic orthodoxy. Not until recently, scholars such as Mark Bosco (2005) and Michael G. Brennan (2016) have challenged these cliches and drawn attention to the importance of Vatican II and liberation theology discourses in shaping Greene's literary imagination. Given the diverse developments fostered by liberation theologians, further studies are needed to widen the scope of critical dialogue on sociological, epistemological and ontological dimensions in Greene's work. This article places Greene's The Honorary Consul in dialogue with Ignacio Ellacuría's theological articulation, focusing on the concepts of liberation, freedom and soteriology. In addition, it examines kerygmatic forms of announcement and denunciation and the conflictive relationship between the word and ways of transformative action involving violence in Greene's novel.

Damaged Goods? The Edginess of True Crime

This essay explores the ontological and aesthetic qualities of true crime. With reference to stories set in different regions of the world, produced by writers with hybridised cultural identities, it draws on concepts of ‘truthiness’ (Colbert), ‘depthiness’ (Vermeulen) and ‘eeriness’(Fisher) to show how true crime encodes a neo-modernist aesthetic, marked by attention to place, non-standard verbal forms, and narrative polyphony. However, its ontological dimension also encourages an intense form of participation on the part of the reader-consumer, who, when listening to podcasts or watching television dramas, is fully integrated into the hermeneutic process and might even help solve the crime. My argument is supported by analyses of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (1966), David Peace’s 1980 (2001), Haruki Murakami’s Underground (2013), Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014), Sarah Koenig’s Serial podcast (2014) and the HBO television drama, The Case against Adnan Syed (2019).

The SECI model and darknet markets: Knowledge creation in criminal organizations and communities of practice

This study examines darknet markets through the lens of a business theory on knowledge management. Taking epistemological and ontological dimensions into consideration, this study uses Nonaka's (1991) SECI model as a theoretical framework to identify and describe how tacit and explicit knowledge is created and shared on Silk Road, Pandora and Agora darknet markets, and how people affect this process. By studying this process, insights can be obtained into darknet market criminal organizations and communities of practice and their impact on the continuity and resilience of illicit darknet markets. This project used data from the Internet Archive collection of publicly available darknet market scrapes between 2011 and 2015 from Branwen et al. (2015) . We observed instances of the SECI model (socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization) on darknet markets in both criminal organizations and communities of practice. Darknet market leaders and groups facilitated both knowledge creation and sharing. This study is the first to test the SECI model on darknet markets. The study provides an understanding of the complexity and resilience of darknet markets, as well as valuable information to help guide law enforcement agencies efforts to stop the illicit trade of goods and services.

Making the familiar unfamiliar: re-thinking teaching in higher education

ABSTRACT Increased interest in teaching has been evident in recent decades, accompanied by heightened activity in promoting teaching quality. Programs about teaching and learning in higher education are one strategy adopted for this purpose. This article is concerned with reflecting upon, and theorising, the experience of teaching in one such accredited program for academics across the disciplines. Selected ideas are canvassed from Heidegger and Irigaray in exploring and articulating the experience of teaching in this program. Despite differences in their philosophies, Heidegger and Irigaray share some common concerns, with implications for pedagogy. Moreover, both have written about education, highlighting an ontological dimension concerned with how we are learning to be. This has resonance with the program explored in this article and aligns with an ‘ontological turn’ occurring in higher education. An ontological dimension has been taken up in the program through making the familiar unfamiliar in experiencing anew our teaching, as well as the learning by and with our students. This article makes an original and timely contribution to re-thinking teaching through exploring, both conceptually and in practice, what an ontological turn means for teaching in higher education.

Editors’ Introduction

Editors’ Introduction