In the digital era, video games have become a major propaganda tool, used for political purposes by state agents and different organisations, including extremist groups. Similarly, some titles have structured their narratives with an educational and awareness-raising purpose, denouncing the senselessness and violence of different terrorist groups. In this article, we will present a general theoretical framework on how video games have been used in the virtual war on terrorism, either in favour of or against it, either by means of (...) special creations or through modifications of famous war games. Next, we will include a case study referring to Spain, analysing the representation in this video game format of the ETA problem or the 11-M jihadist attacks. As a preliminary result, we would like to highlight the importance of this interactive format today, whether from a propaganda, educational or informative point of view. (shrink)

In this paper, I intend to show the right concern of phenomenology (specially of husserlian type) in the exploration of the textures of consciousness that explain themselves in the noetic-noematic structure of the phenomenological-transcendentally reduced world (within inverted commas). Therefore, the undoubtfulness of “immanent perception” takes, for instance, great importance in the virtual realm, as long as, in that realm, consciousness opens itself more radically to the intentional “otherness” than to what natural attitude calls “reality”. Nevertheless, although phenomenology is able (...) to justify the emergence of virtual reality (or of “real virtuality”), phenomenology has strategies ruling out the possibility that virtualization becomes simulation (deception). In this paper, this situation is presented as the ideal of the technical-virtual manipulation of what is given to consciousness. For this very reason, virtual attitude must keep an indispensable distance (strangeness effect), so that the sense of “reality” can continue to be a valid one. (shrink)

Relationships between degree/area of academic formation and religious and Darwinian views are controversial. This study aimed to compare the religious beliefs and acceptance of Darwinian evolution between two contrasting South American scientific communities (Chile and Colombia), accounting for different degrees and areas of academic formation. In 2018, 115 last year bachelor students (surveyed as freshmen in 2014 for a previous study) from Chile, and 283 first/last year bachelor students, graduate students, and professors from Colombia, all belonging to biology, chemistry, or (...) physics, were surveyed. Chilean students/faculty were significantly more agnostic/atheist, more accepting of Darwinian evolution, and less creationist than their Colombian counterparts. Academic degree and area differently affected these views in both countries, as only in Chile there was a clear tendency among biologists and physicists with higher degrees to hold less religious and creationist views. Marked differences between the history, socioeconomic contexts, and especially in high school and university curricula of both countries might explain these results. (shrink)

El presente artículo se propone indagar en la praxis de extrañamiento que lleva acabo Gómez de la Serna en El Rastro (1914), praxis que será esencial de cara a comprender uno de los vectores fundamentales de la (ulterior) objetología surrealista. Dicha praxis comprende al menos ocho prácticas o posibilidades de deshacer que afectan al Límite (que discrimina y jerarquiza), al Futuro (ingenuo y dictatorial), a la familiaridad hogareña burguesa (que encarcela y amodorra), a la funcionalidad utilitaria (que banaliza), a la (...) idealidad falsa (de los prestigios de la ciudad), a la propiedad (de nuestras cosas), a uno mismo (praxis de desasimiento), y al propio texto. Estas prácticas configuran un extrañamiento masivo, aunque sereno, con una clara proyección de trascendencia poética, existencial y metafísica. (shrink)

Specific classes of cyberspaces emphasize different types of digital transactions given the user’s context, thus making it essential to take into account what these environments can afford. In this way, we can portray the niches of technological use as ecologies of particular possibilities and compare how they differ between distinct spheres of human life. The present research is focused on describing the conceptual integration of a taxonomic crossover between Virtual Learning Environments and Educational Affordances of Technology, while also performing empirical (...) testing and determining the psychometric properties in a scale regarding the aforementioned taxonomy. The study sample consisted of 320 students in the departments of foreign languages from three different universities in Sonora. Students were given a questionnaire of 21 items organized into four subscales with a Likert-type response option to measure the notions concerning their usage of Virtual Learning Environments. Internal consistency procedures and confirmatory factor analysis by means of Cronbach’s alpha and Structural modeling support the derived factorial structure, which contains Cyber-Communications, Virtual Behavior Settings, Virtual Communities, and Availability and Access to Connectivity. This structure traces the environmental properties perceived by learners in a virtual environment. Results sustain the initial conceptual construction regarding the proposed taxonomy, conclude that the ‘Virtual Learning Environments Questionnaire’ demonstrates adequate psychometric properties, and validate it as a fitting measure to assess the perceived psychological experience of students in a digital educational setting. (shrink)

Partiendo del eje reflexivo que brinda la ambigüedad de la Cultura como atolladero y trascendencia de los individuos, el presente estudio toma dos circunstancias de nuestra situación cultural (hipersubjetividad y superconductividad) como base para una reflexión en torno a las posibles deformaciones del proceso postmoderno de personalización y sobre sus correspondientes enmiendas -mediación densa (resistencia), inspiración (recogimiento) y ruptura de la inmanencia (responsabilidad)-, que puedan reorientar el desarrollo del individuo como Uno entre Otros.

Tras reconocer el papel decisivo que juega en el pensamiento husserliano la intersubjetividad en su estructura trascendental, y, respecto a la Einfühlung y la Fremderfahrung, el importante papel que desempeña la Umfiktion, el presente artículo desarrolla la posibilidad experiencial y de senti-do que supone ese extraño personaje que es la Voz Narrativa heterodiegética. En concreto, la Voz Narrativa como Otro subsidiario en el caso de que los personajes duerman o hayan muerto. Esto permite pensar al Testigo como dativo de manifestación (...) en off en soporte último del continuum de la fenomenalidad. Con ello, se trata de profundizar en la tesis husserliana acerca de la inmortalidad de la subjetividad trascendental y extraer algunas conclusiones metafísicas y éticas. El artículo se basa en un texto de Muñoz Molina en el que comentaba un pasaje de Al faro, de V. Woolf.Recognizing the decisive role in Husserl's thought of the intersubjectivity in its transcendental structure, and, for the Einfühlung and Fremderfahrung, the important role of Umfiktion, this article develops the experiential possibility and the possibility of meaning that assumes the Strange character who is the heterodiegetic Narrative Voice. Specifically, the narrative voice as subsidiary Other in the event that the characters sleep or have died. This suggests the Witness as dative of manifestation in off as last stand of the continuum of phenomenality. With this, it is deepening the Husserlian thesis about the immortality of transcendental subjectivity and draw some metaphysical and ethical conclusions. The article is based on a text by Muñoz Molina that commented a passage from To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf. (shrink)

Las interpretaciones ascética y vitalista del eidos son incapaces de pensar a fondo su relevancia fenomenológica. Siempre parece que se valora más su perímetro y cerco, al servicio de la clausura y la consolidación de la unidad, que la diversidad intraeidética, infinita o empíricamente abierta. Más allá de lo típico, las rutinas y asentamientos mundanos, la diversidad intraeidética es críticamente eficaz sobre todo en la periferia, al tiempo que propicia la flexibilidad y dilatación interior de cada eidos. Esta problemática es (...) decisiva cuando se trata de pensar la dimensión proteica e hibrida de la cultura humana, así como la posibilidad de diversidad y cordura en un mundo complejo y en expansión.The ascetic and vitalistic interpretations of eidos are unable to think thoroughly its phenomenological relevancy. It always seems that the perimeter and boundary of eidos, at the service of the closure and consolidation of the unity, is more valued than intraeidetic diversity, infinitely or empirically opened. Beyond the typical, mundane routines and settlements, intraeidetic diversity is critically effective especially in the periphery, while enabling the flexibility and inner expansion of each eidos. This problem is crucial when it comes to thinking about the protean and hybrid dimensions of human culture, as well as the possibility of diversity and sanity in a complex and expanding world. (shrink)

El presente artículo se propone indagar en la praxis de extrañamiento que lleva acabo Gómez de la Serna en El Rastro, praxis que será esencial de cara a comprender uno de los vectores fundamentales de la objetología surrealista. Dicha praxis comprende al menos ocho prácticas o posibilidades de deshacer que afectan al Límite, al Futuro, a la familiaridad hogareña burguesa, a la funcionalidad utilitaria, a la idealidad falsa, a la propiedad, a uno mismo, y al propio texto. Estas prácticas configuran (...) un extrañamiento masivo, aunque sereno, con una clara proyección de trascendencia poética, existencial y metafísica. (shrink)

Este ensayo, motivado por una crítica de Riccardo Guastini, ilustra el papel de la lógica en el derecho y precisamente: a) en la construcción de la teoría del derecho, b) en el razonamiento y en los discursos desarrollados por las disciplinas jurídicas positivas y c) en los razonamientos y en las operaciones de operadores jurídicos y en particular de los jueces.

Este ensayo, motivado por una crítica de Riccardo Guastini, ilustra el papel de la lógica en el derecho y precisamente: a) en la construcción de la teoría del derecho, b) en el razonamiento y en los discursos desarrollados por las disciplinas jurídicas positivas y c) en los razonamientos y en las operaciones de operadores jurídicos y en particular de los jueces.

Background: Pain has been associated with structural changes of the brain. However, evidence regarding white matter changes in response to acute pain protocols is still scarce. In the present study, we assess the existence of differences in brain white matter related to pain intensity reported by patients undergoing surgical removal of a mandibular impacted third molar using diffusion tensor imaging analysis.Methods: 30 participants reported their subjective pain using a visual analog scale at three postsurgical stages: under anesthesia, in pain, and (...) after the administration of an analgesic. The diffusion data were acquired prior to surgery.Results: DTI analysis yielded significant positive associations of fractional anisotropy in white matter areas related to pain processing with the differences in pain between the three postsurgery stages. Extent and location of these associations depended on the magnitude of the subjective pain differences. Tractography analysis indicated that some pain–tract associations are significant only when pain stage is involved in the contrast, while others are only when anesthesia is involved in the contrast.Conclusions: The association of white matter fractional anisotropy and connectivity, measured before the pain stages, with subjective pain depends on the magnitude of the differences in pain scores. (shrink)

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multi-national data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social and Moral Psychology of COVID-19 (N = 51,404) to test the predictive efficacy of constructs from (...) social, moral, cognitive, and personality psychology, as well as socio-demographic factors, in the attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic. The results point to several valuable insights. Internalized moral identity provided the most consistent predictive contribution—individuals perceiving moral traits as central to their self-concept reported higher adherence to preventive measures. Similar was found for morality as cooperation, symbolized moral identity, self-control, open-mindedness, collective narcissism, while the inverse relationship was evident for the endorsement of conspiracy theories. However, we also found a non-negligible variability in the explained variance and predictive contributions with respect to macro-level factors such as the pandemic stage or cultural region. Overall, the results underscore the importance of morality-related and contextual factors in understanding adherence to public health recommendations during the pandemic. (shrink)

The author reminds us in his Introduction that a phenomenological examina- tion of intersubjectivity is guided by a "twofold critical design". Against sociologism, which stresses the primacy of the We-relationship, so that the irreducible sense-bestowing function of the ego is overlooked, and against psychologism, which ignores a "subjectual" dimension that stands open to objectivity, Moreno M~irquez attempts to throw light on "the essential nexus between egological subjectivity, transcendental intersubjectivity and dialogical praxis, and on the other hand the possibilities of (...) ontological openness and sense-bestowing" (p. 24). In view of various criticisms raised against Husserl's theory, he points out that its primary concern was the cooperation between subjects aimed at the emergence of objectivity, and delimits his subject matter so that the unifying thread among the diverse topics covered is the "ontological competence" of transcendental intersub- jectivity. (shrink)

La poesía como el reino de la miniatura, del modelo a escala relegado, a comienzos de milenio, a dar cuenta de una experiencia cosificada e intransferible, viene a coronar el repliegue que identificamos a partir de tres instantáneas de la poesía argentina contemporánea: el coloquialismo de Argentino hasta la muerte (1963) de César Fernández Moreno, la poesía “neobarrosa” de Néstor Perlongher y el objetivismo de Cosas (2008) de Edgardo Dobry. Del plano general revestido de inquietud sociológica por la identidad (...) nacional (Fernández Moreno), a un plano americano donde el cuerpo goza al ritmo de la aventura del significante liberado (Perlongher), y de allí al plano detalle enfocado directamente en objetos que guardan reminiscencias vivenciales intransferibles (Dobry), la poesía argentina acusa, veinte años de distancia entre cada período, un movimiento de repliegue y extravío. (shrink)

Justifying his proposal for “health savings accounts,” which would allow individuals to set aside tax-free dollars against future healthcare needs, President Bush has said that “Health savings accounts all aim at empowering people to make decisions for themselves.” Who could disagree with such a sentiment? Although bioethicists may be among those who express skepticism that personal health savings accounts will be part of the needed “fix” of our healthcare financing system, self determination has long been part of their mantra. Indeed, (...) the field of bioethics played an important role in advancing this idea in the medical world when physician paternalism was regnant. Has its popularity caused it to become so vapid as to be ripe for misuse? (shrink)

The first form of the inside-outside dichotomy appears as a self-encapsulated system with an active border. These systems are based on two complementary but asymmetric processes: constructive and interactive. The former physically constitute the system as a recursive network of component production, defining an inside. The maintenance of the constructive processes implies that the internal organization also constrains certain flows of matter and energy across the border of the system, generating interactive processes. These interactive processes ensure the maintenance of the (...) constructive processes thus specifying a meaningful outside. Upon this basic form of identity formation, the evolutionary and historical domain is open for the emergence of a whole hierarchy and ecology of insides and outsides. These which mutually subsume and collaborate in the maintenance of the essential inside-outside dichotomy that defines the conditions of possibility of the subjects and the worlds they generate. (shrink)

Our goal in this paper is to articulate a precise concept of at least a certain kind of disease-mongering, showing how pharmaceutical marketing can commercially exploit certain diseases when their best definition is given through the success of a treatment in a clinical trial. We distinguish two types of disease-mongering according to the way they exploit the definition of the trial population for marketing purposes. We argue that behind these two forms of disease-mongering there are two well-known problems in the (...) statistical methodology of clinical trials (the reference class problem and the distinction between statistical and clinical significance). Overcoming them is far from simple. (shrink)

Aristotle normally used historical notations to support his arguments. This is somewhat true for all the works of the corpus, but above all for Politics: the nature, objectives, and methodology of the investigations in this treatise present the strongest links with actual and concrete data, and therefore with historia. Obviously even the Aristotle of Politics is not a historian who wants to report known historiographical traditions; however, regardless of his intentions, there is no doubt that the work in question contains (...) precious ‘fragments’ of history which, in general, confirm or supplement our knowledge. There are, however, cases in which the Aristotelian exempla end up filling in the omissions and gaps of the available sources, such as the cursory reference to the nomos of the Aphytaians, which appears in the section of book 6 dedicated to the so-called agricultural democracy. (shrink)