NotaBene

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The games that people play

In this issue

Journal NotaBene Issue 45 (2019) Åditor: Gergana Popova

Topic of the issue: The games that people play

MMORPG – Simulation and the Wondrous World of Resurrection

The paper aims to analyze an important contemporary cultural and social phenomenon – the development of online video games and especially of MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) and MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game), the increasing interest and addiction to them. The research studies the merging of actuality and virtuality in the cyber games, generated from their specific status: the blurring boundaries between the real space and time of the gamer and the virtual time-space of the game; the borrowing of rules and possibilities from the real world combined with fantastic and fairy creatures and situations. The paper also examines different factors of the MMORPG’s attractiveness: on one side - the perfect computer graphics, achieved by means of the digital technologies and creating stunning virtual worlds and on the other side – the liberty in the choice of character, role, gender, race, appearance and behavior provided by the game. The research analyzes the satisfaction of various gamer’s needs in the accomplished virtual world that drives to sinking in the game, neglecting the actual life and distorted pictures of what is allowed and possible in the game and in the reality. The research expresses the hypothesis that the exclusion of the body from the online games is a serious cause for the disturbance of the human existential-phenomenological relation to the world and in this sense determines as the thinning of the social ties in our times as the diagnostication of new psychological disorders connected with the internet addiction.
Keywords: internet addiction, cyber games, mmog, virtual world, simulation

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Truth, Misfortune, Love

The article is focused on the existential and metaphysical views of Simone Weil in the context of the unity of her life and works. In that sense some specific Weil's notions and topics are analysed: the "malheur", the friendship and the supernatural love, the relationship master-slave and necessity-freedom. In the perspective of Weil's views the article state the hypothesis that the truth is not a logical construction but has an existntial character and could be achieved in the individual meeting of life and death.
Keywords: Simone Weil, supernatural love, malheur, necessity-freedom

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ARCHITECTURAL GAMES AND RESULTS: THE GENESIS OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE COLLECTIVE HOUSE. Part 1.

Kalin Koev is born in Sofia in 1952. He took master's degree in Sofia University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy. He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1985 and then he became a lecturer in this University. Since 1990 he lived and worked in Spain. In this period he has held different scientific and engineering positions: for example a researcher in the University of Cantabria and Managing Director of Waters in Cantabria. In 2001 Kalin Koev became Doctor of Science in The University of Cantabria. He has more than 150 publications in different fields of knowledge and a lot of papers presented on symposiums on architecture and engineering. He also has interests in photography and poetry and in 2016 he published a books with photos and poems in Spanish.
The presented paper is a part of a bigger research on the architecture of the collective house from its genesis to nowadays. Here definitions of architecture are given and analysed. The most important stages and figures of this kind of architecture are studied. The article put an accent on Bauhaus school because of its contributions to the architecture of the collective house.
Keywords: Bauhaus, modern architecture, Le Corbusier, Niemeyer

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ARCHITECTURAL GAMES AND RESULTS: THE GENESIS OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE COLLECTIVE HOUSE. Part 2

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Philosophical Hermeneutics: Between Gadamer and Ricoeur. Part 1

The aim of this paper is a comparison between the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer and that of Paul Ricoeur. The first part delineates the origins and background of their approaches: Heideggerian ontology; philosophical anthropology and Husserlian phenomenology. Òhe respective views on the nature of language are examined with focus on motivations. In outlining two variants of philosophical hermeneutics the attention is on the vision for a discourse of the human sciences. Here is also traced a complex idea (Ricoeur) for thå role of ‘imagination’ in-between ‘text’ and ‘action’. A summary-segment at this stage prepares for the inquiry on the relevance of temporality. In a second part, juxtaposing the aspects of the latter makes possible a clarity for the guiding motifs of the two thinkers. The concluding part is an overview of the option for critique and correspondingly of the advantages of different hermeneutical tasks.

Keywords: philosophical hermeneutics, finitude, conflict of interpretations, linguisticality, textuality, temporality, productive imagination

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Philosophical Hermeneutics: Between Gadamer and Ricoeur. Part 2

The aim of this paper is a comparison between the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer and that of Paul Ricoeur. The first part delineates the origins and background of their approaches: Heideggerian ontology; philosophical anthropology and Husserlian phenomenology. Òhe respective views on the nature of language are examined with focus on motivations. In outlining two variants of philosophical hermeneutics the attention is on the vision for a discourse of the human sciences. Here is also traced a complex idea (Ricoeur) for thå role of ‘imagination’ in-between ‘text’ and ‘action’. A summary-segment at this stage prepares for the inquiry on the relevance of temporality. In a second part, juxtaposing the aspects of the latter makes possible a clarity for the guiding motifs of the two thinkers. The concluding part is an overview of the option for critique and correspondingly of the advantages of different hermeneutical tasks.

Keywords: philosophical hermeneutics, finitude, conflict of interpretations, linguisticality, textuality, temporality, productive imagination

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Podium

Generations and Life Crises

Life crises (de)mobilize biographic, as well as social and cultural resources. They can be a matter of social accomplishment (dismissal from work, retirement, dropping out of university) or existential situations (illness, death, separation with a loved one). Respectively the coping with life crises is a complex process, which presupposes (re)invention of certain social and cultural patterns of the “effective”, “adequate” and “normal” reaction to the change in the health, professional, social, etc. status.
What role does generation/belonging to a generation play in this process of (re)invention? Which developments of the concept of generation in the field of history and sociology could be working for the study of life crises? Which patterns of coping with life crises could be considered as predetermined by the generation?
In attempt to answer these questions, the present paper provides a historical and analytical perspective of “the problem of generations”, taking as a starting point the famous essay of Karl Mannheim and referring to biographical interviews and focus-groups with carers for disabled people. Three main “cuts” of the concept under review are widely discussed: the generation and the life stages, the generation and the transmission of culture, the generation and the social change. The latter are seen as productive paths to understanding/defining of generation as an intersection of biosocial and historical time and respectively as an effective tool for tracing not only the construction of social and cultural identities, but also their transformations and discontinuities.
Keywords: Generation, life crisis, life cycle, transmission of values, social change

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MAIN FUNCTIONS AND CLASSIFICATION OF CONTEMPORARY SOFTWARE FOR TASK MANAGEMENT IN THE ORGANIZATION

Abstract: The article propose different classifications of information products and software to follow the implementation of tasks in the organization. It looks at the different types of project management software and task tracking in the organization. There is a new classification of task management software as intended, features and methodology for tracking tasks.
Key words: Project management, Task tracker, software

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Minima moralia

The origin of conspiracy theories against Freemasonry at the beginning of the 21st century

Abstract: Towards the end of the 20th century, there began to develop a public perception that the Freemason Order is related to the different Satanic cults and the order of enlightened thinkers that existed in Bavaria at the end of the 18th century, the Illuminati. In addition, the different conspiracy theories maintain that the Illuminati, using the Freemasons, act to take over the world through the control of the power centers in the world. But a more in-depth examination of the history and of the doctrines of the two orders indicates that these are two different orders that were established at different times under a different ideological doctrine, one in the British version and one in a non-British version. Although there are individual Freemasons who are members in Memphis-Misraim and in regular Freemason orders, it is possible to determine that Memphis-Misraim was established as separate from the regular Freemason order and includes a completely different learning theory that emphasizes mysticism.
Keywords: Freemasonry, memphis-mizraim, illuminati

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Babylon

Isaiah Berlin: Interview on Freedom (1974)

This is a translation of a famous radio interview with the significant English philosopher - Isaiah Berlin. In it sir Isaiah Berlin focuses on the topic of human freedom. He denies the theories that consider human as a product of internal drives or external circumstances. Berlin refers to Kant's books in order to defend the idea of the responsibility as a manifestation of human freedom.

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Announcement

EU - Russia Information War, Human Rights and Democracy – Fake news, Fact-checking, Conspiracy Theories and Hate-speech in post-Truth and Illiberal Democracies Age

The aim of the study is to discuss both two sides of the EU – Russian Information War’s discourses and tools/tactics in contemporary democracy and human right standards. The study makes a discourse analysis on the fake news as the EU – Russian information war’s discourse base in the post-truth age in relation to the evolution of democracy, human right, and political communication. The fake news who is constructed on the base of the conspiracy theories as hate-speech examples how to evaluated by contemporary democracy, human right, and communication science standards? The study discusses the specific relationships of Ottoman inherited countries’ mass with fake news and human rights as well. The authenticity of the study is that the first time the information war subject is discussed in relation to the evolution of democracy and human right standards and universal democracy and human right struggle. Also, the first time the study offers a consistent definition of fake news to explain the impact/influence mechanism. The fake news who are the weapons of the information war who are classified as the hate-speech examples have a large academic literature but the aim of the study is to discuss a definition and contemporary impact mechanism of fake news and conspiracy theories in post-truth and illiberal democracies age. The discussion could give a deepest understand on the definition and the impact mechanism of fake news.
Keywords: Information War, Fact-checking, democracy, human right, fake news

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Ethical and Aeshetical Discourse of the Kierkegaard's Religious Existentialism

This paper dwells on the philosophical synthesis between the Ethics and Aesthetics in the first work of Søren Kierkegaard –“Enten–Eller” (“Either-Or”). Man’s spiritual transformation (personality) undergoes a three-stage process of growth, which starts from the aesthetic plane and continues to the moral one, where at the end Kierkegaard combines morality with the religious phase of human growth. The synthesis of Ethics and Aesthetics thus comes true by author’s employing of poetical expression of an aesthetic life view through allusions, imagery poetics, and symbolism, whereas the moral aspect of human growth discusses such topics as moral responsibility, critical analysis, and marriage. The Dane employs a language that combines ethics and aesthetics as one. Thus, Ethics and Aesthetics adopt a form-content paradigm, whereby the aesthetic stage of human growth in the work “Either-Or” represents the form, and the moral aspect is presented in the content of the work. The work of the Danish philosopher presents an ample example of the crossroad and intersection of Ethics and Aesthetics as a valid expression of human spiritual growth.

Key words: Ethics, Aesthetics, symbolism, moral responsibility, marriage, ethic-aesthetic synthesis.

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Poiesis

The Dimensions of the Sea. Photos by Kalin Koev

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If politicians were hipsters. Photo Collage by Nikolai Pandarski

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