9 Aralık 2012 Pazar




András BENEDEK 

Paths and Traps in the Forest of the Digitization of Education 
Nearly three years ago we have started our journey in the forest of the digitization 
of education. “The universe is ours”, therefore the university’s mission is to search for 
new roads to the future. The Visual Learning Lab (VLL) seems to be a new professional 
community, its voluntary “migration” meets new paths, and also traps. Martin Kemp and 
James Elkins’ work (2007) gave the firs impulses on the way of visual practices across 
the university. The pioneers –  Theo Hug, James Katz, Kristóf Nyíri, Barry Smith – 
provided a wide scientific orientation, but the challenge is great, both theoretically and 
practically. The forest of the rich fauna – painting, sculpture, architecture, television, 
film, video, mass media, internet – of the ICT environment gave a lot of new  opportunities for education to improve the content and the methods of education. My paper, 
based on the activities of the VLL and the previous conferences – trying to select milestones – between 2009 and 2012 attempts to systematize the professional paths in the way 
of digitization of the content and teaching in higher education and to give feedback about 
the real traps which could be potential obstacles in the change of the character of 
education.
 András BENEDEK, Professor and Head, Department of Technical Education, Budapest 
University of Technology and Economics, has published some 150 papers to date in 
connection with human resource development issues, among them the essays “New 
Vistas of Learning in the Mobile Age”, in Kristóf Nyíri (ed.), 
Mobile Understanding: The Epistemology of Ubiquitous Communication, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2006, and “Mobile Learning: New Horizons and Unstable Summits”, in Kristóf Nyíri (ed.), 
Engagement and Exposure: Mobile Communication and the Ethics of Social Networking, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2009. From 
1976 to 1979 he studied systems analysis on a scholarship and 
acquired a PhD at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow. During 
the 1980s he was a scientific advisor at the Hungarian Academy 
of Sciences. He was the Director of Vocational Training (from 
1984 to 1989), then Director General (from 1989 to 1990) at the 
National Pedagogical Institute. As its first Director General in 1990, he established the 
National Institute for Vocational Education. He was involved in numerous UNESCO and 
ILO projects, and continues to participate in the preparation of various World Bank and 
Phare projects in the area of human resource development. 1991–2006 he held the positions of deputy and permanent state secretary in different ministries. In 2004 he acquired 
a DSc at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. E-mail: benedek.a@eik.bme.hu.


Eszter HARGITTAI 
Visual Learning through Games: 
The Case of GPS-Based Treasure Hunting
  
One of the critiques of people’s increasing digital media use in everyday life is that it removes, or at least distracts people from their physical surroundings in favor of what shows up on the screens of their devices. This one-sided view of digital media ignores the myriad of ways that digital platforms may augment one’s experiences in and of a physical locale. This presentation will discuss how GPS-based treasure-hunt games such as geocaching and Munzee influence the ways hobbyists see their physical surroundings not only during their time playing the game, but in their everyday lives even
when they are not actively pursuing their hobby. The paper draws on participant observations as well as interviews with hobbyists to describe how digital games can augment people’s perceptions and understandings of their immediate surroundings even when not
in the midst of game-play. The presentation will give specific examples of the ways in which hobbyists started seeing their environment in a new light after becoming avid players of such games appreciating nuances of both the urban landscape as well as remote areas and natural elements.

Eszter HARGITTAI,  (Ph.D. Sociology, Princeton University) is Associate Professor of
Communication Studies at Northwestern University where she heads
the Web Use Project. She is also Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society where she spent the 2008/09 year in residence. Her research focuses on the social implications of people’s
digital media uses with a particular interest in how people’s Web-use
skills influence the ways in which they incorporate the Internet into
their lives. One of her current projects (with Ethan Zuckerman, MIT)
focuses on the implications of GPS-based games for learning and civic engagement. E-mail: eszter@northwestern.edu.




Ágnes DARITS 
The Potential Role of Visualisation in the Vocational Training and 
Continuous Education of Adults
  
 Adults are a specific educational target group, due to the facts that on the one
hand they bring a vast amount of life and work experience into the learning process and –
on the other hand – they are very often part-time learners. Thus the use of efficient didactic methods in their teaching can have a multiple impact on the quality of their learning. In my talk I wish to examine the use of visualisation as a potential tool for creating
and enhancing communicational conformity between learner and teacher, easing the
transmission of thoughts and ideas. The first part will review the role of perception in the
learning process, with specific regard to the differences in the individual perception patterns, as well as visualisation playing a major role in the acceptance, understanding and
recalling of the teaching material. The second part will discuss how the development of
IT technologies in the last twenty years enlarged the range of potential educational tools
that can be used to convey knowledge. The third part is meant to give an account on the
lessons that could be learned this far from an empirical experiment on using visual technology in adult vocational training.
 Ágnes DARITS (1958) economist and sociologist. General director of OKTÁV Further
Educational Centre and has a PhD Absolutorium from the Department of Technological Education, Budapest University of
Technology. She is a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP™). At the beginning of her carrier her research
interest focused on industrial design, man-made environment, visual culture and art. Following the year that she spent at University
of London, Goldsmiths’ College as a visiting researcher, in the last
20 years her interest turned towards the exploration of individual
(communicational, presentational and vocational) skills needed to
coop with the challenges of the labour market as well as towards
the specific training and teaching methods and structures suitable for the development of
these skills. E-mail: darits@oktav.hu.



Zsuzsanna KONDOR 
The Riddle of Images Revisited 
  
 According to a widely accepted conception, “an image cannot be seen  as such 
without the paradoxical trick of consciousness, an ability to see something as ‘there’ and 
‘not there’ at the same time” (Mitchell 1987); or as Belting formulated the same idea in a 
rather enigmatic way, “what an image is: the presence of an absence” (Belting 2005). In 
my talk, I will examine the roots of this apparent riddle, but I will also suggest it can be 
eliminated if we take into account the relation between visual perception and the motor 
component.  
 Bergson, one of the proponents of the importance of motor activity uses the term 
image in a puzzling way. This puzzle (as it appears in Bergson’s considerations) revolves 
around bridging the “explanatory gap” between conscious and physical phenomena; and, 
in particular, it illuminates the enigmatic relation between mental and external (accessible 
to others) representations.  
 In conclusion, I will relate the Bergsonian image to the riddle of images against 
the background of similarity. That is, I will suggest, similarity is not an adequate aspect 
from which pictorial representations are examinable. 
Zsuzsanna KONDOR is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, MTA 
Research Centre for the Humanities. Main fields of research: history of philosophy, philosophy of communication, embodied cognition, enactive approach, and philosophy of images. Her publications include  Embedded Thinking: Multimedia and the New 
Rationality, 2008; “Perception and Depiction in the Light of 
Embodiment" in R. Heinrich, E. Nemeth, and W. Pichler (eds.), 
Image and Imaging in Philosophy, Science, and the Arts, 2010; 
“World Picture  and Beyond – Representation Revisited” in A. 
Benedek and K. Nyíri (eds.), Images in Language: Metaphors and 
Metamorphoses, 2011; “Past and Present Constraints”, in  Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society 2011. E-mail: kondorzs@gmail.com.

Prof. Kristóf Nyíri 
Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 
Mailing address: H-2023 Dunabogdány, POB 36, HUNGARY 
Tel./fax (priv.): +36 26 390 468 
Tel. mobile: +36 30 3500 421 
E-mail: knyiri@t-email.hu


Curriculum Vitae
 

Education
1985: DSc (philosophy), Hungarian Academy of Sciences
1978: PhD (philosophy), Hungarian Academy of Sciences
1968: MA in philosophy and mathematics, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
 

Present position
Professor of Philosophy, Department of Technical Education,
Budapest University of Technology and Economics
 

Previous Employment
2005–2007: Research Professor, Institute for Philosophical Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
1995–2005: Director, Institute for Philosophical Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
1986-2004: Professor of Philosophy, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
1978-86: Associate Professor, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
1971-78: Assistant Professor, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
 

Distinctions
Széchenyi Prize, received on March 15, 2009
Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Pécs, Hungary, title conferred on March 12, 2009
Member of the Institut International de Philosophie, elected Oct. 2006
Leibniz Professor of the University of Leipzig for the Winter Term 2006/07
1994: Visiting Fellow at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies, Vienna
1993: European Visiting Research Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh at the University of St. Andrews, Centre for Philosophy and Public Affairs
 

Board Memberships
1995-: Honorary President, Hungarian Wittgenstein Society, Budapest, Hungary
1993-98: President, Hungarian Philosophical Association, Budapest, Hungary
1987-: Advisory Board Member: Forschungsstelle für österreichische Philosophie (Graz,  Austria)

 Editorial Board Member:
Mobile Media & Communication
Conceptus: Zeitschrift für Philosophie
The Monist: An International Journal of General
                    Philosophical Inquiry
Journal of General Philosophy of Science
Philosophisches Jahrbuch
Wittgenstein-Studien
 

Visiting Professorships
1999: University at Buffalo (SUNY), Department of Philosophy (course: "Ethics and Politics of Cross-Cultural Communication")
1997: University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of History / Department of Political Science (courses: "Intellectual History of Modern Europe" and "Politics and Communication")
1996: University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Philosophy
(course: "Communications and the New Europe")

1991/92: University of Graz, Austria (courses: "The Philosophy of Wilfrid Sellars"; "Georg Lukács")
1991: University of Helsinki, Finland (course: "Tradition and Social Communication")
1987: University of Innsbruck, Austria
(course: "Chapters in the History of Austro-Hungarian Philosophy")

1986: Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO (course: "The Concept of Tradition")
 

Scholarships / Grants / Awards
1998-2001: Hungarian National Széchenyi Professorial Grant
1997-1998: Research Support Scheme of the Open Society Institute / Higher Education Support Programme (Soros Foundation - Prague)
1990-1991 and 1986-1987: Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany)
 

Book Publications (see also: Complete List of Publications)
(a) Author
Zeit und Bild: Philosophische Studien zur Wirklichkeit des Werdens, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2012, 203 pp.
Kép és idõ [Image and Time], Budapest: Magyar Mercurius, 2011, 176 pp.
Vernetztes Wissen: Philosophie im Zeitalter des Internets [Network Knowledge: Philosophy in the Age of the Internet]. Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2004, 179 pp.
The philosophy of tradition [A hagyomány filozófiája]. Budapest: T-Twins - Lukács Archívum, 1994, 172 pp. Reviewed in Népszabadság, January 21, 1995, inBUKSZ, Autumn 1995, in Magyar Tudomány, 1995/11, in Magyar Filozófiai Szemle, 1997/5-6, and in Studies in East European Thought 51 (1999), pp. 329–345.
Tradition and Individuality. Essays. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1992, xi + 180 pp. Reviewed in BUKSZ, Autumn 1993, in Magyar Filozófiai Szemle, 1995/3-4, and inStudies in East European Thought 51 (1999), pp. 329–345.
Crossroads: Philosophical Essays [Keresztút: Filozófiai esszék]. Budapest: Kelenföld, 1989, 95 pp. Reviewed in Valóság, 1990/2, and in Jel-Kép, 1996/1.
Am Rande Europas: Studien zur österreichisch-ungarischen Philosophiegeschichte [On the fringe of Europe. Studies in the history of Austro-Hungarian philosophy]. Wien: Böhlau, 1988, 232 pp. Reviewed in Review of Metaphysics, June 1989, in Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 1989, in Austrian Studies1990, and in Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Universität Halle 1991/5. Hungarian translation reviewed in Népszabadság, May 21, 1987, and in Magyar Nemzet, February 23, 1987.
Gefühl und Gefüge. Studien zum Entstehen der Philosophie Wittgensteins [Structure and Sentiment: Studies on the Emergence of the Philosophy of Wittgenstein]. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1986, 207 pp. Reviewed in Hungarian Studies 1988/2.
Ludwig Wittgenstein. Budapest: Kossuth, 1983, 127 pp.
On the intellectual life of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Essays in the history of philosophy [A Monarchia szellemi életérl. Filozófiatörténeti tanulmányok]. Budapest: Gondolat Kiadó, 1980, 248 pp. Russian edition: Moscow: Mysl, 1987. 192 pp.
A short history of philosophy. From the Vedas to Wittgenstein [A filozófia rövid története. A Védáktól Wittgensteinig]. With Ferenc L. Lendvai. Budapest: Kossuth Könyvkiadó, 1974, 270 pp. 4th ed., with a new postscript, 1995.
(b) Editor
The Iconic Turn in Education (series VISUAL LEARNING, vol. 2), with András Benedek. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2012.
Images in Language: Metaphors and Metamorphoses (series VISUAL LEARNING, vol. 1), with András Benedek. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2011.
Engagement and Exposure: Mobile Communication and the Ethics of Social Networking, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2009.
Integration and Ubiquity: Towards a Philosophy of Telecommunications Convergence, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2008.
Mobile Studies: Paradigms and Perspectives, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2007.
Mobile Understanding: The Epistemology of Ubiquitous Communication, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2006.
A Sense of Place: The Global and the Local in Mobile Communication, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2005.
Mobile Democracy: Essays on Society, Self and Politics, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2003.
Mobile Learning: Essays on Philosophy, Psychology and Education, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2003.
Mobile Communication: Essays on Cognition and Community, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2003.
Mobilközösség - mobilmegismerés: Tanulmányok [Mobile Community – Mobile Cognition: Essays], Budapest: MTA Filozófiai Kutatóintézete, 2002.
Allzeit zuhanden: Gemeinschaft und Erkenntnis im Mobilzeitalter [Always at Hand: Community and Cognition in the Mobile Age], Wien: Passagen Verlag, 2002.
A 21. századi kommunikáció új útjai: Tanulmányok [New Perspectives on 21st-Century Communications: Essays], Budapest: MTA Filozófiai Kutatóintézete, 2001.
Mobil információs társadalom: Tanulmányok [The Mobile Information Society], Budapest: MTA Filozófiai Kutatóintézete, 2001.
Filozófia az ezredfordulón [Philosophy at the Turn of the Millennium], Budapest: Áron Kiadó, 2000.
Philosophy of Culture and the Politics of Electronic Networking, with Peter Fleissner. Vol.1: Austria and Hungary: Historical Roots and Present Developments. Vol.2: Cyberspace: A New Battlefield for Human Interests. Innsbruck-Wien: Studien Verlag / Budapest: Áron Kiadó, 1999.
Szóbeliség és írásbeliség: A kommunikációs technológiák története Homérosztól Heideggerig [Orality and Literacy: A History of Communication Technologies from Homer to Heidegger], with Gábor Szécsi. Budapest: Áron Kiadó, 1998.
Tradition, Vienna: IFK, 1995.
Nationalism and Social Science, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1994 (Special issue of the journal Studies in East European Thought, vol.46, nos.1-2)
Computer, Kultur, Geschichte: Beiträge zur Philosophie des Informationszeitalters [Computers, Culture, History: Issues in the Philosophy of the Age of Information], with D. Mersch. Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 1991.
Perspectives on Ideas and Reality, Budapest: FTK, 1990.
Practical Knowledge: Outlines of a Theory of Traditions and Skills, with B. Smith. Beckenham: Croom Helm, 1988.
The Tradition of Austrian Philosophy, Wien: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1986.
Georg Lukács, Dostojewski: Notizen und Entwürfe [Dostoyevsky: Notes and Sketches], Budapest: Akadémiai, 1985.
Karl Wittgenstein, Politico-economic Writings [reprint of K. Wittgenstein, Zeitungsartikel und Vorträge (1913)], with an introduction by B.F. McGuinness and J.C. Nyíri. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1984.
Austrian Philosophy: Studies and Texts, Munich: Philosophia Verlag, 1981.
 

Conferences organized, directed, proceedings published
2011, Budapest (with András Benedek): VISUAL LEARNING: DEVELOPMENT – DISCOVERY – DESIGN , proceedings published as The Iconic Turn in Education (series VISUAL LEARNING, vol. 2), Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2012.
2010, Budapest (with András Benedek): VISUAL LEARNING , proceedings published as Images in Language: Metaphors and Metamorphoses (series VISUAL LEARNING, vol. 1), Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2011.
2009, Budapest: UBIQUITOUS COMMUNICATION IN AN INTELLIGENT WORLD.
2008, Budapest: MOBILE COMMUNICATION AND THE ETHICS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING, proceedings published as Engagement and Exposure: Mobile Communication and the Ethics of Social Networking, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2009.
2007, Budapest: TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONVERGENCE, proceedings published as Integration and Ubiquity: Towards a Philosophy of Telecommunications Convergence, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2008.
2005, Budapest: SEEING, UNDERSTANDING, LEARNING IN THE MOBILE AGE, proceedings published as Mobile Understanding: The Epistemology of Ubiquitous Communication, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2006.
2004, Pécs, Hungary (with János Boros): KANT UND DAS PROBLEM DES WISSENS.
2004, Budapest: THE GLOBAL AND THE LOCAL IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION: PLACES, IMAGES, PEOPLE, CONNECTIONS, proceedings published as A Sense of Place: The Global and the Local in Mobile Communication, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2005.
2003, Budapest: MOBILE COMMUNICATION: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EFFECTS, proceedings published as Mobile Democracy: Essays on Society, Self and Politics, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2003.
2002, Budapest: PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION, proceedings published as Mobile Learning: Essays on Philosophy, Psychology and Education, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2003.
2002, Budapest: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON 21ST-CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS, proceedings published as Allzeit zuhanden: Gemeinschaft und Erkenntnis im Mobilzeitalter, Wien: Passagen Verlag, 2002, and as Mobile Communication: Essays on Cognition and Community, Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2003. Also published in Hungarian.
2001, Budapest: A  21. SZÁZADI KOMMUNIKÁCIÓ ÚJ ÚTJAI(NEW PERSPECTIVES ON 21ST-CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS), proceedings published as A 21. századi kommunikáció új útjai: Tanulmányok, Budapest: MTA Filozófiai Kutatóintézete, 2001.
2001, Budapest: A 21. SZÁZAD KOMMUNIKÁCIÓJA: Mobil információs társadalom (COMMUNICATIONS IN THE 21ST CENTURY: The Information Society on the Move), proceedings published as Mobil információs társadalom: Tanulmányok, Budapest: MTA Filozófiai Kutatóintézete, 2001.
2000, Budapest: INFORMATION SOCIETY, INTERDISCIPLINARITY, AND THE FUTURE OF THE HUMANITIES, proceedings published in Világosság, 2001/7-9.
2000, Kecskemét, Hungary: Philosophy at the Turn of the Millennium, proceedings published by Áron Kiadó, Budapest.
1996, Dunabogdány, Hungary: The Philosophy of Wilfrid Sellars. A Hungarian-American conference, among others with Keith Lehrer, Bruce Aune, Joseph Pitt, Jay Rosenberg, Johanna Seibt, and David Stern.
1995, Dunabogdány, Hungary: Philosophy of Religion in Hungary, proceedings published as Vallásfilozófia Magyarországon, Budapest: Áron Kiadó, 1995.
1994, Vienna: TRADITIONS, proceedings published as Tradition (Vienna: IFK)
1993, Budapest: Ungarn und die Brentano-Schule, proceedings published as Brentano Studien V.
1992, Budapest (with G.M. Tamás): Philosophy and Political Change in Eastern Europe, proceedings published as Philosophy and Political Change in Eastern Europe, ed. by B. Smith, La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1993
1990, Budapest: Computer, Kultur, Geschichte, proceedings published as Computer, Kultur, Geschichte: Beiträge zur Philosophie des Informationszeitalters(Vienna: Passagen Verlag)
1989, Budapest: Idea and Reality (concluding conference of a five-years project directed by J.C. Nyíri), proceedings published as Perspectives on Ideas and Reality (Budapest: FTK)
1985, Lichtenau, Austria (with Barry Smith): Practical Knowledge, proceedings published as Practical Knowledge: Outlines of a Theory of Traditions and Skills (Beckenham: Croom Helm)
1985, Kirchberg am Wechsel, Austria: From Bolzano to Wittgenstein, proceedings published as the volume The Tradition of Austrian Philosophy (Vienna: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky)
 

Upcoming talks
Dec. 7–8, 2012, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, VISUAL LEARNING: COMMUNICATION – COGNITION – CURRICULUM: "Images in Conservative Education" – Abstract in Hungarian.
 

Invited presentations (since 1991)
2012, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, VISUAL LEARNING LAB"The Visual and the Motor"
2012, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, INTERFACES OF THE MIND"Motor Intentionality and the Visual Mind".
2011, Freie Universität Berlin, WAS SIND DENKFIGUREN?"Time As Denkfigur and As Reality".
2010, Universität Regensburg, RELIGION ALS BILD – BILD ALS RELIGION"Bild und Gebet".
2010, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Kolleg-Forschergruppe Bildakt und Verkörperung"Bild und Metapher".
2010, Universität Regensburg, AESTHETIC COGNITION AND COGNITIVE AESTHETICS: "Gombrich on Image and Time Revisited".
2010, 33th International Wittgenstein Symposium ("IMAGES AND IMAGING"), Kirchberg am Wechsel: "Image and Metaphor in the Philosophy of Wittgenstein".
2010, Universität Innsbruck, RINGVORLESUNG VISUELLE KOMPETENZ: "Die Macht der Bilder: Von Arnheim und Gombrich zu Freedberg und Belting".
2009, Freie Universität Berlin, RINGVORLESUNG DARSTELLUNGSRÄUME: "Die Verräumlichung der Zeit".
2009, Potsdam, MEDIA ON THE MOVE: "The Moving Image on a Mobile Device".
2009, Chemnitz, BILDER-SEHEN-DENKEN (Image, Vision and Mind): "Gombrich on Image and Time" (2009).
2009, Universität Leipzig, PHILOSOPHISCHES KOLLOQUIUM: "Bild und Wirklichkeit: Bemerkungen zu van Fraassen's Buch Scientific Representation".
2008, Fernuniversität in Hagen, FORUM PHILOSOPHICUM: "Zeit und Bild beim frühen Heidegger".
2008, University of Budapest (ELTE), NYELV, MEGISMERÉS, TUDAT [Language, Cognition, Consciousness]: "Metaforák és az idõ valóságossága [Metaphor and the Reality of Time]".
2008, Kraków, 6th EUROPEAN CONGRESS OF ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY: "Hundred Years After: How McTaggart Became a Thing of the Past".
2008, University of Pécs (Hungary), RICHARD RORTY'S PHILOSOPHICAL LEGACY: "Visualization and the Limits of Scientific Realism"
2007, Berlin KALEIDOSCOPE Symposium, THE SCIENTIFIC EVOLUTION OF TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING: "The Philosophy of Mobile Communication".
2007, 30th International Wittgenstein Symposium ("PHILOSOPHY OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY"), Kirchberg am Wechsel: "Towards a Philosophy of the Mobile Information Society".
2007, London Knowledge Lab, KALEIDOSCOPE Philosophy of Technologically-enhanced Learning Workshop, KNOWLEDGE AND CONTEXT: "Context and Intention".
2006, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, THE SHAPES OF THINGS TO COME: "Der Mobilgefährte im Breitbandstrom".
2005, Balatonvilágos, Hungary, KALEIDOSCOPE Philosophy of Technology Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group Workshop, CHAT IN A NEW KEY:"Introductory remarks".
2005, 28th International Wittgenstein Symposium ("TIME AND HISTORY"), Kirchberg am Wechsel: "Time and Communication".
2005, Universität Potsdam, Institut für Künste und Medien, Europäische Medienwissenschaft, RINGVORLESUNG 2004/2005: "Mobiles".
2005, The London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London, THE MEDIATED MIND – RETHINKING REPRESENTATION: "The Networked Mind".
2004, Universität Leipzig, PHILOSOPHISCHES KOLLOQUIUM IM WINTERSEMESTER 2003/2004: "Einheit des Wissens: Der Aufbau einer virtuellen Enzyklopädie".
2003, "NET CULTURE SCIENCE", conference organized by the internet platform Kakanien Revisited, Budapest: "Netzwerk und Erkenntnismacht".
2003, UNESCO Philosophy Forum "Qui sait? Who knows?", Paris: "New Information Technologies: Towards Knowledge Societies?".
2001, "WITTGENSTEIN RESEARCH REVISITED", conference at the University of Bergen: "Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Pictures".
2001, 24th International Wittgenstein Symposium ("WITTGENSTEIN UND DIE ZUKUNFT DER PHILOSOPHIE"), Kirchberg am Wechsel: "Pictures as Instruments in the Philosophy of Wittgenstein".
2000, Austrian Statistical Society, Vienna: "Multimedia und Post-Literalität".
2000, 23rd International Wittgenstein Symposium ("RATIONALITY AND IRRATIONALITY"), Kirchberg am Wechsel: "The Picture Theory of Reason".
2000, Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, annual meeting at Piliscsaba, Hungary: "Wörter und Bilder in der österreichisch-ungarischen Philosophie: Von Palágyi zu Wittgenstein"
2000, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest: "Open Science, Open Education: The Internet and Interdisciplinarity" (in Hungarian)
2000, Collegium Hungaricum, Berlin: "Zur Philosophie der virtuellen Universität"
1999, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien: "Kommunikation und Nationalgedächtnis"
1999, King's College, London (DRH99 conf.): "Towards a Philosophy of Virtual Education"
1999, European Christian Internet Conference, Budapest: "The Idea of a Virtual University: Religious Studies on the Net"
1999, Collegium Budapest: "Konservativ sein im Zeitalter des Internets"
1999, Spezialforschungsbereich "Moderne: Wien und Zentraleuropa um 1900", Graz, Austria: "Österreichisch-ungarische Kommunikationsphilosophien"
1999, University at Buffalo (SUNY): "A Philosophy of Virtual Education". A series of four public lectures: 1) "Psychologies of Virtual Education"; 2) "Communicating Meanings: From Plato to the Internet"; 3) "Libraries and the Organization of Knowledge"; 4) "Toward a Functional History of Higher Education".
1999, University at Buffalo (SUNY): "Fin-de-siècle Austria and the Emergence of Postmodernism". Talk given to the Graduate Group on German and Austrian Studies.
1998, Technische Universität Berlin: "Practice and Theory of a Virtual University"
1998, Boston: "Post-Literacy as a Source of Twentieth-Century Philosophy". Talk given at the conference The Common Roots of Twentieth-Century Philosophy, organized by the Institute International de Philosophie on the occasion of the XXth World Congress of Philosophy.
1997, Budapest: "Open and Distance Learning in an Historical Perspective". Keynote address given at The Sixth European Distance Education Network Annual Conference.
1996, University of Münster, Germany: "The Changing Function of the Humanities in the Age of Post-Literacy"
1995, Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society, Kirchberg, Austria: "Wittgenstein as a Philosopher of Post-Literacy"
1995, University of Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria: "The Concept of Knowledge in the Context of Electronic Networking"
1995, Institute for Cultural Studies, Essen, Germany: "Networking and the Transformation of Time"
1994, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona: "Haller on Wittgenstein on Art"
1994, University of Toledo, Toledo, Spain: "Wittgenstein as a Philosopher of Secondary Orality"
1994, International Research Centre for Cultural Studies, Vienna: "Notes towards a Theory of Traditions"
1994, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany: "Palágyi and Husserl: On the History of the Mentalism/Antimentalism Discussion"
1994, British Library / British Academy, Elvetham Hall, England: "Electronic Networking and the Unity of Knowledge"
1993, Association for History and Computing, Graz, Austria: "Tradition and Social Communicaton"
1993, Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society, Kirchberg, Austria: "Thinking with a Word Processor"
1992, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland: "La Tentation des Clercs - Redemption and Analysis in Hungarian Philosophy Today"
1992, International MONIST Colloquium, Budapest: "Tradition and Bureaucratic Lore: Lessons from Hungary" 


30 Kasım 2012 Cuma


Klaus SACHS-HOMBACH 


Epistemic Functions of Pictures 
Some Conceptual Preliminaries  
 It is widely indisputable that images, beyond their much praised knowledge-imparting (didactic) functions, can also perform knowledge-promoting (epistemic) functions. An epistemic function in the narrower sense does, regarding images, essentially occur in three variants: Images can become epistemically relevant as empirical basis, for 
purposes of illustrating contexts of justification or within contexts of origination. Subsequent to a brief outline of these different  possibilities, my lecture will consider a few problems linked to said possibilities and concerning especially the correlation between visualization and genesis of knowledge. This will be closely related to the subject of pictorial rhetoric. 
Klaus SACHS-HOMBACH, born in 1957, studied philosophy, psychology and German 
language and literature at the University of Münster. After his PhD in 1990 at the University of Münster and his habilitation in 2003 at the University of Magdeburg he was appointed professor of philosophy, focussed on cognitive science, at the TU Chemnitz in 2007. Since 
October 2011, he holds the chair of media studies 
at the University of Tübingen. Some main publications: Philosophische Psychologie im 19. Jahrhundert, Freiburg: Alber, 1993; Das Bild als kommunikatives Medium: Elemente einer allgemeinen 
Bildwissenschaft, Köln: Halem, 2003; Was ist Bildkompetenz? Wiesbaden: DUV, 2003 (as editor); 
Wege zur Bildwissenschaft: Interviews, Köln: Halem, 2004;  Bildwissenschaft zwischen 
Reflexion und Anwendung, Köln: Halem, 2005 (as editor); Bild und Medium: Kunstgeschichtliche und philosophische Grundlagen der interdisziplinären Bildwissenschaft, 
Köln: Halem, 2006 (as editor);  Bildwissenschaft: Disziplinen, Themen und Methoden, 
Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2005 (as editor); Bildtheorien: Anthropologische und kulturelle Grundlagen des visualistic turn, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2009 (as editor); Origins of Pictures, Köln: Halem, 2013 (as editor, with Jörg Schirra). E-mail: klaus.sachshombach@uni-tuebingen.de.




Balázs BALOGH 
The Role & Possibilities of Visual Skills  
in a Technology-Driven Architecture
  
 Since the earliest times visuality had a uniquely respected role in architecture, always  
dependent on the global and local changes. 
▪ What is required to be investigated if we speak about them? 
▪ Changes became unbelievably and unfollowably fast in our age, and at the same time 
the most typical fact is uncertainty. 
▪ All of these indicate the rethinking of the human in technology-driven architecture. 
▪ What means the greatest change in architecture turning into mass-product of the construction, what is the greatest challenge, how is it possible to overcome them and where 
is the position of the visual skills in these processes? 
▪ To balance the above mentioned components, to find a real way to achieve the real 
answer, these are the goals of the presentation. 


Balázs BALOGH, Dr. habil., DLA, Architect, is Professor and 
Head of the Department of Design, Faculty of Architecture at Budapest University of Technology and Economics.  
E-mail: bbalogh@goliat.eik.bme.hu.




Norma B. GOETHE 
Reasoning about Form, Shape & Structure

 The fact that formal languages play an important role in modern mathematics
supports the view that all mathematical argument could be expressed in a single logical
idiom leading to homogeneous, canonical understanding of form, shape and structure. In
my presentation I will revisit some of the critics’ reasons why such view fails to capture
fundamental aspects of mathematical practice, in particular, our capacity to learn imagining what we don´t know by using notations, diagrams and other modes of representation
that play a shaping role for thought.
Norma B. GOETHE is University Professor of Philosophy (School of Philosophy, National University of Cordoba, Argentina). She studied philosophy, logic and epistemology of the sciences in Cordoba (National University
of Cordoba) and Munich (LMU). She did her doctoral and postdoctoral research at Harvard University, Philosophy Department. Her
research focuses on the study of Leibniz in the context of a broader
interest in the philosophy and history of the formal sciences. E-mail:
ngoethe@ffyh.unc.edu.ar.

Daniel IRRGANG 

Diagrammatics as a Mode between Gedankenexperiment 

 and Thinking Medium

 Diagrams are ‘epistemic things‘ (Hans-Jörg Rheinberger) in particular: they show
the structure and relation behind the phenomenal surface of the referred object or, more
precisely, they constitute a hypothesis on the structure through displaying the reasoning
processes that led to the structure in its specific form. Charles Sanders Peirce describes
these reasoning processes through diagrams as diagrammatic reasoning. According to
him, an icon (including the subclass ‘diagrams‘) does not only represent its object but
configurates it in a specific way. This statement is especially true for diagrams, because
their represented structures are hypothetical ones. Through the reconfiguration of diagrams, as mental operations or as sketches on a piece of paper, new hypotheses about the
object can be tested and modulated, and at the same time new knowledge generated. In
this sense, diagrammatic operations and Diagrammatology (Frederik Stjernfelt) can be
described as vital dimensions of a theory of gedankenexperiment (thought experiment) in
general. The aim of the presentation is to present diagrams as (re-)thinking mediums in
sciences and arts by discussing diagrammatic sketches of Charles Darwin, Jean-François
Lyotard and George Maciunas.
Daniel Irrgang (DE) is a doctoral student at Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and a
researcher in the project ‘Archaeology/Variantology‘ of the Media (co-editor of vol. 4 and 5 of Variantology – On Deep Time
Relations of Arts, Sciences and Technologies). In 2011 he completed his studies in Communication for Business and Society
(MA). Currently he is writing his doctoral thesis about Diagrammatics as a Cultura experimentalis, supervised by Prof. Siegfried
Zielinski (chair for media theory) at the UdK, where he also
teaches. He is a co-founder (2006) of the communication agency
‘AFKM‘, working on mediarelated projects. E-mail: irrgang@
medienhaus.udk-berlin.de.

Frederik STJERNFELT 
Peirce’s Notion of Diagrammatical Reasoning
 
 The paper will present Peirce's notions of diagram and diagrammatical reasoning
as centerpieces of his mature theory of signs. Diagrams are complex signs, a structural
subset of icons, the relations of whose parts mirror the relations of some of the parts of
their objects. This makes possible diagrammatical reasoning: the manipulation of diagram parts after certain rules may give access to new knowledge about the object. Diagrams are basically iconic, aided by general symbolic rules for their manipulation and indices for their object reference.
Frederik STJERNFELT, born 1957, is professor at the
Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University. Recent publications include  Diagrammatology (Springer 2007),  Semiotics: Critical Concept in Linguistics, I–IV (ed. with P.
Bundgaard, Routledge 2010);  The Democratic Contradictions of Multiculturalism (with J.-M. Eriksen, Telos
Press 2012). E-mail: semfelt@hum.au.dk.

Gábor PALLÓ 
The Tacit Image: 
Michael Polanyi Revisited 
  
In 1970 Michael Polanyi published a study on paintings. By that time he built up a coherent philosophy based on the philosophy of science. He worked out his particular conceptual system and extended it to various fields, including the field of arts. Gestalt psychology rendered the core of this system. 

Reflecting on some seminal works of his times, including Rudolf Arnheim, Ernst Gombrich, and others, Polanyi interpreted paintings by his generalized psychology of knowing. The paper shows the mechanism of this theory, its connections with embodiment, convictions, belief and transcendence, and Polanyi’s contribution to the non-positivist transformation of the philosophy of science that started in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 



Prof. Gábor PALLÓ, 1942 (PhD 1976, Technical University of Budapest),  DSc, is Senior Consultant at the Visual Learning Lab, Budapest University of Technology and Economics. 

His fields of research include history of chemistry and physics, 20th-century history of natural sciences in Hungary, philosophy of science, 
history of migration of scientists, the relationship between science, politics and philosophy. Some recent publications:  Zsenialitás és korszellem  [Genius and Zeitgeist], 

Budapest: Áron Kiadó, 2004; 
“The Advantage and Disadvantage of Peripheral Ignorance: The 
Gas Adsorption Controversy”, Ambix, vol. 57, no. 2, July 2010, pp. 
216–30. E-mail: Gabor.Pallo@ella.hu.



György SZABÓ 
Digital Cities – Reality, Vision, Cognition, Virtuality

 The digital city metaphor has been used in several contexts that are slightly connected. The digital city can be a representation of reality, it may be an IT infrastructure or
even a virtual community. The recent development of positioning, imaging and infocommunication technology – as a byproduct – has produced an enormous amount of continuously generated instant data that can be used to describe, register and analyze the
human environment. The bottleneck of the digital city solutions is the management of the
Petabyte range of information. The most efficient way of communication is the synthesis
and aggregation of mass data in a structured, iconic graphic map form. The cartographic
representation as a “language of the eye” constitutes a basic sign system for storing, understanding and communicating spatial information. The iconic turn, the increasing need
of efficient visualization of mass data requires the complex analysis of the geometrical,
graphical, semantical, ontological representations of geospatial phenomena. In the present
paper we analyze the visual communication requirements of digital cities, and compare
the traditional precision-oriented geometrical map representations with the cognitive
mental model of the depicted geographic space.
György SZABÓ is associate professor in geomatics engineering at the Faculty of Civil
Engineering of Budapest University of Technology and
Economics, where he teaches subjects in geospatial information science and technology for civil engineers,
environment engineers, technical managers and economists. He received his PhD in geosciences and MSc in
civil engineering from Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary. His research interest covers the wide spectrum of geospatial and engineering
fields – data collection, spatial database systems, digital
cartography, geo visualization and urban modeling. He is
author and co-author of five books and numerous research papers on geographical information science. E-mail: gyszabo@eik.bme.hu.



James E. KATZ – Daniel HALPERN


Is a Tour Worth a Thousand Clicks? 
Visual Information Processing as Affected by Spatial Abilities  and Individual Differences in a Museum Environment 


Since the introduction of interactive multimedia, 3D representations and rich hypermedia annotations, the use of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) technologies has entered the educational and cultural domains. 

Museums in particular have tried to adopt these technologies to advance their educational mission via visitor learning, including those who visit their websites and, where offered, visual tours. Through computer generated environments that combine various forms of augmented reality, museums (and many other educational institutions) have started to develop immersive environments for presenting their collections. This type of immersive learning has a valuable role in motivating and empowering students to learn about art, history and even objects that never have existed or no longer do. However, its navigational demands could cause some individuals to become disoriented and become frustrated due to navigational difficulties and problems manipulating software objects. Research  indicates that to navigate successfully, 
users should rely on spatial navigation skills and must plan their movements using a spatial frame of reference, making them places where spatial ability has an impact on performance. This talk presents the results of  a study that investigates the interaction of spatial abilities with two-dimensional and virtual tour applications. It does this by comparing the extent to which spatial abilities facilitate users’ navigation and engagement with the museums. The aim of this research is to empirically investigate whether spatial 
abilities have an effect on learning across different instances of 2D and virtual reality displays.

 The results of the research have implications for the design of digital collections and for the role of visualization as a mode of representation in museums. By extension these implications spill over to areas including formal and voluntary learning as well as the role of visual material in online environments. 


James E. KATZ,  , is Board of Governors Professor of Communication at Rutgers University. Currently he is on leave to direct the division of Emerging Media Studies at Boston University where he is also establishing a new 
doctoral program. Currently Prof. Katz is investigating how personal communication technologies, such as mobile phones and the internet, affect social relationships and how cultural values influence usage patterns of these technologies. His several books include  Perpetual Contact and  Social Consequences of Internet Use  (with Ron Rice)  and he is the author or co-author of more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles. Among his recent  awards are the 2011 Ogburn award for career achievement  from the  American  Sociological  Association  and  the 2009 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Twentieth Century Communications History. E-mail: j.k@ rutgers.edu.


Daniel HALPERN is an assistant professor at the Catholic University of Chile. He is the author of  El Pecado de el Rucio (2008, Catalonia) and Gestion de Crisis: Teoria y Practica de un modelo comunicacional (2010, Ril). His research has been published in different journals. In 2008 he received a Fulbright Scholarship to do his PhD at Rutgers, where he is finishing his dissertation. E-mail: halperndaniel@gmail.com.




Barry SMITH 

Diagrams and Time 


Diagrams can be used in ways which parallel the different types of utterances recognized in classical speech act theory. A musical score, for example, can be used as a set of instructions for performance; or it can be used in marked-up form by a student of 
music to record her errors when performing. An architectural blueprint can be used as a set of instructions for building a building; but it can then later be used as a plan of the completed building or, in marked-up form, as a record of the work performed. But diagrams are able to perform such functions only if their users have a coordinated type of expertise. A musical score is as inert if there are not performers who have the expertise 

needed to follow its instructions. Our topic here is such diagrammatic expertise; its varieties (for instance the distributed expertise that is involved when a conductor conducts an 
orchestra); and its relation to time. We shall argue that in very many spheres our grasp of the processes unfolding in reality is mediated through diagrammatic expertise, and draw consequences for our understanding of phenomena such as music, planning, and law. 

Barry SMITH  is a prominent contributor to both theoretical and applied research in ontology. He is the author of some 500 publications on ontology and related topics, and editor of The Monist: An International Quarterly Journal of General Philosophical Inquiry. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the US, Swiss and Austrian National Science Foundations, the US Department of Defense, the Volkswagen Foundation, and 
the European Union. In 2002 he received the 2 million Euro Wolfgang Paul Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

In 2010 he was awarded the Paolo Bozzi Prize in Ontology by the 
University of Turin. Smith is SUNY Distinguished Professor in the 
Department of Philosophy and Director of the National Center for 
Ontological Research. He is also Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Neurology and of Computer Science. Smith is one of the principal scientists of 
the NIH National Center for Biomedical Ontology, a Scientific Advisor to the Gene 
Ontology Consortium, and a PI on the Protein Ontology and Infectious Disease Ontology 
projects. He also serves as consultant on multiple ontology-related projects in the defense 
and other areas. Smith’s pioneering work on the science of ontology led to the formation 
of the OBO (Open Biomedical Ontologies) Foundry, a set of resources designed to support information-driven research in biology and biomedicine. He is also leads work on 
the Basic Formal Ontology, which serves as common architecture for the OBO Foundry 
ontologies and is used in over 100 research projects throughout the world. E-mail: 
phismith@buffalo.edu.