The risk exists in the storm
The central hypothesis of an actual perception as proposed by Goethe's "live in the storm, or a pragmatist sense of perception without intermediaries is developed below. It does not mean this proposal, the existence of some entities or qualia impossible to reduce to a representational content, but the inevitable loss of content of any type of representation of risk, especially in natural hazards.
In the narrow sense of the philosophers, the direct perception applies to the properties of the object "seen" as "hot", "hard", "red" properties directly perceived through the senses, these objects pass to become objects of consciousness, which become representations, which communicate through language (words, diagrams, charts, etc.)..
At this level of perception (Sensory), the subject interpretant (as shown) or recipient agent, that is the same level, preceded by a series of elements that determine its epistemic access to reality.
theoretical load much discussed by philosophers of science and beliefs, including myths, legends and religious origins and cultural ecological niche and socioeconomic and political environment, require the existence of many perceptions about the same order of risk. Perceiving an earthquake is a different experience for those who are in permanent contact with this event of nature (areas of high seismic activity) that who have had contact only through a chain or network of representations. The perception of a threat between two perceivers of the same ecological niche with different theoretical load likely generate different representations, the presence of a wild animal, a lion for instance, is not perceived as a child than an adult, their attitudes (due to the collection) will be of wonder and curiosity in the first agent and fear and caution in the second. Even assuming balance of these elements, the psychological condition of the recipient agent will change the features of reality, according to their emotional state, such as love, hate, hope, fear, joy or fear, but also personal motives, interests and expectations play an important role in the act of perceiving.
psychology studies offer us other determinants of perception, which were among the most sensory response to many aspects of the environment (such as high frequency sounds and effects of color in mind), the ability to concentrate, consciousness (which develops the cognitive process or perception), adaptation and memory. Draws attention to the interest of psychology by the physiological basis of perception, especially the sense of sight, which gives the dominant meaning perceivers a large amount of data about their environment, in this regard are many studies of so-called Gestalt psychology. The anthropologist Colin Turnbull, studying Bambutis Pygmies of the Congo, tells how the greatest distance, which manage to perceive objects is approximately 30m, due to its ecological niche (dense forests), on a trip to an open plain one of these pygmies, seen for the first time in his life, confuses a group of buffalo, located a few miles, with a group of insects.
This multiplicity of perceptions resulting in a plurality of representations, which we can not expect a simple mirror reflection as we consider the philosopher Richard Rorty, each subject reduced sensory impressions, in the words of Peirce, a unit or proposition with the form subject predicate the earth moves, could be the first representation (language) of one of the perceivers to the experience an earthquake; the god Atlas scratches his head, could be the representation of another subject in the past Greek or the shock of the Pacific tectonic plate the South American continental plate, has just released a large amount of energy would be represented by an agent charged with the dominant scientific theory.
earners agents same risk, as we have seen, generate particular representations, which necessarily will have to be put into discussion and comparison, initiating the process of social construction and subsequent risk management (use and distribution). In this regard, Andoni Ibarra poses a risk as a social and objectively constructed and added the existence of criteria of rationality of social contingencies that allow the explanation of how to produce and reproduce a complex web of risk.
At this level the question arises again about the effectiveness of these representations of these social constructs. Whatever
concept that has risk the examples presented in the following lines show the low effectiveness of risk perception through different forms of representation.
The risks associated with smoking have been re-presented through films, photographs, documents, statistics, but most smokers, to continue their habit, seem not to notice these risks effectively. A thesis is that "if there is perception" but attitudes are more related to imminent failure of these risks, thesis does not contradict the direct natural sensory perception at the time of the occurrence of risk.
The people living near a volcano high risk of eruption (volcano Galeras in Colombia, for instance), refuse to evacuate despite the warnings posted and the different representations of literature and especially the movie (Volcano and Dante's Peak filmed in 1997) have conducted on the impact of these eruptions. Only when the rivers of lava, fire and rain of stones and ash are present, the people start a mass evacuation. There are actual collection in the storm!
Seismic risk is an even more illustrative. The millions of deaths and injuries, major economic losses, the images of cities destroyed, no representations have been enough so that different stakeholders (including politicians) who live in areas of high seismic risk (that have not yet seen the effects of an earthquake directly) take steps to mitigate these risks. The residents of cities located in seismic areas build their houses without complying with minimum standards for earthquake-resistance despite " perceived" catastrophic effects through representations that offer different means of disclosure of risks.
These three examples of perception of natural hazards, risks visible, known, registered statistically invite to reflect on the risks of artificial origin. The risks of technological origin in an invisible majority, in some cases risks are globalized and democratized say Giddens or in the words of Beck, in most cases can only be perceived through the representations that they make scientists and technologists, a perception that, as has been seen, lost content, is ineffective. Proof of this are high levels of pollution in cities such as Mexico and Bogota, the loss "invisible" in the ozone layer and silent change of natural crops by GM crops.
Throughout this stage, the solution to a greater effectiveness in the perception of risk is in isomorphic representations, as the mirror image of natural or artificial reality, the answer is negative. This reflection is an invitation to the construction of representations that focus not only in the sense of sight, consider also the weak translation or public performance of the current representations of risk.
