HEINZ VON FOERSTER CONFERENCE 2007 Abstracts
Krzysztof Abriszewski
Socializing a computer program - social system interfering with a digital system Abstract: The wide spread, common view on computerization of various parts of the social world usually says this: social institutions are relatively stable phenomena, and the very function of computers and computer programs boils down to reflecting the institutional reality (or parts of it). One usually assumes, that social system is autonomous and only source of agency, and action. Thus, digital systems are perceived as passive, predetermined, and subsidiary. However, things look differently. In my paper, relying on ethnographic studies on introducing a digital system USOS (University System for Studies Management), I will point out various areas of interfering social system and the digital system. I will focus on processes of decision making, agency prescribing, and social change. Interfering of the two does not look like a process of mirroring something by something else, but rather as a series of tensions and conflicts locally negotiated, which in result change both in an unpredictable way.
Marco Bettoni
How to Chat with an Ape: An Introduction to the Yerkish Language Abstract: The aim of this lecture is to introduce to some important issues and concepts related to Yerkish, an artificial language created by Ernst von Glasersfeld for use by apes in computer-mediated communication (CMC) with machines and humans. In the first part we will begin with a short outline of the context in which the Yerkish language originated (the original LANA project) and then present the language itself - its “lexigrams” and its “correlational” grammar - and its use by the chimpanzee Lana in formulating sentences. In the second part we will give a brief introduction to the foundation of Yerkish in Silvio Ceccato’s Operational Methodology, particularly his idea of the correlational structure of thought and will then conclude with the main insights that can be derived from the Yerkish experiment seen in the light of Operational Methodology. This lecture will provide insights on how Ernst von Glasersfeld by his design laid the foundation of the unbroken success of Yerkish over the last 30 years.
Søren Brier
Operational Constructivism and Phenomenology Abstract: Luhmanian sociocybernetics is an observation of socio-communicative systems with a specific difference. It is a second order observation of observations understanding society as being 'functionally differentiated' into autonomous autopoietic subsystems or 'meaning worlds' in the symbolic generalized media such as money, power, truth, love, art and faith. Only communication communicates and the social is communication. The social system creates products of meaning which do not represent an aggregation of the content of individuals’ minds. The bio- and psychological autopoietic systems only establish boundary conditions for the socio-communicative systems; they do not control the socio-communicative system in any way. Somehow the socio-communicative systems seem to develop on their own (by will?) although they have no body and no subject. The psychic system in Luhmann’s theory is thus not a Kantian or Husserlian transcendental ego in spite of Luhmann’s use of aspects of Husserl’s phenomenology (while at the same time destroying its philosophical frame). On the other hand, Luhmann works with an “open ontology”, combined with Spencer-Brown’s philosophy that making distinctions is what creates the difference between system and environment. Thus observation is basic to the theory – but where is the observer in the theoretical framework of system theory? The inspiration from Hegel is hidden here, where distinction, creation and evolution merge. Also, Hegel has been taken out of his metaphysical frame while Luhmann never took the time to finish his own. On the other han, the father of the pragmatic triadic semiotic, also inspired by Hegel, C. S. Peirceexplicitly confronted some of these problems. Like Bataille, Peirce sees a continuity between mind and matter and his Firstness contains ’pure feeling’, meaning that there is also an inner experience aspect of matter. The article compares Luhmann’s and Spencer-Brown’s strategies with Peirce’s, the latter of whom built an alternative transdisciplinary theory of signification and communication based on a Panentheistic theory of knowing. Surprisingly it fits well with Spencer-Brown’s metaphysics, which makes it possible to establish a consistent foundation for system theory.
p. 1 / 13 Pille Bunnell
Thought, language and emotion - reflections on a dynamic topology of relations Abstract: Due to their necessary connection with a variable medium, living systems develop commensurate internal changes that appear to an observer as discernments. As the complexity of possible interactions with the medium for mobile systems increases, the system may develop alternate constellations of possible behaviours that the observer may distinguish as emotions. Where the coordination among systems becomes recursive, as in the development of language, a new domain of relational behaviors arises in a manner that may, and often does, evolve independently of other connections with the medium, including those various constellations of behaviours that in language become objectified as “emotions”. As we are already languaging beings as we make comments like those above, and as the comments are considered valid only if they are coherent with both experience and language, while language confines what we can distinguish as “experience”, we easily assume that what we say refers to an actuality. This is true also of what I am saying now; there is no escape from this circularity other than through implication and imagination. I myself find that I do not think in language. I articulate and editorialize in language. That is, I apply an operation in language to language in order to engage in conversation for the pleasure of that intimacy with others, and in order to generate worlds of harmonious complexity for the pleasure of doing so. What I say in language is a rigorously structured evocation of what I sense as a dynamic abstract topology of configurations. I suspect, but have no way of knowing, whether that which I sense as non-languaging thought is systemic rationality. In this presentation I will be exploring the role of the systemic dynamics of the human cognitive system (non- languaging thought as enacted by a nervous system that has developed through languaging) in harmonizing the nonintersecting domains that arise as various lineages of logic, emotioning, and any other distinctions of relations with a richly variable medium. I will reconsider my previously proposed idea of contextual inertia in this context. I will also explore the incongruence of selected notions through a direct comparison of differences in distinctions between languages. I intend to rephrase concerns about intercultural co-ordination based on my reflections. Since this is an ongoing set of concerns and interests for me, I expect that what I will say several months from now will have evolved from what I say as I write this abstract.
Gerard de Zeeuw
Challenges in knowledge acquisition Abstract: Histories of knowledge acquisition focus on different aspects, for example the Great Man or Grand Narratives. In this contribution, the emphasis is on Great Problems. The latest Great Problem is explored in terms of the role of reality and of the humans involved. The exploration touches upon the work of Gordon Pask, Ernst von Glasersfeld and Heinz von Foerster.
Willi Dörfler
What is constructed in mathematical activities? Abstract: E.von Glasersfeld in several of his publications is concerned with the cognitive development of mathematical ( basic) concepts. His view strongly rests on Piagetian notions and foregrounds the construction of cognitive schemata which reflects a certain mentalism. I will contrast this with ideas by Peirce who puts great emphasis on the role played by diagrams as a kind of iconic signs for mathematical constructions and deductions. One can take the extreme point of view that the mathematician designs diagrams, or the more intermediate one that those diagrams and other signs are means and object of the mathematical constructions. This also is related to the question what constitutes the meaning of a sign. Here I will refer to the Wittgenstein view that besides referential meaning ( Frege) it is sensible to admit meaning to be constituted by the operations with the signs.
Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr.
The radical constructivism wars: a guide for realists Abstract: There are many contributions to the literature explaining the errors and dangers of radical constructivism, both in the form of hardcopy and electronic media. The list grows daily. Yet, very little about the arguments made is new, nor have these arguments effected much change in the basic positions of radical constructivists. What is the nature of the recurring themes in these arguments and why do they fail to accomplish their goals? The ultimate Buddhist philosophy, known as the Middle Way, bears many similarities to radical constructivism. It has weathered similar onslaughts for more than two millennia. What might we learn from the experience of the Middle Way?
p. 2 / 13 Deprived of the capacity to claim itself true, how can radical constructivism possibly justify itself? What evidence is there? Suggestions for responses to these questions will be made.
Hans Rudi Fischer
Von der Repräsentation der Repräsentation zur Beobachtung der Beobachtung... Der Weg zum dialektischen Konstruktivismus Abstract: Die Frage, die Heinz von Foerster zur Kybernetik 2. Ordnung führte, ist analog zu der Frage, die Ernst von Glasersfeld zum radikalen Konstruktivismus geführt hat: Wie können Repräsentationen repräsentieren, wie können Beobachter beobachten? Die Sprengkraft dieser Fragen liegt in ihrer Selbstreflexivität. Wie sieht es um die Möglichkeit von Selbstrepräsentation und Selbstbeobachtung aus? Der radikale Konstruktivismus entkommt dem Problemballast des Subjekt/Objekt-Modells, indem er beide Fragen verbindet und die (Selbst-)Repräsentation als Operation bei der (Selbst-)Beobachtung in ein Verhältnis setzt, das als ein dialektisches begriffen und dadurch entparadoxiert werden kann. Wenn wir uns der bildenden Kunst als einer Disziplin zuwenden, die ihren Diskurs nicht-diskursiv führt, die das Sagbare im Rahmen des Sichtbaren reflektiert, dann wird augenfällig, daß die Logik der Kybernetik der Kybernetik oder des radikalen Konstruktivismus, in höchst verdichteter Form in der Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts antizipiert wurde. Velasquez hat in seinem Meisterwerk Die Hoffräulein (Las Meninas, 1656) die Paradoxien der Selbstbeobachtung bzw. der Selbstreflexion grandios inszeniert und ein Paradigma für eine dialektische Logik geschaffen, wie die Präsenz des Beobachters in der Beobachtung trotz seiner Absenz zu denken ist. Bei meinem Streifzug durchs Museum abendländischer Denkzwänge (wie die klassische Logik) werde ich an verschiedenen Bildern innehalten und der Frage nachgehen, warum uns sowohl Selbstrepräsentation als auch Selbstbeobachtung in Paradoxien/Antinomien führen und diese nicht durch veni-vidi-vici-Erkenntnistheorien auflösbar sind. In den Antinomien klassischer Erkenntnistheorie scheint die Dialektik als methodischer Schlüssel auf, den traditionellen Problembestand loszuwerden. Im Rekurs auf Hegels Dialektik und Piagets genetische Erkenntnistheorie werde ich zeigen, daß der radikale Konstruktivismus im Sinne von Heinz von Försters und Ernst von Glasersfelds nur als Meta-Denkstil konsistent ist, der seinen Denkstil (im Sinne Flecks) methodisch immer wieder mitreflektiert. Das macht den Konstruktivismus zu einem dialektischen und bewahrt ihn davor, zu einem neuen Dogmatismus zu erstarren.
Peter Fleissner
Systemic Thinking in Simulation Models Abstract: Based on a modified variant of the theory of reflexion selected methods to construct mathematical simulation models (systems dynamics, econometric, input-output and agent based models) are discussed and assessed. Examples taken from social sciences are presented to illustrate their specific advantages and disadvantages.
Peter Gasser-Steiner
Ritual und Spontaneität: Was bestimmt den psychoanalytischen Prozess? Abstract: Mit Irwin Z. Hoffman betritt an prominenter Stelle ein amerikanischer Analytiker die psychoanalytische Szene, der sich explizit auf einen „konstruktivistischen“ und „dialektischen“ Ansatz beruft, wenn er die Prinzipien seiner Arbeitsweise darstellen soll: Die Realität der psychoanalytischen Situation wird als „co-konstruiert“ aufgefasst, indem Intrapsychisches und Interpersonales verschwimmt und ineinander übergeht. Damit wird das Melanie-Kleinsche Konzept der projektiven Identifikation radikalisiert und auf menschliche Kommunikation per se generalisiert. Diese Rekonstruktionen des psychoanalytischen Prozesses konvergieren mit dem Glaserfeldschen Verstehenskonzept als „Vereinbarkeit der Auffassungen von Sprechen in einer bestimmten Situation“. Im Vortrag wird versucht, die genannten Sichtweisen für eine psychoanalytische Hermeneutik fruchtbar zu machen.
Ranulph Glanville
Abstract: This paper is based on Pask’s early book, “An Approach to Cybernetics.” I will argue that in this book Gordon Pask sets up stall with the key concepts that were to pre-occupy him for the rest of his life, and with which he developed the radical approach to communication that forms his magnum opus, “Conversation Theory”. I will further argue both that these concepts are at the centre of Pask’s work, and also that, with these concepts, Pask’s work is at the centre of the subject of cybernetics.
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Walter Grasnick
Begriffe begreifen Abstract: Was es mit Begriffen auf sich hat, wird bislang nicht hinlänglich begriffen. Bei einem Begriff, sagen wir "Drama", ist das nicht dramatisch zu nennen. Mit Sicherheit auch nicht bei vielen anderen Begriffen. Vielleicht sogar den allermeisten. Jedenfalls denen des Alltags. Das ändert sich begreiflicherweise besonders dann, wenn mit Begriffen in das Wohl und Wehe anderer eingegriffen wird. Wie es notwendig geschieht, sobald Juristen zu dem greifen, was (nicht nur) sie unter Begriffen verstehen. Allen voran die Richter. Doch gerade auch sie haben den angemessenen Umgang mit sogenannten Begriffen bis heute nicht gelernt. Es wird deshalb hohe Zeit, sich (erneut) um die Begriffe zu kümmern. Das soll hier ansatzweise geschehen. Dabei u.a. unter Rückgriff auf Wittgenstein und Luhmann. Am Ende mag sich herausstellen, daß die Begriffe, begreift man sie nur richtig, im Grunde überflüssig sind. Die Worte beiben uns ja. Und die reichen vollkommen.
Katharina Gsöllpointner / Sibylle Moser
Ästhetisches Know How. Abduktion - Metapher – Synästhesie Abstract: According to Ernst von Glasersfeld the emergence of new insights about the world can be neither explained through deductive reasoning nor through inductive generalization only. The construction of new knowledge requires an act of creative distinction. In our paper we will take our current research project "aesthetic know-how" to explore the idea that artistic processes result from the transference of perception to symbolic communication by means of abduction. We suggest that this artistic transferal of perception is realized through metaphoric action. The metaphoric use of signs and media respectively allows for the detection of similarities and differences in perception thereby leading to surprising and innovative insights on the nature of experience. Creative comparisons and transferals of perception can be observed in various works of contemporary art, many of which use language in different media. As an example, we will elaborate on the sensual distinction of script, sound and image in selected works by Viennese artists like VALIE EXPORT, Gerhard Rühm and Elke Krystufek. The transferal and merging of the senses in these art works demonstrate that at its very core aesthetic knowledge appears to be synesthetic know-how to experience the world.
Günter Haag
Recent Advances in Synergetics Abstract folgt
Peter M. Hejl
Social systems, constructivism, and the impact of our evolved minds Abstract: The social science use of the concept of “system” is still mainly based on a tacit analogy with organisms. Societies or groups appear as internally differentiated units constituted by or “emerging” from mainly communicative acts of human actors. In addition, sociological systems theorists often adhere to the “anti-reductionist” tradition. As a result, there is a strong tendency to classify human actors as part of the environment of social systems. In my contribution, I want to focus on one of several shortcomings of this tradition in sociological theorizing: the design of social systems based on analogies confuses a heuristically useful approach with proper scientific explanations. Hence, it becomes difficult to conceptualize – or to construct – the constitution and the dynamics of social systems using testable mechanisms able to produce the phenomena to be explained. Do overcome these problems one has first to admit that anti-reductionism is part of the dualist tradition and its “inbuilt” tendencies to disregard one of the two phenomenal domains that often result from applications of dualist concepts. The second step, advocated in the presentation, consists of adopting a multi-level approach. It allows to model in a testable way the inter-level causalities typical for social systems. Such an approach has the advantage not to exclude the properties of components and the resulting behavioral dynamics for reasons more linked to discipline-specific historical aspects than to the pretended explanatory purpose. I will substantiate the theoretical argument by looking at some recent results from evolutionary anthropology and psychology as well as at game-theoretical work on factors influencing human cooperation and competition. In particular, I will show • that the conceptual basis of anti-reductionism is no longer valid from an anthropological point of view, and
p. 4 / 13 • that certain cross-cultural aspects of social systems (e.g. the function of social ‘borders’, the appearance of symbolic markers, internal differentiation [self-organization] with the emergence of institutions and hence of subsystems functioning as regulators [self-regulation], system-specific aspects of culture [self-reference]) can be explained drawing on recent insights into the interplay between the “biological” and the “cultural” level of human behavior within the context of the coevolution between the individual and the social level. I will conclude with the claim that the empirical results referred to correspond more with a (radical) constructivist position than e.g. with the position of social constructionism.
Thomas Himmelfreundpointner
Searching for Viability Abstract: Two kinds of viability are discussed in the context of psychotherapy: on the one hand viability concerning the way a client constructs his personal history and current being and on the other hand viability of the therapist in helping a client to find a favourable construction. Both perspectives of viability provide the participants in a therapeutical context with degrees of freedom, which are necessary to take real decisions in the sense of Heinz von Foerster and therefore leave the client as well as the therapist with a helpful sense of self-control. If you allow for different degrees, Ernst von Glasersfelds concept of viability could be the most relevant criterion for therapeutical success. Looking at everyday practice, this is not as obvious as it may seem. Therefore some therapeutical arguments for the viability of viabilty will be given.
Theo Hug
Die Metaphorik der Navigation und Navigation als Metaphernkompetenz [On Imagery of Navigation and Navigation as Metaphor Competence] Abstract: Die Hochkonjunktur des Ausdrucks „Navigation“ hält seit etlichen Jahren an. Angesichts der Nutzung des Ausdrucks im Zusammenhang von Internet-Diensten, therapeutischen Dienstleistungen, GPS Outdoor- Anwendungen, Pädagogiken der Navigation oder Portable Navigation Assistants (PNA) mit und ohne Stauumfahrungsfunktion scheinen ursprüngliche Verwendungsweisen im Kontext der Schifffahrt inzwischen in der Minderheit zu sein. Trotzdem oder vielleicht gerade deshalb sollte sich ein Blick auf das weitverzweigte Gebiet der Metaphorik der Navigation lohnen. Im Vortrag wird zunächst eine Auswahl von Navigations-Metaphern vorgestellt. Dabei werden unterschiedliche Bereiche und Metaphern-Verständnisse berücksichtigt. In einem zweiten Schritt werden Auffassungen von Navigation als Metaphernkompetenz skizziert und in Auseinandersetzung mit Konzepten transversaler Kompetenz, Medienkompetenz und Lebenskompetenz diskutiert. Abschliessend werden Rolle und Funktion einer navigatorischen Metaphernkompetenz im Kontext inkommensurabler Wissensformen reflektiert.
Alfred Inselberg
Encountering BCL – Listening and Hearing Abstract: Serendipity lead me in 1959 to the enchanted BCL Kingdom. I was studying Mathematics and HvF hired me to work on … the EAR! The shock subsided after reading some Physiological Acoustics and we set upon understanding the function of the Cochlea (in the Inner Ear) with its strange and "counter-intuitive" structure. The cochlea's remarkable geometry, coupled with its material properties, exquisitely maximizes our audible frequency range as will be described in this non-technical talk. Further upstream, information processing in the auditory nerve provides our sharp frequency discrimination. The needed "sharpening transformations" are constructed using Linear Property Filters the precursors of today's Artificial Neural Networks, a BCL legacy. From the late 50's on, BCL was researching the feasibility of self–programming computers! For a computer to program itself it first has to perceive the problem from the environment; ergo the work on Hearing, Vision and Cognition.
Richard Jung
“Constraint and conduct: Toward a social system”. Abstract: System of intentions conceptualized under the metaphor “mind” can be seen as the foundation for psychology and social psychology. The relations of the hull of the system to its inner environment are conceptualized phenomenologically as experiences of urges. The relations of the shell of the system to its outer environment are conceptualized functionally as actions, in analogy to the variational formulation of action in physics. Attempts to generalize the system of intentions to aggregates have not been successful.
p. 5 / 13 System of conventions conceptualized under the metaphor “template” could constitute a foundation for ecology and sociology. The relations of the hull of the system to its inner environment would be conceptualized phenomenologically as experiences of constrains. The relations of the shell of the system to its outer environment would be conceptualized structurally as conduct, in analogy to the dynamic formulation of interdependence of objects in general relativity.
Louis H. Kauffman
Eigenform Abstract: This talk begins with the notion of generalized eigenvalues (fixed points) as formulated by Heinz von Foerster. I call such fixed points eigenforms. We explore the meaning of such forms in the contexts of logic, self- reference, the emergence of form, object and reference for an observer. The eigenforms provide an instrument for exploring the meaning of self-observing systems and the cybernetics of cybernetics.
Prof. Vincent Kenny
There’s nothing like the Real Thing: Revisiting the need for a third-order cybernetics Abstract: The recent exponential increase in the use of the Internet and other ‘media’ to influence and shape the dominant cultural experiences using various forms of ‘virtual reality’ exploits a core facility of human psychology - that of being able to accept ‘substitutions’ for the ‘Real Thing’. In this paper I want to raise some basic questions and dilemmas for our living in the space of a third-order contextualization which uses ‘virtuality’ in an ever- increasing manner for the configuring and homogenization of human experiences. In doing so, I also raise the question as to the need for us to develop an adequate model of a ‘third-order cybernetics’ for dealing with the ways in which human experience is contextualized and configured by phenomena which constitute the third-order system. I will also express concern at the lack of critical reflection in the psychology and, especially, in the psychotherapy professions with regard to the problems of living arising from the third-order system (notwithstanding the ‘radical psychology’ and ‘critical psychology’ movements). Ernst von Glasersfeld’s work makes it clear that psychologists and others enter into a great deal of confusion when they use terms like ‘self’, ‘consciousness’, ‘emotions’, ‘memory’, ‘the environment’, and even ‘experience’, because, as he points out, there is no convincing model for any of these commonly taken-for-granted phenomena of human living. His writings are taken as a unique source for the need of constant self-critical monitoring in regard to psychological praxis and third-order phenomena.
Urban Kordes
Knowing and realizing, truth and trust Abstract: After many years of studying constructivism I realized that – despite its many deep epistemological insights – it can prove be quite a futile enterprise if taken as a pure philosophical speculation. I find it interesting that theories and concepts that concern most intimate areas of our world and that excellently explain known data, have so little impact on our lives. In the presentation I try to chart path from von Foerster's idea of participatory position to its possible next step: a phenomenological (or first-person) exploration of world as lived experience. Classification of types of knowledge according to owner's existential involvement is suggested and a gap between rationalizations and personal truth (lived experience) is investigated with special attention to place where knowing and doing overlap.
Hans-Herbert Koegler
Social Systems and the Value of the First Person. Abstract: Part One will be concerned with the uniqueness of social systems in contrast to other systems, including biological or machine systems. In particular, the focus will be on how social systems can be understood to coordinate actions by intentional agents. Since human agency is necessarily defined by intentionality, which is embodied and excercized through individual human subjects, social systems have to be shown to relate to this dimension of meaning and understanding. The argument will be that social systems display constraints that are imposed on them due to their actualization through intentional agents. It will proceed by showing that the meanings entailed and produced in social contexts are only accessible through an orientation at a first-person perspective of agents, who are nonetheless not autonomous or free with regard to the socially constituted meaning-frameworks. Part Two will make good on this point by means of a constitution-theoretical (or social-ontological) route. Here is at stake how social systems form the subjective self-understanding, consciously and unconsciously, of individual agents. Our discussion will relate to recent debates concerning social constructivism (Hacking, Pickering,
p. 6 / 13 Bourdieu). In particular, the feedback processes between social systems and individual agents on a variety of levels will be considered. The diverse routes of the possibility of 'reflexive loops,' where social systems produce their own psychological complements, will put social constructivism on a more solid and robust grounding.
Peter Krieg
Fragen und VerAntworten Abstract: Zwischen 1994 und 1997 führte Peter Krieg mehrere lange Gespräche mit Heinz von Foerster, die in ein gemeinsames Buch mit dem Titel „Fragen und VerAntworten“ münden sollten. Krankheitsbedingt, und dann durch den zwischenzeitlichen Verkauf des Verlags konnte das Projekt damals nicht abgeschlossen werden. Einige dieser Gespräche hat Peter Krieg auf Video aufgezeichnet. Aus diesem Material wird er erstmals Ausschnitte zeigen und kommentieren. (Video in Deutsch, Kommentare evtl. auch in Englisch)
Klaus Krippendorff
Conversation and Causes of its Decline Abstract: I take conversation to be a seemingly effortless, mundane and essentially human interactive use of language. In coordinating their responses with respect for their individual cognition, participants in conversations create and maintain spaces for each other’s participation. Conversation is also self-organizing as long as its participants direct the flow of their conversation – nobody outside of it. A conversation may terminate by mutual consent, but can always be continued in principle. Conversations are also very precarious in that certain moves can easily cause a conversation to become burdensome, turn into something else or break down. This presentation explores some of these moves, their consequences and possibilities of repair.
Matthias Kross
Depth. Or: An “Informed” Wittgensteinian Perspective on Constructivistic Non-Triviality Abstract: Without doubt, HvF was deeply influenced by Wittgenstein’s thinking, and it served him as a solid fundament for his own constructions. But interestingly enough, Wittgenstein never intended to be constructive; he was satisfied with having dug deep enough to lay bare fundaments of these constructions. Wittgenstein was opposed to the idea of deep thinking, but he always cherished the idea of thinking deeply. Profundity of thinking was helped him to measure the height of philosophical constructions and informed him of amount of intellectual trouble invested in them. In my presentation, I want to elucidate this “informed” or “deep” Wittgensteinian perspective by analysing HvF’s notion of the “depth of non-triviality”.
Marie Larochelle / Jacques Désautels
Constructivism and the Discourse of School Disciplines Abstract: There is an abundance of good reasons for paying homage to Ernst von Glasersfeld, that towering intellectual whose multiform work has produced a multitude of major repercussions, particularly in the field of science education. For one, following the emergence and development of radical constructivism, in which he played a pioneering role, it is no longer possible, today, to teach scientific knowledge according to an ontological mode – in other words, as though such knowledge existed independently of our ways of understanding the world and of fitting the world into our discipline-bound frameworks. Further, it is no longer possible to develop teaching strategies that consciously disregard what students already know. Students may not know whatever it is that we want them to know, but as Ernst von Glasersfeld has shown repeatedly, they cannot be considered to be suffering from a knowledge deficit for all that. They too have developed knowledge and ways of doing things that enable them not only to engage viably in their day-to-day activities but also to make sense of their experiences and their paths in the world, including their school itinerary. All in all, it is an entirely different scenario of education that is sketched out under radical constructivism, which argues for the relativization of knowledge from a perspective that embraces far more than merely reiterating that whatever it is we utter, we utter it from a given point of view. Indeed, radical constructivism holds that we might well have constructed things differently, that we could instead, even at this time, draw on other terms or frames of reference to elaborate our utterances about the world. This we could do, in particular, by reincorporating “the properties of the observer” into our discourses as well as the conditions, stakes and issues surrounding the utterance in question. This we could do, in short, by reincorporating the question of power into our utterance-
p. 7 / 13 making. Through an examination of the position or role falling to the discourse of school disciplines, we will attempt to explicate insights such as these.
Marco Lehmann-Waffenschmidt
“Economics as a Self-Referential and Construcutivist Science. Some Principal Thoughts and Case Studies“ Abstract: Theories on social behaviour cause self-referential effects when they are perceived and believed by the agents whose behaviour they describe. Thus, paradoxically theories which are purposed to describe an absolute social reality can create real consequences which otherwise would not have been realized, i.e. they create their subject in dependence of the agents view on it. While this phenomenon in the (radical) constructivistic discourse has been widely discussed for self-fulfilling, or -destroying, prophecies almost no empirical studies are available on the question of whether self-referential effects of theories, or models, of social behaviour can exactly be measured. This study provides recent experimental evidence which strongly suggests that there are such self-referentiality effects. The study furthermore presents a case study from the German Bundestag election campaign 2005 which is an application of this topic: How do "folk theories" on complex (economic) topics favoured by a large part of the population influence political decisions when the policy decision makers are aware of this "folk theories" by public opinion research?
Adrian Lucas
The Problem is the Solution Abstract: A seemingly straightforward proposition, The Problem is the Solution, is peeled like an onion, to reveal a paradoxical circularity with no core. The concept of problem, now problematized, becomes a stage for encounters with radical constructivism, French problematology, and game theory.
Christian Mang
Systemische Kompetenz in Führung und Management Abstract: Klassische Führungsmodelle gibt es viele. Die meisten beruhen auf jener Ansicht, dass die führende Persönlichkeit den Weg für die Anderen vorgibt und die Ergebnisse der Anderen (z.B. MitarbeiterInnen) kontrollieren muss. Dieser Führungsansatz erfordert, dass die Führungskraft „es immer besser weiß“, also immer einen Schritt voraus ist, über genug Zeit bzw. ausgeklügelte Kontrollinstrumentarien verfügt und sich nie die Blöße gibt, etwas nicht zu wissen – das scheint verständlich aber unmöglich, speziell in großen Unternehmen (komplexen Systemen). In komplex vernetzten Strukturen - wie Unternehmen es meist sind - lösen flache Strukturen und Matrixorganisation frühere Hierarchiestufen mehr und mehr ab. Die „Machtlosigkeit“ der Führungskraft nimmt zu und die Möglichkeiten zur Kontrolle nehmen gleichzeitig ab. Führungskräfte benötigen also neue oder zumindest erweiterte Konzepte und Instrumente. Dennoch wird da und dort mit Schulungen und Trainings versucht, Manager und Führungskräfte noch mehr von Ihren Mitarbeitern abzuheben und mit noch besseren Führungswerkzeugen auszustatten. Rhetorische Kniffe, kurzfristige Incentives und teils manipulative Kommunikation sollen beitragen, das „Uhrwerk“ möglichst schnell laufen zu lassen und die einzelnen „Zahnräder“ dabei reibungslos funktionieren zu lassen. Die Führungsprobleme lösen sich dadurch jedoch erfahrungsgemäß nicht auf. Im Vergleich klassisch-hierarchischer Denkansätze zu einbeziehenden lösungsorientierten Führungsstilen, wo die Mitarbeiter nicht als „dumme“ Zahnräder sondern vielmehr als kompetente Individuen angesehen und behandelt werden, bietet sich die systemisch-konstruktivistische Betrachtungsweise als besonders geeignet an. Abgeleitet aus der Systemtheorie und der Kybernetik, kombiniert mit den Konzepten der Autopoiesis entsteht ein Modell für wertschätzenden und ressourcenorientierten Umgang von Menschen untereinander. Mehr als ein Modell, ist es eine mögliche Betrachtungsweise, eine Grundeinstellung, vielleicht sogar ein Weltbild. In der Praxis führt diese „Systemische Kompetenz“ unweigerlich zur Stärkung des Systems – ob Führungskraft, Mitarbeiter oder im ganzen Team! Da Führungswerkzeuge immer erst durch die Haltung und Grundeinstellung der Person, die sie anwendet, ihre Wirkung entfalten, steht dieser Vortrag ganz im Lichte kooperativer Führungsmodelle, systemisch- konstruktivistischen Tuns und Denkens und wertschätzender Kommunikation.
p. 8 / 13 Tatyana A. Medvedeva
Cybernetics and the Russian Intellectual Tradition Abstract: Perestroika happened more than 15 years ago. Market reforms have had some good results and some bad. Difficulties with implementing market reforms have strengthened interest in understanding the unique Russian philosophical heritage with the goal of understanding what Russia is, what Russian civilization is, and what the similarities and differences are between Russia and the West. Such thinking necessarily requires us to attempt "to look at the root" of the problem: to see the similarities and differences in the Russian and Western intellectual traditions; to try to determine not the geographical, but the intellectual place of Russia between the East and the West. Such attempts are particularly valuable when they lead to finding ways of integrating Western and Eastern intellectual traditions, partly in order to solve global problems. And such integration is needed at this time in history. The Russian style of scientific thinking, due to its history and culture, includes elements of Eastern and Western intellectual traditions. The Russian intellectual experience may provide the basis for a synthesis of Western and Eastern knowledge. This paper describes the Russian intellectual tradition from two perspectives. First, it describes the peculiarities of the Russian style of scientific thinking in comparison with Western and Eastern approaches. Second, it suggests that cybernetics as "the most Eastern of the Western sciences" may benefit from such ideas as the noosphere, the necessity to develop man's nature, Russian cosmism, active evolution, tektology, etc.
Albert Müller Heinz von Foerster and the Self-organizing systems movement The paper tries to approach Heinz von Foerster's famous contribution "On Self-organizing Systems and Their Environments" presented in 1959 (and printed in 1960) historically as part of a temporary scientific movement around 1960. Ca. 60 scientists from a wide range of disciplines and mainly working in the U.S.A. discussed problems of self-organizing systems on the occasion of three conferences. These meetings included people from cybernetics, from artificial intelligence, from bionics, and from systems theory before these fields were seperated more sharply. Heinz von Foerster's paper turned out to be fundamental and heretical at the same time. Full recognition of its achievements was not given before the 1980ies. CV Albert Müller, Dr. phil., is a historian working at the Dept. of Contemporary History of the University of Vienna. Besides other activities he is in charge of the Heinz von Foerster archive and the Gordon Pask archive. He is a co- editor of the journal "Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften", among a longer list of publication there is recently "An unfinished Revolution? Heinz von Foerster and the Biological Computer Laboratory, BCL, 1958-1976, Vienna 2007 (ed. with Karl H. Müller). Albert Müller is secretary of the Heinz von Foerster society.
Karl H. Müller Foerster vs. Luhmann 1:0 Abstract folgt
Wolfgang Neurath / Karl H. Müller
Territorien, Karten und Netze Is the map the territory? „Meine Damen und Herren, the map is the territory, die Landkarte ist das Land, wir haben ja nur maps und nichts anderes. In dem Moment, in dem wir in scheinbarer Klarheit ein Drinnen und ein Draußen unterscheiden, sind wir schon auf dem Holzweg. Wir sehen nur das, was wir sehen.“ (Heinz von Foerster) Karten/Maps begegnen uns in verschiedenen Lebenswelten; sie sind dann nicht wegzudenken, wenn wir uns orientieren oder navigieren. Wenn wir uns in der sozialen Welt bewegen, benutzen wir sehr häufig Karten im traditionellen Sinn, d.h. im geografischen Kontext in Form von Landkarten, Stadtplänen, Straßenkarten oder zur Veranschaulichung von statistischen Daten. Für die Wissenschaften ist die Karte eines der wichtigsten Instrumente zur Darstellung und Interpretation von Daten aus Messungen, Experimenten oder Computersimulationen. Die Aufgabe einer Karte besteht prinzipiell darin, Informationen jeglicher Art in eine Form zu transformieren, die eine verständliche, visuelle Kommunikation ermöglicht. Dabei macht die Metapher Karte von unseren Wahrnehmungs- und Kognitionsfähigkeiten Gebrauch, komplexe Zusammenhänge und große Datenmengen grafisch-visuell schneller und exakter erfassen zu können, als es verbal oder mit Hilfe von Zahlenwerten möglich ist. Karten entstehen sozusagen zwischen Beobachtung und Beobachter. Besonderheiten, Identitäten, Individuen, deren Positionen nicht aufgrund von Gesetzen erscheinen. Ausgehend von traditionellen Kartenkonstruktionen werden wir eine Übersetzung zu Netzwerkvisualisierungen finden, die den Projektionsrau
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Paul Pangaro
Gordon Pask: The man, his work, an archive. Abstract: So much of Pask's original and rigorous work serves as a mental telescope—it gathers and amplifies insight, allowing the mind to "see" very far. For example, his concept of concepts explains how mental distinctions come together structurally to produce an idea. Each distinction is necessary, and all together they are sufficient, to reify the concept. In this talk, Paul Pangaro hopes to realize a concept in the minds of the audience using these distinctions: - Pask the man: the range and idiosyncrasies of his interests and habits - the originality and influence of Pask's work: his interactive exhibits, his theory of consciousness, his song lyrics - a Paskian archive the author collected across 30 years and 10,000 miles (one of two archives of Pask's work) comprising scientific papers, remnants of equipment, and artifacts of Pask's life.
Lucas Pawlik
In bed with constructivism (A Metalogue) Abstract: My intention is to explore how the unity of Heinz von Foerster's work and person can be understood as giving birth to a way of becoming through a particular way of using language and sustaining interest and trust in the self-organization of our own thinking and perceiving. I will present themes of his work, such as magic, poetry and dreams and the relatedness of his acting and thinking to Taoist poetry and storytelling. In my understanding, although these were important to Heinz, they are normally neglected within the academic community. My starting point is Heinz's view that magic is “(…) making you very attentive to a particular universe you are creating. Magic is the strategy of constructivism." I will develop the notion of systemics as a drama which gives us the freedom as well as the responsibility to become the poets of our lives as we are living them while we are living them. The common situation of an (human) organism participating its own self-organization, lying in bed re-inventing the world before falling asleep will be the context within which this intellectual reasoning about Heinz’ "constructivism" takes place. In a dramaturgic closure I will present constructivism as a living unity of cognition which re-generates how we think in our beds, how we experience our dreams and how we come together in our academic gatherings, such as this third Heinz von Foerster conference.
Bernhard Pörksen
Karriere einer Theorie Grundsätzliche und fallbezogene Analysen zur Verbreitung des Konstruktivismus Abstract: Leitfrage dieses Vortrages ist es, wie einzelne Konzepte und Theoriefragmente des Konstruktivismus (Autopoiesis, systemische Autonomie, Beobachterabhängigkeit allen Erkennens etc.) zu universal eingesetzten Erklärungsmodellen in ganz unterschiedlichen Fächern und Anwendungsbereichen werden konnten. Wie kommt es überhaupt, dass Theorien diffundieren und dann in einzelnen Disziplinen – teils erbittert geführte – Debatten auslösen? Und was passiert mit den Theorien selbst, wie verändern sie sich im Prozess der Diffusion und der fachspezifischen Zurichtung? Um diesen Fragen nachzugehen, wird – nach einigen grundsätzlichen Überlegungen – konkret und im Detail gezeigt, wie der Konstruktivismus in der Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft debattiert wurde, um schließlich (in veränderter Form) Akzeptanz zu finden.
Alexander Riegler
Is Glasersfeld’s Constructivism a Dangerous Intellectual Tendency? Abstract: Radical Constructivism has been subject to extensive criticism and denigration such as that it is a naturalized biologism which supports an “anything goes” philosophy of arbitrarily constructed realities. In an extreme case RC is equated with intellectual silliness. These accusations are to be refuted. Based on the concept that cognition can work only with experiences, I investigate the question of where their apparent order comes from. Arguments are presented that favor the amorphousness of the “external” world. To support the idea of “internal” order I review results in formal network research. The properties of such networks suggest that order arises without influence from the outside. The conclusion are threefold. RC based on network models (a) does not need any empirical support and is therefore no biologism nor naturalism, (b) forgoes arbitrariness, and (c) goes beyond narrative (armchair) philosophy.
p. 10 / 13 Focus Ernst von Glasersfeld
Paul Schröder
HVF: Metabasis, Inverting Glasses and the Frog's Eye View Abstract: This talk will recount some of the metaphoric images used by Heinz von Foerster in his attempt to dislodge his listeners' habitual patterns of thought toward conceiving new possibilities for action.
Walter S.A. Schwaiger
The Blind Men and the Enterprise - Using the Unified Modeling Language to construct a Hierarchical Enterprise Control Abstract: Enterprises are populated by people having quite different perspectives in performing their operations. To align them they get coordinated by others who are positioned at hierarchically higher levels of control. As the true enterprise cannot be seen the control of hierarchically organized enterprises bears in it a constructivistic problem situated in a multi-person context. This problem corresponds to the "The Blind Men and the Elephant" - a poem of John Godfrey Saxe - where blind people "prate about an elephant that none of them has seen". Manifold closed systems of this kind are doubtlessly discussed in the constructivistic literature. But there seems to be a blind spot vis-a-vis the approaches taken in the engineering as well as computer sciences literature to practically solve such constructivistic problems: In the "Theory of Hierarchical, Multilevel Systems" due to Mesarovic/Macko/Takahara (1970) the distinction of different types of hierarchies are introduced terming the hierarchical levels as stratas, layers and echelons when considering abstraction, decision complexity and decision units. These hierarchy types can be put into the functional control hierarchy of the ANSI/ISA 95 standard on "Enterprise-Control System Integration" (2000). The literature on "Model Driven Architecture" (e.g. Miller/Mukerji 2003) focuses on a "language that has a well-defined form ("syntax"), meaning ("semantics") and ... proof for its constructs". The Unified Modeling Language (UML 2.0) is compatible with these requirements so that it seems to be a good candidate being used to hierarchically control the enterprise although no one has seen such an enterprise.
Bernard Scott
Conversation, Concepts and Individuals: Some Key Concepts in Gordon Pask’s Interaction of Actors and Conversation Theories Abstract: Gordon Pask’s Interaction of Actors Theory (IAT) and Conversation Theory (CT) evolved over several decades beginning with early work in the 1950’s on the interaction between ‘man and machine’ as exemplified in Pask’s adaptive teaching systems. By the 1970’s Pask had taken to summarising his ideas about learning and teaching, consciousness, creativity and social interaction under the rubric ‘Conversation Theory’. In the late 1980’s he began to use the rubric ‘Interaction of Actors Theory’ as he dealt with what he saw as elaborations and extensions of CT. Since there is a continuity between CT and IAT such that its is very difficult to separate out where the one became the other, I refer here to Pask’s work as CT/IAT. From his earliest writings Pask aspired after unifying conceptual schemas and CT and IAT were both developed with the aspiration to unify the cosmological, the psychological and the social. Possibly the later writings on IAT carry most emphasis on this aspiration, particularly with regards to addressing the universal themes of becoming, being and knowing. In this paper I single out some key concepts from CT/IAT and try to elucidate them in such a way as to make Pask’s overarching vision and subtlety of thought accessible to newcomers to his work. The key concepts in question are ‘conversation’, ‘concept’ and ‘individual’. Their elucidation is a journey that takes us from the concrete and specific to the abstract and universal and thence to the boundaries referred to by Pas as ‘the ineffable’ and the ‘ineluctable’.
Umberta Telfener
Self Organization in Clinical Interventions, Heinz von Foerster Teachings Abstract: We shall talk about the psychotherapeutic process and the second order operations which are a consequence of recursive processes. Sharing a theory of the construction of experience which is tightly dependent on our actions, I shall consider clinical interventions and therapy as an operation of production of knowledge (understanding understanding).
p. 11 / 13 We shall underline the importance of an ethic stance which is transversal to all therapeutic actions: ethics as an implicit praxis which manifests itself through language and actions and through the responsibility to co-construct evolutive contexts. - Taking responsibility for being a social agent and its implications - Being conscious of being part of the world of the client and part of the world of possible solutions - Choosing among in principle undecideble questions - Taking responsibility for the change process - Showing an attitude of respect
Michael Tomasello
“Apes’ understanding of intentional action” Abstract: Recent studies demonstrate that chimpanzees and other great apes understand the instrumental actions of others in terms of: (a) their goals and intentions, (b) their perceptions, and (c) their choice of actions to achieve goals based on current constraints in their perceptible environment.
Stuart A. Umpleby
Disciplinary Matrices for Cyberneticians and System Scientists Abstract: In his 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn introduced the term “paradigm” to the philosophy of science. Critics claimed that Kuhn had used the term in more than one way. So, in the 1970 second edition Kuhn added a postscript intending to clarify what he meant by a paradigm. To explain the original term he introduced the concept of a “disciplinary matrix.” Kuhn said, without attempting to be exhaustive, that a disciplinary matrix consists of symbolic generalizations; beliefs, models, and analogies; values; and exemplars. Whereas most people associated “paradigm” with the entire disciplinary matrix, Kuhn said he intended for it to refer to exemplars. This choice permitted distinguishing scientific subgroups. I have found the taxonomy of a disciplinary matrix to be useful when teaching. Several years ago I asked my students to find examples of each of the components of a disciplinary matrix for a theorist in the field of cybernetics or systems science. This work led to adding to Kuhn’s four components three additional components – guiding questions, techniques, and anecdotes. A disciplinary matrix provides a synopsis of an author’s work. Textbooks in a well-established field usually explain the same elements of the field’s disciplinary matrix. However, books by cyberneticians and systems scientists often have no overlapping elements of their disciplinary matrices. Indeed the guiding questions can be quite different. A few guiding questions are the following: Warren McCulloch, “What is a number that a man may know it and a man that he may know a number?” Ross Ashby, “How can adaptive behavior be explained?” James G. Miller, “What are the critical subsystems of a living system?” Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, “What distinguishes a living system from a non-living system?”
Robert Vallée
Heinz von Foerster, time and systems Abstract: Heinz von Foerster has been deeply interested by time and memory in the context of systems, particularly from 1965 to 1972. In « Molecular ethology » (1970) he considers a monodimensional linear dynamical system (a « machine »). Its output depends, classically, on the history of its state. He remarks that «…the failure of this simple machine to account for memory should not discourage one from contemplating it as a possible useful element in a system that remembers ». Quite independently, I proposed (1978) a linear dynamical system which may be seen as a modelisation, if not of memory, of perception and memorisation of time elapsed (or duration) with an application to Milne’s cosmological time. Leaving the domain of linearity, but along the line of Heinz von Foerster’s interest for time and systems, I defined (1996) an internal time s, adapted to a dynamical system, different from the reference or external time t. For this purpose I consider internal duration di(t1,t2) or internal time elapsed between two instants of reference t1 and t2. It generates an internal time s = di(t0,t), defined up to an additive constant. The choice of di(t1,t2) depends upon the « weight » of reference duration t2-t1 seen from the internal point of view, or equivalently that of infinitesimal reference duration dt between t and t+dt. We propose that the internal duration, corresponding to reference duration dt, is equal to (dX(t)/dt)2dt, W(t) being the state of the system at reference instant t. In a way (dX(t)/dt)2 is an index of « importance » of instant t. As an example, we consider an « explosive-implosive » dynamical system described
p. 12 / 13 by a certain evolution equation. The corresponding internal time varies from 0 to +∞ while reference time varies from 0 to +∞. Interpretations are given (physiology, cosmology).
Ernst Weichselbaum
Die unheilige Ordnung. Organisation jenseits von Macht und Hierarchie Abstract: Hierarchie und Organigramm: Bevormunder für organisatorisches - Wahrnehmen - Denken - Sprechen und - Handeln Die unheilige Ordnung - das Unternehmen als dynamisches System (3-Ebenen-Modell) - das Führen vom Besitzen von Macht zu verantwortetem Handeln - die Interaktion als Ort primärer Organisation (statt Inhalte von Abteilungen zu beschreiben) - die Nahtstellen führen zur Vermehrung der Anschlussmöglichkeiten und zur Erhöhung der Vitalität.
Paul Weston
A Further Walk through the Forest; Wildlife and Tree Trunks Abstract: This talk constitutes an extension of the material in my contribution to “An Unfinished Revolution”, from the first Heinz von Foerster conference; in this case, centering on my involvement in the work at BCL in their final four years or so. The hope in BCL at that time was eventually to achieve self-organizing systems which could interact with humans on human terms, using, and possibly acquiring, human language, and which could apply their special capacities, of speed and access to great quantities of data, in the service of their human partners. Clearly we didn’t complete the task, as there is nothing even now, nearly fifty years later, which answers to that description. It is still of some interest to explore what was actually done, and what might have been done in time, while acknowledging that the ultimate goal still lies beyond us. The metaphorical ‘wildlife’ in our ‘forest’ are the elusive and self-generating symbolic elements from which the internal representations that underlie both perception and the use of language are formed. The talk will turn briefly to the noun-chain study described at the first conference, mentioning some recent thoughts and results on the subject. The Cylinder concept for computer data-representation (the metaphorical ‘tree trunks’) and the puzzle- solver project mentioned at the first conference will be expanded upon and placed in the context of BCL’s long- range goals and our understanding at that time of perception and language. Reference will be made to pertinent ideas put forward by Heinz and others associated with BCL, as well as some more recent sources.
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