Symmetry, Invariance and Ontology in Physics and Statistics
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Lynn Segal the Dream of Reality Heinz Von Foerster's Constructivism
The Dream of Reality Heinz von Foerster's Constructivism Second Edition Springer Science+Business Media, LLC Lynn Segal The Dream of Reality Heinz von Foerster's Constructivism Second Edition With Forewords by Heinz von Foerster and Paul Watzlawick With 20 Illustrations Springer Lynn Segal 1080 San Mateo Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025 USA Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Segal, Lynn. The dream of reality : Heinz von Foerster's constructivism / Lynn Segal.-2nd ed. p. cm. lncludes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-387-95130-0 ISBN 978-1-4613-0115-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4613-0115-8 1. von Foerster, Heinz, 1911-= 2. Constructivism (Philosophy) 1. Title. B809.13 .S44 2001 121'.092-dc21 00-061269 Printed on acid-free paper. First edition published 1986 WW Norton, NY © Lynn Segal. © 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. in 2001 AlI rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form ofinformation storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter de veloped is forbidden. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, etc., in this publication, even if the former are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as understood by the Trade Marks and Merchandise Marks Act, may accordingly be used freely by anyone. -
Constructivism in Math and Science Education. PUB DATE Jan 87 NOTE 37P
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 290 616 SE 048 847 AUTHOR Narode, Ronald B. TITLE Constructivism in Math and Science Education. PUB DATE Jan 87 NOTE 37p. PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141) -- Information Analyses (070) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Cognitive Development; *Cognitive Structures; Concept Formation; Elementary School Mathematics; Elementary School Science; Elementary Secondary Education; *Epistemology; *Learning Theories; Mathematics Education; *Mathematics Instruction; *Piagetian Theory; Science Education; *Science Instruction; Secondary School Mathematics; Secondary School Science IDENTIFIERS *Constructivism ABSTRArT Beneath educational pedagogies lie philosophical assumptions about the nature of learning, knowledge, truth and morality. These different philosophies form the foundations of a variety of instructional programs in all academic disciplines. This paper addresses constructivism, a recent attempt to provide a philosophical pedagogy which affects classroom instruction, teacher training, curricululm development, and educational research It specifically looks at constructivist theory as it relates to mathematics and science education. In so doing, the paper examines: (1) epistemology in the classroom; (2) epistemology in education research; (3) epistemology in mathematics and science faith and skepticism); (4) Piaget's constructivist epistemology; and (5) implications for education. A bibliography is included. (TW) *************%********************************************************* * Reproductions supplied -
Information As a Construction
Information as a construction Bosančić, Boris; Matijević, Marta Source / Izvornik: Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 2020, 52, 620 - 630 Journal article, Accepted version Rad u časopisu, Završna verzija rukopisa prihvaćena za objavljivanje (postprint) https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000619841657 Permanent link / Trajna poveznica: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:142:327978 Rights / Prava: In copyright Download date / Datum preuzimanja: 2021-09-30 Repository / Repozitorij: FFOS-repository - Repository of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Osijek Review Article (postprint) Bosancic B and Matijevic M (2020) Information as a Construction. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 52(2): 620–630. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000619841657 Information as a Construction Boris Bosancic. University of Osijek, Faculty of humanities and social sciences, Croatia. Marta Matijevic. National and University Library of Zagreb, Croatia. Abstract The purpose of this review paper is to outline the constructivist approach to the notion of information from two perspectives. The first perspective explores the role of 'constructed' information in the 'constructivist niche'—a common name for the appropriate viewpoints in different science fields, such as cognitive and neuroscience, psychology, cybernetics, and biology of cognition. The second perspective considers Library and information science (LIS) papers in which information is treated as a constructed entity. This paper assumed the origin of the notion of information to be a -
Heinz Von Foerster
Understanding Understanding: Essays on Cybernetics and Cognition Heinz von Foerster Springer UECPR 11/9/02 12:11 PM Page i Understanding Understanding UECPR 11/9/02 12:11 PM Page ii Springer New York Berlin Heidelberg Hong Kong London Milan Paris Tokyo UECPR 11/9/02 12:11 PM Page iii Heinz von Foerster Understanding Understanding Essays on Cybernetics and Cognition With 122 Illustrations 1 3 UECPR 11/9/02 12:11 PM Page iv Heinz von Foerster Biological Computer Laboratory, Emeritus University of Illinois Urbana, IL 61801 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data von Foerster, Heinz, 1911– Understanding understanding: essays on cybernetics and cognition / Heinz von Foerster. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-387-95392-2 (acid-free paper) 1. Cybernetics. 2. Cognition. I. Title. Q315.5 .V64 2002 003¢.5—dc21 2001057676 ISBN 0-387-95392-2 Printed on acid-free paper. © 2003 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analy- sis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adapta- tion, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. -
The Paradigm of Peircean Biosemiotics
30 Søren Brier Copenhagen Business School, department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, [email protected] The Paradigm of Peircean Biosemiotics Abstract The failure of modern science to create a common scientific framework for nature and consciousness makes it necessary to look for broader foundations in a new philosophy. Although controversial for modern science, the Peircean semiotic, evolutionary, pragmatic and triadic philosophy has been the only modern conceptual framework that can support that transdisciplinary change in our view of knowing that bridges the two cultures and transgresses Cartesian dualism. It therefore seems ideal to build on it for modern biosemiotics and can, in combination with Luhmann’s theory of communication, encompass modern information theory, complexity science and thermodynamics. It allows focus on the connection between the concept of codes and signs in living systems, and makes it possible to re-conceptualize both internal and external processes of the human body, mind and communication in models that fit into one framework. Keywords: autopoiesis, biosemiotics, Cybersemiotics, Peirce, Sebeok, Hoffmeyer, Kull, Emmeche, Brier, zoösemiotics, phytosemiotics, endosemiotics, ethology, Copenhagen School of Biosemiotics Introduction Semiotics (from the Greek word for sign) is a transdisciplinary study and doctrine of signs in general including signification, perception, communication, codes, media , language and the sign systems used parallel with language. Another way to define it is as the science of signs and their life in society. Code is broadly defined as: everything of a more systematic/orderly nature that the source and the receiver need to know a priori about the relation between the signs in a message both in analogue and digital form, and the area of reality they refer to in order to interpret it. -
Journal of Sociocybernetics
JOURNAL OF SOCIOCYBERNETICS _________________________________________________________________ Volume 3 Number 2 Fall/Winter 2002/2003 Official Journal of the Research Committee on Sociocybernetics (RC51) of the International Sociological Association JOURNAL OF SOCIOCYBERNETICS www.unizar.es/sociocybernetics/ Editor Richard E. Lee Newsletter Cor Van Dijkum Editorial Board Mike Byron Felix Geyer Bernd R. Hornung Chaime Marcuello Vessela Misheva Philip Nikolopoulos Bernard Scott Mike Terpstra ____________________________________________________________________________ The JOURNAL OF SOCIOCYBERNETICS (ISSN 1607-8667) is an electronic journal published biannually--Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter--by the Research Committee on Sociocybernetics of the International Sociological Association. MANUSCRIPT submissions should be sent electronically (in MSWord or Rich Text File format) to the Editor: Richard E. Lee, [email protected]; Newsletter copy should be sent to the Newsletter Editor: Cor van Dijkum, [email protected]. In general, please follow the Chicago Manuel of Style; citations and bibliography should follow the current journal style (APA). Normally, articles should be original texts of no more than 6000 words, although longer articles will be considered in exceptional circumstances. The Journal looks for submissions that are innovative and apply principles of General Systems Theory and Cybernetics to the social sciences, broadly conceived. COPYRIGHT remains the property of authors. Permission to reprint must be obtained from the authors and the contents of JoS cannot be copied for commercial purposes. JoS does, however, reserve the right to future reproduction of articles in hard copy, portable document format (.pdf), or HTML editions of JoS. iii SOCIOCYBERNETICS traces its intellectual roots to the rise of a panoply of new approaches to scientific inquiry beginning in the 1940's. -
The Quest of Science and Recursive Production of Objective Realities 257 Also Depend on the Characteristics of Our Inborn (Biological) Sense of Vision
PRINCIPIA 24(2): 255–297 (2020) doi: 10.5007/1808-1711.2020v24n2p255 Published by NEL — Epistemology and Logic Research Group, Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. ASHARPER IMAGE:THE QUEST OF SCIENCE AND RECURSIVE PRODUCTION OF OBJECTIVE REALITIES JULIO MICHAEL STERN IME-USP – The Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, University of São Paulo, BRAZIL [email protected], [email protected] Abstract. This article explores the metaphor of Science as provider of sharp images of our environment, using the epistemological framework of Objective Cognitive Constructivism. These sharp images are conveyed by precise scientific hypotheses that, in turn, are encoded by mathematical equations. Furthermore, this article describes how such knowledge is pro- duced by a cyclic and recursive development, perfection and reinforcement process, leading to the emergence of eigen-solutions characterized by the four essential properties of preci- sion, stability, separability and composability. Finally, this article discusses the role played by ontology and metaphysics in the scientific production process, and in which sense the resulting knowledge can be considered objective. Keywords:Keywords: scientific ontology Eigen-solution sharp hypothesis epistemic value objectivity circularity • • • • • RECEIVED: 14/12/2019 REVISED: 15/03/2020 ACCEPTED: 30/04/2020 You can dance in a hurricane; But only if you are standing in the eye. The Eye (2015), by Brandi Carlile O diabo existe e não existe? Dou o dito. Abrenúncio. O senhor vê: existe cachoeira; e pois? Mas cachoeira é barranco de chão, e água se caindo por ele, retombando; o senhor consome essa água, ou desfaz o barranco, sobra cachoeira alguma? Solto por si, cidadão, é que não tem diabo nenhum. -
Cybernetics 1
Fundamentals and History of Cybernetics 1 Stuart A. Umpleby The George Washington University Washington, DC www.gwu.edu/~umpleby Topics to be covered • Key theorists and their contributions • The issues that have been discussed, different interpretations and how they were resolved • Theories are answers to questions • To understand a theory is it necessary to understand the previous theory Origins of cybernetics • Excitement about the utility of applied science following World War II • The Macy Foundation conferences in New York City 1946-1953 • “Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social Systems” A history of cybernetics • First order cybernetics – circular causality, engineering cybernetics • Second order cybernetics – the role of the observer, biological cybernetics • Social cybernetics – interaction between ideas and society, the design of intellectual (or social) movements • Unifying epistemologies Interpretations of cybernetics • Alan Turing and John von Neumann, computer science, artificial intelligence, cellular automata • Norbert Wiener, electrical engineering and control systems • Warren McCulloch, neurophysiology, experimental epistemology Early 1940s • McCulloch and Pitts, “A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity” • Wiener, Rosenblueth and Bigelow, “Behavior, Purpose and Teleology” Late 1940s • The Macy conferences • Wiener, Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in Animal and Machine • von Neumann and Morgenstern, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior • Shannon and Weaver, The Mathematical Theory of Communication Early 1950s • The last five Macy conferences, this time with published proceedings • First commercial computers become available Late 1950s • CIA experiments on mind control under the name MKULTRA • Early checkers playing programs • At a conference at Dartmouth University cybernetics and artificial intelligence go separate ways • Heinz von Foerster establishes Biological Computer Laboratory at U. -
<I>Verstehen</I> (Causal/Interpretative
105 Verstehen (causal/interpretative understanding), Erklären (law-governed description/prediction), and Empirical Legal Studies Comment by Julio Michael Stern* Un chef est un marchand d’espérance. (A leader is a dealer in hope.) – Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) “For empirical work in social science to carry weight, the research must be able to show that the researcher knows the concepts the actors are using. [:::] Do the subjects have the same understanding of consequences of their actions as the researchers do? Do the subjects have the same understanding of the causes of those consequences as the researchers do? In short: is the subject understanding the situation in the way the researcher presupposes the subject is understanding the situation?” (Mathew D. McCubbins and Mark Turner, 2012, p. 397) 1 Introduction Delivered by Ingenta Copyright Mohr Siebeck The paper by Katz and McCubbins (2018) focuses on the analysis of correlations between a well-defined variable of interest and a large set of covariates. It offers a carefully crafted and accurate statistical description of the phenomena of interest. ? 5.101.217.181 Mon, 15 Oct 2018 21:48:51 Technically, the paper is at the state of the art, and yet I felt disappointed, for the paper gives me no real understanding of why things happen the way they do; the paper offers no causal explanations for the processes that drive individual action or trigger collective phase transitions. * IME-USP – The Institute of Mathematics and Statistics of the University of São Paulo, Brazil. The author is -
Constructive Verification, Empirical Induction, and Falibilist
Information 2011, 2, 635-650; doi:10.3390/info2040635 OPEN ACCESS information ISSN 2078-2489 www.mdpi.com/journal/information Article Constructive Verification, Empirical Induction, and Falibilist Deduction: A Threefold Contrast Julio Michael Stern Department of Applied Mathematics, Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sao˜ Paulo. Rua do Matao˜ 1010, Cidade Universitaria.´ 05508-090, Sao˜ Paulo, Brazil; E-Mail: [email protected]; Fax: +55-11-3819-3922 Received: 9 August 2011; in revised form: 21 October 2011 / Accepted: 26 October 2011 / Published: 31 October 2011 Abstract: This article explores some open questions related to the problem of verification of theories in the context of empirical sciences by contrasting three epistemological frameworks. Each of these epistemological frameworks is based on a corresponding central metaphor, namely: (a) Neo-empiricism and the gambling metaphor; (b) Popperian falsificationism and the scientific tribunal metaphor; (c) Cognitive constructivism and the object as eigen-solution metaphor. Each of one of these epistemological frameworks has also historically co-evolved with a certain statistical theory and method for testing scientific hypotheses, respectively: (a) Decision theoretic Bayesian statistics and Bayes factors; (b) Frequentist statistics and p-values; (c) Constructive Bayesian statistics and e-values. This article examines with special care the Zero Probability Paradox (ZPP), related to the verification of sharp or precise hypotheses. Finally, this article makes some remarks on Lakatos’ view of mathematics as a quasi-empirical science. Keywords: Bayesian statistics; cognitive constructivism; eigen-solutions; Imre Lakatos; neo-empiricism; Popperian falsificationism; sharp hypotheses; zero probability paradox Information 2011, 2 636 Gambling problems... seem to embrace the whole of theoretical statistics Dubins and Savage (1965, Sec.12.8, p.229). -
Heinz Von Foerster's Constructivism
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Departmental Papers (ASC) Annenberg School for Communication 1987 Review of Lynn Segal, The Dream of Reality: Heinz von Foerster's Constructivism Klaus Krippendorff University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation (OVERRIDE) Krippendorff, K., (1987). Review of "The Dream of Reality: Heinz von Foerster's Constructivism, by Lynn Segal. New York & London: Norton, 1986." Journal of Communication, 37(2), 155-158. doi: 10.1111/ j.1460-2466.1987.tb00987.x This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/534 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Review of Lynn Segal, The Dream of Reality: Heinz von Foerster's Constructivism Disciplines Communication | Social and Behavioral Sciences This review is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/534 Nourishing the core The Dream of Reality: Heinz von Foerster’s Constructivism by Lynn Segal. New York and London: Norton, 1986. 184 pages. $22.95 (hard). A review by Klaus Krippendorff University of Pennsylvania Our language leads us to believe in a world of objects, things, or events whose properties we need to discover to be certain about what we may do with them. Accordingly, we too are things, living organisms to be sure and endowed with the intelligence to inquire into this world and to derive knowledge from what exists outside of us. In this conception, science is appointed to mediate between the objective reality and our subjective experiences of it, methodically replacing illusions with objectivity and thus accepting objective reality as the ultimate ruler over all our affairs. -
Language and the Self-Reference Paradox
Cybernetics And Human Knowing. Vol. 14, no. 4, pp.71-92 Language and the Self-Reference Paradox Julio Michael Stern1 Heinz Von Forester characterizes the objects “known” by an autopoietic system as eigen-solutions, that is, as discrete, separable, stable and composable states of the interaction of the system with its environment. Previous articles have presented the FBST, Full Bayesian Significance Test, as a mathematical formalism specifically designed to access the support for sharp statistical hypotheses, and have shown that these hypotheses correspond, from a constructivist perspective, to systemic eigen-solutions in the practice of science. In this article several issues related to the role played by language in the emergence of eigen-solutions are analyzed. The last sections also explore possible connections with the semiotic theory of Charles Sanders Peirce. “If the string is too tight it will snap, but if it is too loose it will not play.” Siddhartha Gautama “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein 1 Introduction In Stern (2007a) it is shown how the eigen-solutions found in the practice of science are naturally represented by statistical sharp hypotheses. Statistical sharp hypotheses are routinely stated as natural laws, conservation principles or invariant transforms, and most often take the form of functional equations, like h(x)= c. The article also discusses why the eigen-solutions’ essential properties of discreteness (sharpness), stability, and composability, indicate that considering such hypotheses in the practice of science is natural and reasonable.