DOCSLIB.ORG

NEW PERSPECTIVES on CYBERNETICS SYNTHESE Lffirary

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
NEW PERSPECTIVES on CYBERNETICS SYNTHESE Lffirary NEW PERSPECTIVES ON CYBERNETICS SYNTHESE LffiRARY STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY, LOGIC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Managing Editor: JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Boston University Editors: DONALD DAVIDSON, University of California, Berkeley GABRIEL NUCHELMANS, University ofLeyden WESLEY C. SALMON, University of Pittsburgh VOLUME 220 NEW PERSPECTIVES ON CYBERNETICS Self-Organization, Autonomy and Connectionism Edited by GERTRUDIS V AN DE VIJVER University o/Ghent, Belgium Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data NeH perspectlves on cybernetlcs : se1f-organlzatlon. autonoay. and connectlonisa I edited by Gertrudls van de Vljver. p. CI. -- (Synthese 11brary ; v. 2201 1nc1udes blb)lographlca1 references and Index. 1. Cybernetlcs. 2. Se1f-organlzlng systems. 3. Automatlc contro1. 1. Vljver. Gertrudis van deo 11. Serles. Q310.N48 1992 003·.5--dc20 91-34827 ISBN 978-90-481-4107-4 ISBN 978-94-015-8062-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-8062-5 Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1992. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1992 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without wrilten permission from the copyright owner. CONTENTS G. Van de Vijver: Preface 1 G. Pask: Introduction: Different kinds of cybernetics 11 Self-organization and complexity H. Allan: Ends and meaning in machine-like systems 35 S. Salthe: Hierarchical non-equilibrium self-organization as the new post-cybernetic perspective 49 E. Bernard-Weil: A priori and a posteriori in cognitive praxis: the model for the regulation of agonistic antagonistic couples 59 F. Heylighen: Non-rational cognitive processes as changes of distinctions 77 Epistemological issues F. Vandamme: Self-organization and autonomy in a post-cybernetic perspective. Epistemological issues 97 G. Van de Vijver: The experimental epistemology of W.S. McCulloch. A minimalistic interpretation 105 D. Andler: From paleo- to neo-connectionism 125 P. Livet: Second cybernetics: a double strategy for representing cognition 147 T. Meynen: The bringing forth of dialogue: Latour versus Maturana 157 A. Goudsmit: A one-sided boundary: on the limits of knowing organiza- tional closure 175 P. Burghgraeve: Mechanistic explanations and structure-determined systems. Maturana and the human sciences 207 Sociological issues G. Pask: Correspondence, consensus, coherence and the rape of democracy 221 E. Rosseel: Writers of the lost I: second-order self-observation and absolute writership 233 Index 247 PREFACE Gertrudis Van de Vijver· Seminar of Logic and Epistemology University of Ghent Before being classified under the fashionable denominators of complexity and chaos, self-organization and autonomy were intensely inquired into in the cybernetic tradition. Despite all rejections that cybernetics has gone through in the second half of this century, today its importance is more and more recognized. Its decisive influence for connectionist theories, autopoietic and constructivist theories, for different forms of applied or experimental epistemology, is being more and more understood and generally accepted. It is mainly due to the success of connectionist models that we observe today a revival of interest for cybernetics. The 1943 article by McCulloch and Pitts is evidently a founding article. Cybernetics has however a much broader interest than the one linked to technical-mathematical details relevant to the construction of networks. For instance, the evolution from first to second order cybernetics, the ways of approaching biological and cognitive phenomena in the latter and the limits that were formulated there, are particularly meaningful to understand current developments and divergences in connectionism. A nuanced picture of cybernetic's history and its present state is therefore clearly epistemologically essential. The major differences between first and second order cybernetics are traced out in the Introduction by Gordon Pasko We will therefore limit ourselves to a brief sketch of some elements of the history of cybernetics - a history full of misunderstandings, mistaken interpretations, denials and rejections - which are of importance for the studies that are nowadays to be situated under the denominators of self-organization and complexity. First order cybernetics, starting at the beginning of the forties with the work of Wiener, Rosenblueth, Bigelow, McCulloch, Pitts, and many others, was definitely an interdisciplinary project. It was, as a consequence, marked by a great diversity in aims and by quite divergent views on how cognitive, biological and teleological phenomena had to be studied and explained. Although it is generally described, rather monolithically, as the science of the control and communication in the animal and the machine, its status and meaning as a scientific discipline were not and are not that straightforward. G. Van de Vijver (ed.), New Perspectives on Cybernetics, 1-9. © 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2 G. VAN DE VUVER Is cybernetics a science of feedback-mechanisms or of information? Does it give expression to the idea of a neo-mechanicism, an 'experimental philosophy' relevant to very different fields of research ? Is it rather a methodology of action, a strategy, an art ? Or does it have in the first place a technological value ? As Gordon Pask states in the Introduction to this volume, the interpretation of the meaning of cybernetics depends on the philosophical orientation one has with regard to science. It is indeed not at all evident that experiment, technology and art ought to be seen in all cases as distinct. These distinctions however did play a role in the reception of cybernetics in the scientific community. The technological side of the cybernetical project never posed many problems. Cybernetics was, certainly after 1953, mainly identified with this aspect and its importance was accepted as such. The following statement by McCulloch, in 1961, is characteristic in this respect: "In English medicine cybernetics is still a dirty word, but in their industry it has been washed in the holy water of filthy lucre." (McCulloch, 1965, pp. 221-222). The reception of what we called the experimental side of the cybernetic project was and is, however, much more delicate. The importance and diversity of the cybernetical research, from its beginning till second order cybernetics, makes it quite incomprehensible that it has been rejected for such a long time on the basis of a monolithic and necessarily historically mistaken picture, a picture which reduces its value to a mere technological one. Questions about the scientific character, about the objectivity of cybernetics remain vivid up to this day, leading to surprised reactions in seeing cybernetic research continuing, and to quick answers such as: "Cybernetics ? Cybernetics is dead!". Was it the aim to understand in a scientific way teleological phenomena that caused the great stir being made in the scientific community? Was this the reason for the all too passionate and general rejection that lasted for more than 40 years ? Was it the geneml interdisciplinary project which was in the first place represented by Norbert Wiener? That cybernetics was genemlly subjected to criticism and rejection, has indeed, according to us, to do with the aim of understanding, within a scientific context, teleological phenomena in a broad sense. In this context, we can refer to the reactions on the founding article "Behaviour, Purpose, Teleology". However, we do not want to deal with this aspect here; we will briefly indicate what are the major shifts in the view on teleology from first cybernetics to the new cybernetics. PREFACE 3 In first cybernetics, as we can see in the above mentioned article, teleology was essentially connected with the possibility of control, and necessitated the presence of a well-defined goal-object and a completely specified system. External observation, a classical view on objectivity in which subject and object are separable, were some of the epistemological features of first order cybernetics. However, the fact of stressing the necessity of control had not only as a consequence that technological aims were quite naturally pursued in the first place, it also implied that some forms of purposiveness could not be accounted for. The first cybernetics' interpretation implied essential simplifications on the level of the meaning of goal-directedness. The teleological problem as Kant had formulated it in connection with biological organizations, and that we can describe to-day in terms of self­ organization and autonomy, necessitates another approach than the one of first cybernetics in terms of control. The paradox that Kant had linked to teleology (or to internal purposive forms or natural purposes) is related to the fact that a purposive system has to move or develop towards a purpose before that purpose is present, apparently even before a purpose can be conceived of. A genuine purposive system does not only possess a representation of the purpose towards which it is moving, it also has to construct that representation itself. Along the main lines of the cybernetical project, it had to be possible to understand and explain how certain kinds of systems - artificial and biological - can develop
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Toward a New Science of Information
    Data Science Journal, Volume 6, Supplement, 7 April 2007 TOWARD A NEW SCIENCE OF INFORMATION D Doucette1*, R Bichler 2, W Hofkirchner2, and C Raffl2 *1 The Science of Information Institute, 1737 Q Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009, USA Email: [email protected] 2 ICT&S Center, University of Salzburg - Center for Advanced Studies and Research in Information and Communication Technologies & Society, Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 5020 Salzburg, Austria Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] ABSTRACT The concept of information has become a crucial topic in several emerging scientific disciplines, as well as in organizations, in companies and in everyday life. Hence it is legitimate to speak of the so-called information society; but a scientific understanding of the Information Age has not had time to develop. Following this evolution we face the need of a new transdisciplinary understanding of information, encompassing many academic disciplines and new fields of interest. Therefore a Science of Information is required. The goal of this paper is to discuss the aims, the scope, and the tools of a Science of Information. Furthermore we describe the new Science of Information Institute (SOII), which will be established as an international and transdisciplinary organization that takes into consideration a larger perspective of information. Keywords: Information, Science of Information, Information Society, Transdisciplinarity, Science of Information Institute (SOII), Foundations of Information Science (FIS) 1 INTRODUCTION Information is emerging as a new and large prospective area of study. The notion of information has become a crucial topic in several emerging scientific disciplines such as Philosophy of Information, Quantum Information, Bioinformatics and Biosemiotics, Theory of Mind, Systems Theory, Internet Research, and many more.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing the History of Dynamical Systems and Chaos
    Historia Mathematica 29 (2002), 273–339 doi:10.1006/hmat.2002.2351 Writing the History of Dynamical Systems and Chaos: View metadata, citation and similar papersLongue at core.ac.uk Dur´ee and Revolution, Disciplines and Cultures1 brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector David Aubin Max-Planck Institut fur¨ Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin, Germany E-mail: [email protected] and Amy Dahan Dalmedico Centre national de la recherche scientifique and Centre Alexandre-Koyre,´ Paris, France E-mail: [email protected] Between the late 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, the wide recognition that simple dynamical laws could give rise to complex behaviors was sometimes hailed as a true scientific revolution impacting several disciplines, for which a striking label was coined—“chaos.” Mathematicians quickly pointed out that the purported revolution was relying on the abstract theory of dynamical systems founded in the late 19th century by Henri Poincar´e who had already reached a similar conclusion. In this paper, we flesh out the historiographical tensions arising from these confrontations: longue-duree´ history and revolution; abstract mathematics and the use of mathematical techniques in various other domains. After reviewing the historiography of dynamical systems theory from Poincar´e to the 1960s, we highlight the pioneering work of a few individuals (Steve Smale, Edward Lorenz, David Ruelle). We then go on to discuss the nature of the chaos phenomenon, which, we argue, was a conceptual reconfiguration as
    [Show full text]
  • A New Transdisciplinary Paradigm for the Study of Complex Systems?", In: Self-Steering and Cognition in Complex Systems, Heylighen F., Rosseel E
    Heylighen F. (1990): "A New Transdisciplinary Paradigm for the Study of Complex Systems?", in: Self-Steering and Cognition in Complex Systems, Heylighen F., Rosseel E. & Demeyere F. (ed.), (Gordon and Breach, New York), p. 1-16. A NEW TRANSDISCIPLINARY PARADIGM FOR THE STUDY OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS? Francis Heylighen Transdisciplinary Research Group Free University of Brussels ABSTRACT: two paradigms for studying the relation between autonomy and cognition are reviewed and contrasted: the "artificial" paradigm, which sees autonomous systems as linear, information-processing organizations, and the "autopoietic" paradigm, which sees them as circular, self-producing organizations. It is argued that these two paradigms are not inconsistent but complementary, and that they can be synthesized in an encompassing paradigm based on the self-organization of complex systems through variation-and-selective retention, leading to the emergence of relatively autonomous subsystems. Some implications of such an encompassing paradigm on the level of science, technology, individual persons and society are outlined, with reference to the papers in this collection. It is argued that the further development of such a transdisciplinary approach will lead to a new "science of complexity". 1. Introduction In the preface to this book it was argued that some recent trends in different disciplines seem to converge around the concepts of self-organization, autonomy and cognition. Whether these developments really announce the emergence of a new paradigm remains to be proven. Only time can tell. In this position paper, I will assume that they do, and investigate where this new paradigm would be coming from, and where it might be heading to.
    [Show full text]
  • Artificial Intelligence
    Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence and Wisdom in the Global Sustainable Information Society Fourth International Conference on Philosophy of Information, IS4SI Summit Berkeley 2019, UC Berkeley, 2-6 June 2019 Wolfgang Hofkirchner Director, GSIS – The Institute for a Global Sustainable Information Society, Vienna Contents 1 A complex systems view 1.1 The Great Bifurcation 1.2 The Transformation into a Global Sustainable Information Society 2 Conditions for thriving and surviving 2.1 Globality 2.2 Sustainability 2.3 Informationality 3 Intelligence, AI, and wisdom 1 A complex systems view Seen from a complex systems view, the evolution of mankind faces a Great Bifurcation. Global challenges might cause the extermination of mankind. At the same time, global challenges can be mastered through a transformation into a global sustainable information society. 1.1 The Great Bifurcation Civilisation at the breakthrough to a higher level crossroads (rise of complexity): integration of differentiated, interdependent social systems into a single meta-/suprasystem – Global Sustainable Information global space of possible Society challenges trajectories (multicrisis in all techno-, eco-, social breakdown (decline of complexity): subsystems) impossible trajectories disintegration and tipping point* falling apart of civilisation * Ervin László 1.2 Transformation Metasystem transition* agency system n interacting agency (proto-element) (network) * Francis Heylighen et al. system n+1 (proto-element) 1.2 Transformation Metasystem …organisational transition
    [Show full text]
  • Metabiology and the Complexity of Natural Evolution
    Arturo Carsetti Biology ︱ system being studied. In addition, he The tree-like branching of evolution is investigated the boundaries of semantic programmed by natural selection. information in order to outline the principles of an adequate intentional information theory. LuckyStep/Shutterstock.com Metabiology and SELF-ORGANISATION Professor Carsetti quotes Henri Atlan – “the function self-organises together with its meaning” – to highlight the prerequisite of both a conceptual the complexity of theory of complexity and a theory of self-organisation. Self-organisation refers to the process whereby complex systems develop order via internal processes, also in the absence of natural evolution external intended constraints or forces. It can be described in terms of network In his study of metabiology, rturo Carsetti is Professor Vittorio Somenzi, Ilya Prigogine, Heinz properties such as connectivity, making Arturo Carsetti, from the of Philosophy of Science von Foerster and Henri Atlan, Arturo it an ideal subject for complexity theory University of Rome Tor Vergata, A at the University of Carsetti became interested in applying and artificial life research. In accordance new mathematics. This is a mathematics Chaitin’s insight into biological reviews existing theories Rome Tor Vergata and Editor Cybernetics and Information Theory with Carsetti’s main thesis, we have that necessarily moulds coder’s activity. evolution led him to view “life as and explores novel concepts of the Italian Journal for to living systems. Subsequently, to recognise that, at the level of a Hence the importance of articulating evolving software”. He employed regarding the complexity the Philosophy of Science during his stay in Trieste he worked biological cognitive system, sensibility and inventing each time a mathematics algorithmic information theory to of biological systems while La Nuova Critica.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards a Cybernetic Foundation for Natural Resource Governance
    Towards a Cybernetic Foundation for Natural Resource Governance A Thesis Presented to the Academic Faculty by Talha Manzoor In Partial Fullfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering Supervisor: Abubakr Muhammad (LUMS) Co-supervisor: Elena Rovenskaya (IIASA) arXiv:1803.09369v1 [cs.SY] 20 Mar 2018 Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering Lahore University of Management Sciences December 2017 © 2017 by Talha Manzoor To Marwa and her never-ending quest for adventure. Abstract This study explores the potential of the cybernetic method of inquiry for the problem of natural resource governance. The systems way of thinking has already enabled scientists to gain considerable headway in framing global environmental challenges. On the other hand, technical solutions to environmental problems have begun to show significant promise, driven by the advent of technology and its increased proliferation in coupled human and natural systems. Such settings lie on the interface of engineering, social and environmental sciences, and as such, require a common language in order for natural resources to be studied, managed and ultimately sustained. In this dissertation, we argue that the systems theoretic tradition of cybernetics may provide the necessary common ground for examining such systems. After discussing the relevance of the cybernetic approach to natural resource governance, we present a mathematical model of resource consumption, grounded in social psychological research on consumer behavior. We also provide interpretations of the model at various levels of abstraction in the social network of the consuming population. We demonstrate the potential of the model by examining it in various theoretic frameworks which include dynamical systems, optimal control theory, game theory and the theory of learning in games.
    [Show full text]
  • Elements of Neurogeometry Functional Architectures of Vision Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis
    Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis Series Editor: Alessandro Sarti Jean Petitot Elements of Neurogeometry Functional Architectures of Vision Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis Series editor Alessandro Sarti, CAMS Center for Mathematics, CNRS-EHESS, Paris, France e-mail: [email protected] More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11247 Jean Petitot Elements of Neurogeometry Functional Architectures of Vision 123 Jean Petitot CAMS, EHESS Paris France Translated by Stephen Lyle ISSN 2195-1934 ISSN 2195-1942 (electronic) Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis ISBN 978-3-319-65589-5 ISBN 978-3-319-65591-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-65591-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017950247 Translation from the French language edition: Neurogéométrie de la vision by Jean Petitot, © Les Éditions de l’École Polytechnique 2008. All Rights Reserved © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
    [Show full text]
  • Autopoiesis and Autonomy in Francisco Varela's Theory
    DEMOBILIZING IMMUNOLOGY: AUTOPOIESIS AND AUTONOMY IN FRANCISCO VARELA’S THEORY OF IMMUNITY by Katie D. Joel H.B.Sc., The University of Toronto, 2005 B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2008 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (History) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2012 Katie D. Joel, 2012 Abstract This thesis examines the transformative impact of the immune network theory on theoretical immunology, especially how immunity has been understood and described metaphorically in the scholarship. The immune system had been conventionally couched in warfare rhetoric. At the end of the nineteenth century, Russian scientist and pathologist Elie Metchnikoff depicted pathogens as savages in the theory of phagocytosis, which, he postulated, the body must destroy with equal ferocity. Virologist Frank Burnet further affirmed this concept in 1957. In the Clonal Selection Theory, he articulated the model of self and non-self discrimination, thus giving rise to the idea of the immune system as a defense and attack system. In 1979, Francisco Varela and Nelson Vaz proposed that the immune system should be considered instead as a network in “Self and Non-Sense.” At the heart of their theory was the notion of self-determination that emphasized the goal of the immune system was to maintain the autonomy and individuality of the organism. This non-martial interpretation was rooted in the theory of autopoiesis, whose conceptualization was greatly influenced by Varela’s experiences of the political and social chaos in Chile during the Allende regime and the Pinochet dictatorship.
    [Show full text]
  • Envisaging a Comprehensible Global Brain As a Playful Organ
    Alternative view of segmented documents via Kairos 2 December 2019 | Draft Envisaging a Comprehensible Global Brain -- as a Playful Organ Patterns connecting the dots between hemispheres, epicycles and quavers - / - Introduction Patterning and framing a global brain? Systemic feedback cycles of global brain interrelationships in 2D Various representations of cyclic dynamics with implications for a global brain Implication of 3D representation of a global brain Dynamic patterns of play engendered by Homo ludens and Homo undulans? Requisite helical cognitive engagement within a global brain Brainwaves and feedback loops in a global brain? Pathology of the global brain? Global brain as an organ: playable, playful or neither? References Introduction Collectively distributed cognition: This exploration is partly inspired by the work of Stafford Beer, as a management cybernetician, into the design of an appropriate collective brain (Brain of the Firm: the managerial cybernetics of organization, 1981), especially given the requisite complexity for a "viable system" (Giuliana Galli Carminati, The Planetary Brain: From the Web to the Grid and Beyond, 2011). Use of the metaphor followed from the influential study by an earlier cybernetician, W. Ross Ashby (Design for a Brain: the origin of adaptive behavior, 1952). The design preoccupation was the primary feature of a presentation by Shann Turnbull (Design Criteria for a Global Brain, 2001) as presented to the First Global Brain Workshop (Brussels, 2001). The argument follows from the controversial assertion recently made by President Macron of France with respect to the "brain death" of NATO and the potential implications for any "global brain" (Are the UN and the International Community both Brain Dead -- given criteria recognizing that NATO is brain dead? 2019).
    [Show full text]
  • The Emergence of Distributed Cognition: a Conceptual Framework
    submitted for Proceedings of Collective Intentionality IV, Siena (Italy), to be published as a special issue of Cognitive Systems Research The Emergence of Distributed Cognition: a conceptual framework Francis HEYLIGHEN, Margeret HEATH and Frank VAN OVERWALLE Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium {fheyligh, mheath, fjvoverw}@vub.ac.be ABSTRACT: We propose a first step in the development of an integrated theory of the emergence of distributed cognition/extended mind. Distributed cognition is seen as the confluence of collective intelligence and “situatedness”, or the extension of cognitive processes into the physical environment. The framework is based on five fundamental assumptions: 1) groups of agents self-organize to form a differentiated, coordinated system, adapted to its environment, 2) the system co-opts external media for internal propagation of information, 3) the resulting distributed cognitive system can be modelled as a learning, connectionist network, 4) information in the network is transmitted selectively, 5) novel knowledge emerges through non-linear, recurrent interactions. The implication for collective intentionality is that such a self-organizing agent collective can develop “mental content” that is not reducible to individual cognitions. Extended Mind: collective intelligence and distributed cognition From a cybernetic perspective [Heylighen & Joslyn, 2001], a cognitive system cannot be understood as a discrete collection of beliefs, procedures, and/or modules. Cognition is a continuously evolving process which relates present perceptions via internal states to potential further perceptions and actions. It thus allows an agent to anticipate what may happen, adapt to changes in its environment, and moreover effect changes upon its environment [Kirsch & Maglio, 1994].
    [Show full text]
  • Rafael Capurro's Full Text [.V2]
    In Search of Ariadne's Thread in Digital Labyrinths Rafael Capurro International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE) Karlsruhe, Germany "Times, they are 'a changin" Bob Dylan Abstract The aim of the following presentation is to provide a brief personal account of the results of some of the panels and sessions that took place at the Vienna Summit 2014 "The Information Society at the Crossroads" (June 3-7, 2015) in which I was involved as a participant and speaker. I will first summarize what I learned regarding some of the challenges in the fields of information ethics, dealing particularly with issues of social responsibility, critical theory, robotics, global brain, and philosophy of information. Secondly, I will relay the results of an email exchange that took place following the Vienna Summit conference between a number of colleagues and myself in which we explored our perceptions of the issues at hand and the stakes involved and whether or not we were able to trace to any length the myth of Ariadne's thread in digital labyrinths. I will clarify how even though such labyrinths and digital threads are a part of today's societies they are often confused with society and with our being-in-the- world itself. To signify my argument, and to show how such confusion can result in mortal consequences, I will conclude by outlining the case of the Chinese poet and migrant worker Xu Lizhi (aged 24) who committed suicide after three years' working for Foxconn. Introduction In 1994 a group of scholars and scientists started an initiative called "Foundations of Information Science" (FIS).
    [Show full text]
  • Comments on Donald T. Campbell's
    Contents W. Callebaut/R. Riedl 2 Preface Donald T. Campbell 5 From Evolutionary Epistemology Via Selection Theory to a Sociology of Scientific Validity Linnda R. Caporael 39 Vehicles of Knowledge: Artifacts and Social Groups W. D. Christensen/C. A. Hooker 44 Selection Theory, Organization and the Development of Knowledge Andy J. Clark 49 Evolutionary Epistemology and the Scientific Method Ed Constant 55 Comments on Donald T. Campbell’s “From Evolutionary Epistemology Via Selection Theory to a Sociology of Scientific Validity” Steve Fuller 58 Campbell’s Failed Cultural Materialism Francis Heylighen 63 Objective, Subjective, and Intersubjective Selectors of Knowledge Aharon Kantorovich 68 The Rationality of Innovation and the Scientific Community as a Carrier of Knowledge Elias L. Khalil 71 Can Artificial Selection Remedy the Failing of Natural Section with Regard to Scientific Validation? Kyung-Man Kim 75 D. T. Campbell’s Social Epistemology of Science Marc De Mey 81 Vision as Paradigm: From VTE to Cognitive Science Erhard Oeser 85 The Two-stage Model of Evolutionary Epistemology Henry Plotkin 89 Knowledge and Adapted Biological Structures Massimo Stanzione 92 Campbell, Hayek and Kautsky on Societal Evolution Franz M. Wuketits 98 Four (or Five?) Types of Evolutionary Epistemology Evolution and Cognition: ISSN: 0938-2623 Published by: Konrad Lorenz Institut für Evolutions- und Kognitionsforschung, Adolf-Lorenz-Gasse 2, A-3422 Alten- Impressum berg/Donau. Tel.: 0043-2242-32390; Fax: 0043-2242-323904; e-mail: [email protected]; World Wide Web: http://www.kla.univie.ac.at/ Chairman: Ru- pert Riedl Managing Editor: Manfred Wimmer Layout: Alexander Riegler Aim and Scope: “Evolution and Cognition” is an interdisciplinary forum devoted to all aspects of research on cognition in animals and humans.
    [Show full text]