| Property | Value |
| Name | Radical Constructivism |
| Description | Radical Constructivism. The notion "radical constructivism" (RC) was coined by Ernst von Glasersfeld in 1974 in order to emphasize that from an epistemological perspective any constructivism has to be complete (or "radical") in order not to relapse into some kind of fancy realism. The basic tenet of RC is that any kind of knowledge is constructed rather than perceived through senses. As such, RC does not present a metaphysics in the strict sense as it does not make statements about an outside reality ("No statement" means neither confirming nor denying reality. The subject of much criticism, RC equals solipsism, doesn't therefore apply). Now, the idea itself does not originate in EvG. Forerunners of the RC movement in the 18th century were Giambatista Vico, whose dictum "verum ipsum factum" already points in the direction of knowledge construction, and George Berkeley whose claim "esse est percipi" challenges metaphysics. On a slightly different path, the cybernetic one, Heinz von Foerster approached the topic of what was called second order cybernetics. It focuses on self-referential systems and the importance of eigenbehaviors for the explanation of complex phenomena. Eventually, this idea would emerge the concept of "operational closure": any cognitive system is semantically independent (and impenetrable). From the late 50s to the mid 70s, HvF had been running a lab, the Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL), at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which was a dwell of people thinking in similar lines. Among others, prominent members of the BCL were Humberto Maturana who, as the founder of the theory of autopoiesis, focuses on the central role of the observer; Francisco Varela who developed the ideas of circularity and 'enacted' cognition further; W. Ross Ashby who was a main figure in the cybernetics movement; Gordon Pask who developed a conversation theory. In Germany, an avalanche was triggered in the late 80s by translations of major works by the above authors, plus original contributions in German, such as Siegfried J. Schmidt, Hans-Rudi Fischer, Gerhard Roth, Gebhard Rusch, and others. Also of German origin, but independent from the others, was Jakob von Uexküll, whose work focused on the internal cognitive world of organisms. |
| Filename | Unknown |
| Filesize | Link |
| Filetype | at/constructivism/ (Mime Type: link) |
| Creator | admin |
| Created On: | 11/19/2008 15:44 |
| Viewers | Everybody |
| Maintained by | Editor |
| Hits | 1237 Hits |
| Last updated on | 11/19/2008 15:45 |
| Homepage | |
| CRC Checksum | |
| MD5 Checksum |
Copyright © Participatory Research and Gender Analysis 2003-2005. All rights reserved.
The PRGA gratefully acknowledges the support of Bellanet, CIAT and Juliana Aristizábal in the development of this website.