Skip to main content
Log in

Towards a Radical Constructivist Understanding of Science

  • Published:
Foundations of Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Constructivism is the idea thatwe construct our own world rather than it beingdetermined by an outside reality. Its mostconsistent form, Radical Constructivism (RC),claims that we cannot transcend ourexperiences. Thus it doesn't make sense to saythat our constructions gradually approach thestructure of an external reality. The mind isnecessarily an epistemological solipsist, incontrast to being an ontological solipsist whomaintains that this is all there is, namely asingle mind within which the only world exists.RC recognizes the impossibility of the claimthat the world does not exist. Yet, RC has thepotential to go much further. I claim that RCprovides the foundation of a new world-view inwhich we can overcome hard scientific problems.Thus, the paper is urging us to carry RCfurther, not just on philosophical grounds, butalso into the domain of science.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • de Camp, L.S.: 1974, The Ancient Engineers. New York: Ballantine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncker, K.: 1935, Zur Psychologie des produktiven Denkens. Berlin: Springer. Translated: (1945) On Problem Solving. Psychological Monographs 58(270): 1–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feynman, R.: 1985, Surely You're Joking,Mr. Feynman! New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foerster, H. von: 1981, On Constructing a Reality. In: H. von Foerster (ed.), Observing Systems. Intersystems Publications, 288–309. Originally published in F.E. Preiser (ed.): 1973, Environmental Design Research, Vol. 2. Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Stroudberg, 35–46. Also available at http://platon.ee. duth.gr/~soeist7t/Lessons/lesson2_2.htm

    Google Scholar 

  • Franklin, S.: 1995, Artificial Minds. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardenförs, P.: 1994, The Role of Expectations in Reasoning. In M. Masuch and L. Pólos (eds.), Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Under Uncertainty. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glasersfeld, E. von: 1988, The Reluctance to Change a Way of Thinking. The Irish Journal of Psychology 9(1): 83–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glasersfeld, E. von: 1991a, An Exposition of Constructivism: Why Some Like it Radical. In G.J. Klir (ed.), Facets of System Science. New York, London: Plenum Press, 229–238.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glasersfeld, E. von: 1991b, Knowing without Metaphysics: Aspects of the Radical Constructivist Position. In F. Steier (ed.), Research and Reflexivity (Inquiries into Social Construction). London: Sage Publications, 12–29. Also available at http://www.mcgill.ca/douglas/fdg/kjf/17-TAGLA.htm

    Google Scholar 

  • Glasersfeld, E. von: 1995, Radical Constructivism. A Way of Knowing and Learning. London: Falmer Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horgan, J.: 1996, The End of Science. Reading: Addison-Wesley.

  • Jammer, M.: 1957, Concepts of Force. A Study in the Foundations of Dynamics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Janich, P.: 1993, Erkennen als Handeln. Erlangen. Jena: Palm & Enke.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, M.: 1972, The Use and Abuse of Historical Teaching in Physics. In S.G. Brush and A. L. King (eds.), History in the Teaching of Physics. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 12–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knorr-Cetina, K.: 1981, The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T.: 1962, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B.: 1987, Science in Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luchins, A.S.: 1942, Mechanization in Problem Solving. In: Psychological Monographs 54/248.

  • Maturana, H.R.: 1978, Biology of Language: The Epistemology of Reality. In G.A. Miller and E. Lenneberg (eds.), Psychology and Biology of Language and Thought: Essays in Honor of Eric Lenneberg. New York: Academic Press, 27–63. Also available at: http://www.enolagaia.com/M78BoL.html

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana, H.R. and F.J. Varela: 1980, Maturana and F.J. Varela (eds.), Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Sciences, Vol. 42. Boston, Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana, H.R.: 1988, Reality: The Search for Objectivity or the Quest for a CompellingArgument. The Irish Journal of Psychology 9(1), 25–82.Also available at http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/papers/maturana/88-reality.html

    Google Scholar 

  • Müller, A.: 2000, Eine kurze Geschichte des BCL [A short history of the BCL]. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften 11(1), 9–30. Also available at http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/papers/mueller/mueller00-bcl.html

    Google Scholar 

  • Osler, M.J.: 1970, John Locke and the Changing Ideal of Scientific Knowledge. Journal of the History of Ideas 31(1).

  • Pagels, H.R.: 1988, The Dreams of Reason: The Computer and the Rise of the Sciences of Complexity.New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Penrose, R.: 1986, Gravity and State Vector Reduction. In R. Penrose and C. Isham (eds.), Quantum Concepts in Space & Time. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 129–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peschl, M. and A. Riegler: 1999, Does Representation Need Reality? In A. Riegler, M. Peschl and A. von Stein (eds.), Understanding Representation in the Cognitive Sciences. New York: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, 9–17. Also available at: http://www.univie.ac.at/cognition/books/representation/ peschlriegler.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Piaget, J.: 1954, The Construction of Reality in the Child. New York: Ballentine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, H.: 1990, Realism with a Human Face. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reichenbach, H.: 1938, Experience and Prediction: An Analysis of the Foundations and the Structure of Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riedl, R.: 1977, A Systems-analytical Approach to Macro-evolutionary Phenomena. Quarterly Review of Biology 52: 351–370.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riegler, A.: 1992, Constructivist Artificial Life, and Beyond In B. McMullin (ed.), Proceedings of the Workshop “Autopoiesis and Perception”, Dublin City University. Also available at ftp://ftp.eeng.dcu.ie/pub/autonomy/bmcm9401/ riegler.ps.Z

  • Riegler, A.: 1997, Ein kybernetisch–konstruktivistisches Modell der Kognition. In A. Müller, K.H. Müller and F. Stadler (eds.), Konstruktivismus und Kognitionswissenschaft. Kulturelle Wurzeln und Ergebnisse. Wien, New York: Springer, 75–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riegler, A.: 2001, The Cognitive Ratchet. The Ratchet Effect as a Fundamental Principle in Evolution and Cognition. Cybernetics and Systems 32(3–4): in press.

  • Schmidt, S.J. (ed.): 1987, Der Diskurs des Radikalen Konstruktivismus. Suhrkamp: Frankfurt a. M.

    Google Scholar 

  • Searle, J.R.: 1995, The Construction of Social Reality. The Free Press.

  • Searle, J.R.: 1999, The Future of Philosophy. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences (The Royal Society) 354(1392): 2069–2080.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sokal, A.: 1996, A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies. Lingua Franca May/June 1996: 62–64.

  • Spivey, N.N.: 1997, The Constructivist Metaphor. Reading, Writing, and the Making of Meaning. San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarski, A.: 1944, The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 4, 341–375.

    Google Scholar 

  • Umpleby, S.A.: 1990, The Science of Cybernetics and the Cybernetics of Science. Cybernetics and Systems 21(1), 109–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Fraassen, B.: 1980, The Scientific Image. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watzlawick, P.: 1976, How Real is Real? New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watzlawick, P.: 1990, Munchhausen's Pigtail: Or Psychotherapy & “Reality” – Essays and Lectures. New York: W.W. Norton&Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinberg, S.: 1998, The Revolution That Didn't Happen. The New York Book Review October 8: 48–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winograd, T. and F. Flores: 1986, Understanding Computers and Cognition. Norwood: Ablex.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Riegler, A. Towards a Radical Constructivist Understanding of Science. Foundations of Science 6, 1–30 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011305022115

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011305022115

Navigation