Constructivism

Traditions of Constructivism

The central roots of constructivism, to which a particular German brand of communication science specifically relates itself, lie in neurobiology, the sociology of knowledge, cybernetics, and the history of philosophy. The protagonists of a neurobiologically oriented constructivism (e.g., Humberto R. Maturana), when engaged in exploring the processes of color and gestalt perception, came to the conclusion that the brain (of a human) cannot make direct contact with the environment; consequently, they hold the nervous system to be operatively closed. Their claim is that only the brain can construct an infinitely nuanced perceptual world out of the unitary language of neuronal events. In contrast, the approaches of socialconstructionism and the sociology of knowledge are based on the thesis that the decisive producer of realities is not the (individual) brain but that reality arises through the structure of a society and its specific culture. Individuals thus appear to be formed and molded by their all-encompassing culture, perceive the world against the background of their origins, and remain receptive to external impressions that may become increasingly hardened and rigidified in the process of socialization. The mathematician and physicist Heinz von Foerster is the founder of the cybernetic variety of constructivism; he completed the exploration of the fundamental principle of cybernetics—the idea of circularity and especially of circular causality—and established its self-application. The result is a dynamic style of thinking, operating with paradoxes and circular theorems, now known as cybernetics of the second order. This style of thinking has certainly left its mark on constructivism as it is perpetually confronted by [Page 132]the logical and methodical problems which inevitably arise from the observation of the observer. Finally, constructivists interested in the history of philosophy (e.g., Ernst von Glasersfeld) have busied themselves with erecting a kind of ancestral gallery: They have been able to show that elements of constructivist thinking can already be found in the work of the early sceptics, in the writings of Giambattista Vico, Immanuel Kant, and Benjamin Lee Whorf. From this angle, constructivism proves to be a variant of scepticism that provides up to date underpinnings to fundamental doubts about human knowledge.

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