Josef Mitterer
The Beyond of Philosophy. Against the Dualistic Principle of Cognition
When the Austrian philosopher Josef Mitterer handed out his dissertation Sprache und Wirklichkeit. Eine erkenntnistheoretische Abhandlung [Language and Reality: An Epistemological Treatise] to some colleagues for feedback in the late 1970s, the reactions varied between incomprehension, friendly rejection and a straight “he must be joking.” Disappointed by some rather hostile receptions (some even called it a “danger to academic philosophy”) he turned his back on academia. Mitterer followed the suggestion of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who wrote in Vermischte Bemerkungen, “The greeting among philosophers should be ‘Take your time’,” and did not publish the book version of his dissertation until 1992, under the title Das Jenseits der Philosophie. Wider das dualistische Erkenntnisprinzip [The Beyond of Philosophy: Against the Dualistic Principle of Cognition]. In 100 theses he developed a non-dualizing epistemology, which forgoes the categorical distinction between language and reality beyond language.
Appears autumn 2014 · 128 pages · ISBN 978-1-98765-003-6
Peter Cariani
On the Design of Devices with Emergent Semantic Functions
This book examines the functional roles symbols play in biological organisms, scientific models and adaptive learning devices, analyzing the process of how symbols acquire new functions. The semiotic categories of syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics are used to examine the functioning of symbols in organisms, models, and devices. The book explores how we would go about designing self-organizing devices which adaptively construct their own relationships to the physical world (emergent semantic functions). It bears on the frame/feature-generation problem in artificial intelligence, the problem of machine creativity in philosophy, the measurement problem in physics, the problem of generating new observables in science, and the problem of emergent functions in evolutionary biology.
Appears autumn 2014 · 256 pages · ISBN 978-1-98765-001-X
Ernst von Glasersfeld
Ancillary Works on Radical Constructivism
Ernst von Glasersfeld was one of the most important, if not the most important, proponents of constructivist philosophy. He was certainly one of the most influential and inspirational thinkers for those who dare to move outside mainstream paths and who dare to be consistent in their thinking even though this may lead into areas that are, for many, counterintuitive at first sight. Von Glasersfeld was influential not only because he managed to amalgamate various strands of intellectual ideas and empirical insights into a coherent philosophical building, but also because he did so in a lucid way that did not try to hide obscure assumptions with difficult language. The result of his endeavor, radical constructivism (RC), has, since the 1970s, permeated the scientific and philosophical landscape, and has influenced many of those who try to understand knowledge, language, and the world. This book presents a collection of articles that outline an advanced perspective on radical constructivsm.
Appears autumn 2014 · 192 pages · ISBN 978-1-98765-002-2