Purpose Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foers... more Purpose Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, I hypothesize how Heinz von Foerster's theory can be an orientation model for the epistemological problem of complexity. I have chosen this study to demonstrate complexity as an epistemological problem. This is because the question of how order arises - the core problem of complexity - is an epistemological question for which Heinz von Foerster developed an epistemology of self-organization. I do not present new research because HvF already had the complex organization of systems in mind. Rather, I build a critical approach to complexity on the research and work on operational epistemology in HvF. Design/methodology/approach This article aims to provide an orientation for a philosophical and epistemological understanding of complexity through a reading of Heinz von Foerster's operational theory. The article attempts to establish complexity as an epistemological phenomenon through the following method: (1) a conceptual description of the science of complexity based on the turn to thermodynamic time, (2) a genealogy of complexity going back to the systemic method, and (3) Heinz von Foerster's cybernetic approach to self-organization. Findings Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, the conclusion is drawn that complexity as a description is based on language games. Research limitations/implications The results present complexity not as an object of science, but as a description that stands for the understanding of complex description. Social implications The hypothesis that complexity is a question of description or observation, i.e. of description for what language serves, has enormous social implications, in that the description of complexes and the recognition of their orders (patterns) cannot be left to algorithmic governmentality, but must be carried out by a social agency. Originality/value HvF's operational epistemology can serve as an epistemological model for critical complexity theory.
Purpose
Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foe... more Purpose
Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, I hypothesize how Heinz von Foerster's theory can be an orientation model for the epistemological problem of complexity. I have chosen this study to demonstrate complexity as an epistemological problem. This is because the question of how order arises - the core problem of complexity - is an epistemological question for which Heinz von Foerster developed an epistemology of self-organization. I do not present new research because HvF already had the complex organization of systems in mind. Rather, I build a critical approach to complexity on the research and work on operational epistemology in HvF. Design/methodology/approach
This article aims to provide an orientation for a philosophical and epistemological understanding of complexity through a reading of Heinz von Foerster's operational theory. The article attempts to establish complexity as an epistemological phenomenon through the following method: (1) a conceptual description of the science of complexity based on the turn to thermodynamic time, (2) a genealogy of complexity going back to the systemic method, and (3) Heinz von Foerster's cybernetic approach to self-organization. Findings
Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, the conclusion is drawn that complexity as a description is based on language games. Research limitations/implications
The results present complexity not as an object of science, but as a description that stands for the understanding of complex description. Social implications
The hypothesis that complexity is a question of description or observation, i.e. of description for what language serves, has enormous social implications, in that the description of complexes and the recognition of their orders (patterns) cannot be left to algorithmic governmentality, but must be carried out by a social agency. Originality/value
HvF's operational epistemology can serve as an epistemological model for critical complexity theory.
Adimen artifiziala: filosofia eta teknologiaren bilgune, 2023
Udako Euskal Unibertsitateak adimen artifizialaren harira antolatutako jardunaldirako, Peter Slot... more Udako Euskal Unibertsitateak adimen artifizialaren harira antolatutako jardunaldirako, Peter Sloterdijken filosofia antropoteknikoaz hitzaldia emateko eskatu zidaten. Jardunaldiaren helburua informatikariak eta humanitateetako adituak mahai-inguruan biltzea zen, adimen artifizialaren erronken gainean eztabaidatzeko.
The prehistory of the Basques settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula is a special mystery.... more The prehistory of the Basques settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula is a special mystery. Basque language, whose origins are still unclear, does not belong to the Indo-European languages. The latest ethnological and linguistic research into the origin of this language points to a pre-Indo-European ancestry. Like any medium, language is not merely a functional means of transmitting a message. It interprets the world, gives names to the world, and organises it according to the specific meaning of each language. For Basque, it can be demonstrated that the pre-Indo-European worldview does not correspond to the Indo-European patriarchal worldview. Despite controversial positions on the matriarchal organisational structures of the Basque people and their matricultural customs, researchers agree that Basque pre-Indo-European elements represent patterns strongly influenced by the mother archetype. Matrixial patterns in the symbolism of Basque culture and especially in language and mythology are features of pre-Indo-European culture. To refer to the pre-Indo-European elements of the Basque worldview, I will use the term matrixial (Saratxaga). This is a philosophical category that designates the creative force of form and organisation into the world. The aim of this essay is to highlight the symbolic expressions of a Basque matrixiality and to present their meaning in the context of a cultural worldview. The article focuses especially on the matrixial character of the symbolic dimensions of the earth, taking into account animism and its own laws, with its spirits that inhabit it. Based on the work of the philosopher Andrés Ortiz Osés, who has given an interpretation of pre-Indo-European symbolism against the background of hermeneutic doctrine, the Basque matrixial elements will emerge here. The
Der Beitrag von Arantzazu Saratxaga behandelt angesichts eines Films über den Chaos Computer Club... more Der Beitrag von Arantzazu Saratxaga behandelt angesichts eines Films über den Chaos Computer Club (CCC) die grundlegenden Einsichten der Kybernetik und diskutiert anhand von Begriffen wie Kontrolle, Regelung und Steuerung, ob und inwiefern im Rahmen kybernetischer Modellierung menschliche Kommunikationen oder freie Entscheidungen möglich sind. Was wäre also eine KybernEthik? Arantzazu Saratxaga's contribution deals with the basic insights of cybernetics in the light of a film about the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) and discusses, on the basis of concepts such as control, regulation and steering, whether and to what extent human communications or free decisions are possible within the framework of cybernetic modelling. So what would cyberethics be?
Philosophy Kitchen - Revista Di Filosofia Contemporanea, 2023
Her research focuses on the interior of milieus (endomilieus) from a philosophical point of view ... more Her research focuses on the interior of milieus (endomilieus) from a philosophical point of view and draws on disciplines such as media and contemporary philosophy as well as cybernetics.
Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft, 2021
Der Beitrag handelt von einer Auslegung der Bedeutung anthropomorphischer Figurinen der Altsteinz... more Der Beitrag handelt von einer Auslegung der Bedeutung anthropomorphischer Figurinen der Altsteinzeit, insbesondere auf der Basis der beispielhaften Plastik Venus von Willendorf. Der Kern des Artikels liegt in der kritischen Frage der Repräsentationsordnung von hervortretenden Merkmalen kleiner Plastiken und versucht den hermeneutischen Rahmen der Morphologie der Figurinen zu erweitern. Was erzählen uns diese Formen? Inwiefern stehen die weiblichen Demarkationen für eine Darstellung der Weiblichkeit? Um diese Fragen zu beantworten, wird zunächst der ästhetische Wert der Artefakte problematisiert, da sich ihre künstlerische Beschaffenheit an ihrer Form, frei von jeder instrumentalen Bestimmung, zeigt. Dem folgt eine kritische Analyse der metaphysischen Darstellung von Form, zurückgehend auf Platon, dem zufolge die Form eine Idee (eídos) darstellt. Dieses Schema führt allerdings zu einem tautologischen Teufelskreis, bei dem jede weibliche Figuration eine Idee der Weiblichkeit darstellt...
Das Matrixiale – eine Philosophische Kategorie, 2022
Metaphysik des Bildes jenseits von Semiotik und Phänomenologie-Eine ideengeschichtliche Skizze 51... more Metaphysik des Bildes jenseits von Semiotik und Phänomenologie-Eine ideengeschichtliche Skizze 51 Harald Seubert teil 2 Annäherung-Ästhetik und Ethik "das Ästhetische als Ethik betrachtet"-Musil und Dufrenne 79
Zu gnostischen Motiven der operativen Erkenntnistheorie, 2021
Bei einem von Jacob Taubes 1982 in Bad Homburg organisierten Kolloquium zu Gnosis und Politik ver... more Bei einem von Jacob Taubes 1982 in Bad Homburg organisierten Kolloquium zu Gnosis und Politik versammelte er Religionswissenschaftler*innen und Philosoph*innen, unter ihnen Odo Marquard und Barbara Aland, um die Historiographie der Gnosis im Hinblick auf deren Einfluss in der Geistesgeschichte zu erörtern. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Debatte ergab sich die These einer eschatologischen Geschichtsphilosophie der Moderne.1 Diese Vortragsreihe bot den Anlass, Hans Blumenbergs Erwiderung2 von 1966 auf Eric Voegelins These von 1953/54 eines Rückfalls in die Gnosis3 neuerlich aufzunehmen.4 Voegelins auf die Neuzeit bezogene These besagt, dass »die [Neuzeit] wohl besser das Gnostische Zeitalter genannt würde […].«5 Dagegen positionierte Hans Blumenberg seine Haltung zur Säkularisierungsdebatte, wobei die Neuzeit die zweite Überwindung der Gnosis sei.6 Im Sinne Blumenbergs bezeichnet die Neuzeit also den Umbruch der alten
Zu gnostischen Motiven der operativen Erkenntnistheorie, 2021
Bei einem von Jacob Taubes 1982 in Bad Homburg organisierten Kolloquium zu Gnosis und Politik ver... more Bei einem von Jacob Taubes 1982 in Bad Homburg organisierten Kolloquium zu Gnosis und Politik versammelte er Religionswissenschaftler*innen und Philosoph*innen, unter ihnen Odo Marquard und Barbara Aland, um die Historiographie der Gnosis im Hinblick auf deren Einfluss in der Geistesgeschichte zu erörtern. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Debatte ergab sich die These einer eschatologischen Geschichtsphilosophie der Moderne.1 Diese Vortragsreihe bot den Anlass, Hans Blumenbergs Erwiderung2 von 1966 auf Eric Voegelins These von 1953/54 eines Rückfalls in die Gnosis3 neuerlich aufzunehmen.4 Voegelins auf die Neuzeit bezogene These besagt, dass »die [Neuzeit] wohl besser das Gnostische Zeitalter genannt würde […].«5 Dagegen positionierte Hans Blumenberg seine Haltung zur Säkularisierungsdebatte, wobei die Neuzeit die zweite Überwindung der Gnosis sei.6 Im Sinne Blumenbergs bezeichnet die Neuzeit also den Umbruch
From a Matrixial Dialectic to a Multivalent Ontology of Matrixial Materialism, 2021
Interior-Relation Toward an Ontological Multivalence Versus Substantive Immaterialism ARANTZAZU S... more Interior-Relation Toward an Ontological Multivalence Versus Substantive Immaterialism ARANTZAZU SARATXAGA ARREGI T he American literary critic Nancy Katharine Hayles uses a book chapter from Anne Balsamo's Technologies of Gendered Body entitled "My mother was a computer "as the title of her monograph on the materiality of literary texts in the age of digital cultures (Hayles 2005). This examination is less an assertion than an indication of a postbiological future in which the body and its constitution, namely corporeality, explode into new forms of expression if they do not disintegrate due to digital disembodiment processes. The reduction of corporeality to the mere computational operators of a cognitive machine was also addressed in Hayles' book How We Became Posthuman (Hayles 1999). The author's position on posthumanist approaches is undoubtedly skeptical, even decidedly opposed: "a call to contest for versions of the posthuman that would acknowledge the importance of embodiment and be conducive to enhancing human and nonhuman life on the planet" (Hayles 2005, Prologue 2). Digital media control a process of dematerialization of communication channels, the after-effects of which on social systems have led to posthumanist theories. Thus, they describe the human of the digital age as characterized by the dissolution of the mind/body duality in a hybrid assemblage of power flows. The model for the posthumanist Anthropos is Donna Haraway's cyborg manifesto, which, beyond being a metaphor of the cybernetic human, is intended to address a program that completely abolishes the demarcations defining humanity vis-à-vis other species through the control procedures of information flows (Wiener 1985,1-30). The chapter "My Mother Was a Computer "should be understood as an objection to reducing the corporeal to a mere operative functionality and the degradation of matter underlying this, which favors symbolically formal statements about cognition. Nevertheless, the young discipline of cybernetics that emerged in the postwar period aimed at the dissolution of classical dualities on which the Western culture of humanism had relied so heavily. The laws of control in a machine system are supposed to overcome dichotomies such as mind vs. body as well as nature vs. culture in favor of a new kind of reality cognition (Max Bense 1951, pp.429-449) whereby each particle of a system presupposes its entity, connections, and relations with the others are perceived and thought. Personal realities are determined by the flow of information produced in netlike connections. In this way, reality becomes a complex (dis) organized phenomenon woven together from non-linear dynamic assemblages. The implementation of cybernetic knowledge in the sciences aims to redefine matter. It is not only the information sciences and cybernetics that have subjected the concept of matter to a new interpretation.
Zusammenfassung Heutzutage ist die Gesellschaft zu einer neuen Herangehensweise an soziale Bindun... more Zusammenfassung Heutzutage ist die Gesellschaft zu einer neuen Herangehensweise an soziale Bindungen aufgefordert. Die Nähe ist gefährdet und ihr Fehlen wird durch Kommunikationsmittel kompensiert. Die Schutzmaßnahmen gegen einen näheren Kontakt bringen einen neuen sozialen Verhaltensmodus hervor, der "social distancing" genannt worden ist. Die Frage, ob die digitalen Kommunikationsmittel den Bedarf nach Nähe abdecken kön-nen, ist und bleibt ein Thema, das uns in der nächsten Zeit aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln beschäftigen wird. Das Gleiche legt eine Diskussion über die Aufhebung einer Kultur der Nähe durch digitale Kommunikations-mittel offen. Sie bringt einen öffentlichen Diskurs auf den Weg, der die Frage offen lässt, ob die digitale Nähe die Gegenwirkung sozialer Ferne ausgleicht. Nähe hat Vertrauen zur Grundlage. Das Vertrauen steht aber nicht in einem gleichen Verhältnis zur Kommunikation, sondern es tritt ihr eher diametral entgegen: Soll die unmit-telbare Nähe im Vordergrund (eines sozialen Kontakts) stehen, dann gibt es nicht viel zu vermitteln; genauso wie es bei einer vollen Vertrauenssituation nicht viel gibt, worüber man kommuniziert. Kann Kommunikation bei der Abwesenheit von Vertrauen dennoch soziale Systeme bilden? Können die Kommunikationstechnolo-gien in den digitalen Kulturen Vertrauen fördern oder verringern sie es im Gegenteil? Obwohl ein Kommu-nikationsmittel die Überbrückung von Distanz bezweckt, widmet sich dieser Beitrag der Frage, ob in einem digitalen Rahmen die Herstellung von Nähe möglich ist oder ob die digitalen Medien zu einer Ausweitung der Entfernung beitragen. Schlüsselwörter Kommunikationsmedien, Vermittlung, Differenz, Weltkomplexität, Unmittelbarkeit, Vertrauen Abstract Today, society is required to take a new approach to social bonds. Proximity is a risk, and its absence is compensated for by means of communication. Protective measures against close contact give rise to a new mode of social behaviour called "social distancing". The question of whether digital communication media can satisfy the need for proximity is and will remain a topic that will occupy us from various perspectives in the near future. This also touches upon the discussion regarding the elimination of a culture of proximity by digital means of communication. The result is a public discourse that leaves open the question of whether digital proximity can compensate for the contrary effects of social distancing. The basis of proximity is trust. Trust, however, does not have the same relationship to communication; rather, it is diametrically opposed: if immediate proximity is the main point (of a social contact), then there is not much to communicate; just as there is not much to communicate about in a situation of full trust. Can communication still form social systems in the absence of trust? Can communication technologies in digital cultures promote trust or do they, on the contrary, reduce it? Although the communications media aim to bridge distance, this article will address the question of whether proximity can be established in a digital setting, or whether digital media may not contribute to widening the distance.
Purpose Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foers... more Purpose Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, I hypothesize how Heinz von Foerster's theory can be an orientation model for the epistemological problem of complexity. I have chosen this study to demonstrate complexity as an epistemological problem. This is because the question of how order arises - the core problem of complexity - is an epistemological question for which Heinz von Foerster developed an epistemology of self-organization. I do not present new research because HvF already had the complex organization of systems in mind. Rather, I build a critical approach to complexity on the research and work on operational epistemology in HvF. Design/methodology/approach This article aims to provide an orientation for a philosophical and epistemological understanding of complexity through a reading of Heinz von Foerster's operational theory. The article attempts to establish complexity as an epistemological phenomenon through the following method: (1) a conceptual description of the science of complexity based on the turn to thermodynamic time, (2) a genealogy of complexity going back to the systemic method, and (3) Heinz von Foerster's cybernetic approach to self-organization. Findings Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, the conclusion is drawn that complexity as a description is based on language games. Research limitations/implications The results present complexity not as an object of science, but as a description that stands for the understanding of complex description. Social implications The hypothesis that complexity is a question of description or observation, i.e. of description for what language serves, has enormous social implications, in that the description of complexes and the recognition of their orders (patterns) cannot be left to algorithmic governmentality, but must be carried out by a social agency. Originality/value HvF's operational epistemology can serve as an epistemological model for critical complexity theory.
Purpose
Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foe... more Purpose
Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, I hypothesize how Heinz von Foerster's theory can be an orientation model for the epistemological problem of complexity. I have chosen this study to demonstrate complexity as an epistemological problem. This is because the question of how order arises - the core problem of complexity - is an epistemological question for which Heinz von Foerster developed an epistemology of self-organization. I do not present new research because HvF already had the complex organization of systems in mind. Rather, I build a critical approach to complexity on the research and work on operational epistemology in HvF. Design/methodology/approach
This article aims to provide an orientation for a philosophical and epistemological understanding of complexity through a reading of Heinz von Foerster's operational theory. The article attempts to establish complexity as an epistemological phenomenon through the following method: (1) a conceptual description of the science of complexity based on the turn to thermodynamic time, (2) a genealogy of complexity going back to the systemic method, and (3) Heinz von Foerster's cybernetic approach to self-organization. Findings
Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, the conclusion is drawn that complexity as a description is based on language games. Research limitations/implications
The results present complexity not as an object of science, but as a description that stands for the understanding of complex description. Social implications
The hypothesis that complexity is a question of description or observation, i.e. of description for what language serves, has enormous social implications, in that the description of complexes and the recognition of their orders (patterns) cannot be left to algorithmic governmentality, but must be carried out by a social agency. Originality/value
HvF's operational epistemology can serve as an epistemological model for critical complexity theory.
Adimen artifiziala: filosofia eta teknologiaren bilgune, 2023
Udako Euskal Unibertsitateak adimen artifizialaren harira antolatutako jardunaldirako, Peter Slot... more Udako Euskal Unibertsitateak adimen artifizialaren harira antolatutako jardunaldirako, Peter Sloterdijken filosofia antropoteknikoaz hitzaldia emateko eskatu zidaten. Jardunaldiaren helburua informatikariak eta humanitateetako adituak mahai-inguruan biltzea zen, adimen artifizialaren erronken gainean eztabaidatzeko.
The prehistory of the Basques settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula is a special mystery.... more The prehistory of the Basques settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula is a special mystery. Basque language, whose origins are still unclear, does not belong to the Indo-European languages. The latest ethnological and linguistic research into the origin of this language points to a pre-Indo-European ancestry. Like any medium, language is not merely a functional means of transmitting a message. It interprets the world, gives names to the world, and organises it according to the specific meaning of each language. For Basque, it can be demonstrated that the pre-Indo-European worldview does not correspond to the Indo-European patriarchal worldview. Despite controversial positions on the matriarchal organisational structures of the Basque people and their matricultural customs, researchers agree that Basque pre-Indo-European elements represent patterns strongly influenced by the mother archetype. Matrixial patterns in the symbolism of Basque culture and especially in language and mythology are features of pre-Indo-European culture. To refer to the pre-Indo-European elements of the Basque worldview, I will use the term matrixial (Saratxaga). This is a philosophical category that designates the creative force of form and organisation into the world. The aim of this essay is to highlight the symbolic expressions of a Basque matrixiality and to present their meaning in the context of a cultural worldview. The article focuses especially on the matrixial character of the symbolic dimensions of the earth, taking into account animism and its own laws, with its spirits that inhabit it. Based on the work of the philosopher Andrés Ortiz Osés, who has given an interpretation of pre-Indo-European symbolism against the background of hermeneutic doctrine, the Basque matrixial elements will emerge here. The
Der Beitrag von Arantzazu Saratxaga behandelt angesichts eines Films über den Chaos Computer Club... more Der Beitrag von Arantzazu Saratxaga behandelt angesichts eines Films über den Chaos Computer Club (CCC) die grundlegenden Einsichten der Kybernetik und diskutiert anhand von Begriffen wie Kontrolle, Regelung und Steuerung, ob und inwiefern im Rahmen kybernetischer Modellierung menschliche Kommunikationen oder freie Entscheidungen möglich sind. Was wäre also eine KybernEthik? Arantzazu Saratxaga's contribution deals with the basic insights of cybernetics in the light of a film about the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) and discusses, on the basis of concepts such as control, regulation and steering, whether and to what extent human communications or free decisions are possible within the framework of cybernetic modelling. So what would cyberethics be?
Philosophy Kitchen - Revista Di Filosofia Contemporanea, 2023
Her research focuses on the interior of milieus (endomilieus) from a philosophical point of view ... more Her research focuses on the interior of milieus (endomilieus) from a philosophical point of view and draws on disciplines such as media and contemporary philosophy as well as cybernetics.
Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft, 2021
Der Beitrag handelt von einer Auslegung der Bedeutung anthropomorphischer Figurinen der Altsteinz... more Der Beitrag handelt von einer Auslegung der Bedeutung anthropomorphischer Figurinen der Altsteinzeit, insbesondere auf der Basis der beispielhaften Plastik Venus von Willendorf. Der Kern des Artikels liegt in der kritischen Frage der Repräsentationsordnung von hervortretenden Merkmalen kleiner Plastiken und versucht den hermeneutischen Rahmen der Morphologie der Figurinen zu erweitern. Was erzählen uns diese Formen? Inwiefern stehen die weiblichen Demarkationen für eine Darstellung der Weiblichkeit? Um diese Fragen zu beantworten, wird zunächst der ästhetische Wert der Artefakte problematisiert, da sich ihre künstlerische Beschaffenheit an ihrer Form, frei von jeder instrumentalen Bestimmung, zeigt. Dem folgt eine kritische Analyse der metaphysischen Darstellung von Form, zurückgehend auf Platon, dem zufolge die Form eine Idee (eídos) darstellt. Dieses Schema führt allerdings zu einem tautologischen Teufelskreis, bei dem jede weibliche Figuration eine Idee der Weiblichkeit darstellt...
Das Matrixiale – eine Philosophische Kategorie, 2022
Metaphysik des Bildes jenseits von Semiotik und Phänomenologie-Eine ideengeschichtliche Skizze 51... more Metaphysik des Bildes jenseits von Semiotik und Phänomenologie-Eine ideengeschichtliche Skizze 51 Harald Seubert teil 2 Annäherung-Ästhetik und Ethik "das Ästhetische als Ethik betrachtet"-Musil und Dufrenne 79
Zu gnostischen Motiven der operativen Erkenntnistheorie, 2021
Bei einem von Jacob Taubes 1982 in Bad Homburg organisierten Kolloquium zu Gnosis und Politik ver... more Bei einem von Jacob Taubes 1982 in Bad Homburg organisierten Kolloquium zu Gnosis und Politik versammelte er Religionswissenschaftler*innen und Philosoph*innen, unter ihnen Odo Marquard und Barbara Aland, um die Historiographie der Gnosis im Hinblick auf deren Einfluss in der Geistesgeschichte zu erörtern. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Debatte ergab sich die These einer eschatologischen Geschichtsphilosophie der Moderne.1 Diese Vortragsreihe bot den Anlass, Hans Blumenbergs Erwiderung2 von 1966 auf Eric Voegelins These von 1953/54 eines Rückfalls in die Gnosis3 neuerlich aufzunehmen.4 Voegelins auf die Neuzeit bezogene These besagt, dass »die [Neuzeit] wohl besser das Gnostische Zeitalter genannt würde […].«5 Dagegen positionierte Hans Blumenberg seine Haltung zur Säkularisierungsdebatte, wobei die Neuzeit die zweite Überwindung der Gnosis sei.6 Im Sinne Blumenbergs bezeichnet die Neuzeit also den Umbruch der alten
Zu gnostischen Motiven der operativen Erkenntnistheorie, 2021
Bei einem von Jacob Taubes 1982 in Bad Homburg organisierten Kolloquium zu Gnosis und Politik ver... more Bei einem von Jacob Taubes 1982 in Bad Homburg organisierten Kolloquium zu Gnosis und Politik versammelte er Religionswissenschaftler*innen und Philosoph*innen, unter ihnen Odo Marquard und Barbara Aland, um die Historiographie der Gnosis im Hinblick auf deren Einfluss in der Geistesgeschichte zu erörtern. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Debatte ergab sich die These einer eschatologischen Geschichtsphilosophie der Moderne.1 Diese Vortragsreihe bot den Anlass, Hans Blumenbergs Erwiderung2 von 1966 auf Eric Voegelins These von 1953/54 eines Rückfalls in die Gnosis3 neuerlich aufzunehmen.4 Voegelins auf die Neuzeit bezogene These besagt, dass »die [Neuzeit] wohl besser das Gnostische Zeitalter genannt würde […].«5 Dagegen positionierte Hans Blumenberg seine Haltung zur Säkularisierungsdebatte, wobei die Neuzeit die zweite Überwindung der Gnosis sei.6 Im Sinne Blumenbergs bezeichnet die Neuzeit also den Umbruch
From a Matrixial Dialectic to a Multivalent Ontology of Matrixial Materialism, 2021
Interior-Relation Toward an Ontological Multivalence Versus Substantive Immaterialism ARANTZAZU S... more Interior-Relation Toward an Ontological Multivalence Versus Substantive Immaterialism ARANTZAZU SARATXAGA ARREGI T he American literary critic Nancy Katharine Hayles uses a book chapter from Anne Balsamo's Technologies of Gendered Body entitled "My mother was a computer "as the title of her monograph on the materiality of literary texts in the age of digital cultures (Hayles 2005). This examination is less an assertion than an indication of a postbiological future in which the body and its constitution, namely corporeality, explode into new forms of expression if they do not disintegrate due to digital disembodiment processes. The reduction of corporeality to the mere computational operators of a cognitive machine was also addressed in Hayles' book How We Became Posthuman (Hayles 1999). The author's position on posthumanist approaches is undoubtedly skeptical, even decidedly opposed: "a call to contest for versions of the posthuman that would acknowledge the importance of embodiment and be conducive to enhancing human and nonhuman life on the planet" (Hayles 2005, Prologue 2). Digital media control a process of dematerialization of communication channels, the after-effects of which on social systems have led to posthumanist theories. Thus, they describe the human of the digital age as characterized by the dissolution of the mind/body duality in a hybrid assemblage of power flows. The model for the posthumanist Anthropos is Donna Haraway's cyborg manifesto, which, beyond being a metaphor of the cybernetic human, is intended to address a program that completely abolishes the demarcations defining humanity vis-à-vis other species through the control procedures of information flows (Wiener 1985,1-30). The chapter "My Mother Was a Computer "should be understood as an objection to reducing the corporeal to a mere operative functionality and the degradation of matter underlying this, which favors symbolically formal statements about cognition. Nevertheless, the young discipline of cybernetics that emerged in the postwar period aimed at the dissolution of classical dualities on which the Western culture of humanism had relied so heavily. The laws of control in a machine system are supposed to overcome dichotomies such as mind vs. body as well as nature vs. culture in favor of a new kind of reality cognition (Max Bense 1951, pp.429-449) whereby each particle of a system presupposes its entity, connections, and relations with the others are perceived and thought. Personal realities are determined by the flow of information produced in netlike connections. In this way, reality becomes a complex (dis) organized phenomenon woven together from non-linear dynamic assemblages. The implementation of cybernetic knowledge in the sciences aims to redefine matter. It is not only the information sciences and cybernetics that have subjected the concept of matter to a new interpretation.
Zusammenfassung Heutzutage ist die Gesellschaft zu einer neuen Herangehensweise an soziale Bindun... more Zusammenfassung Heutzutage ist die Gesellschaft zu einer neuen Herangehensweise an soziale Bindungen aufgefordert. Die Nähe ist gefährdet und ihr Fehlen wird durch Kommunikationsmittel kompensiert. Die Schutzmaßnahmen gegen einen näheren Kontakt bringen einen neuen sozialen Verhaltensmodus hervor, der "social distancing" genannt worden ist. Die Frage, ob die digitalen Kommunikationsmittel den Bedarf nach Nähe abdecken kön-nen, ist und bleibt ein Thema, das uns in der nächsten Zeit aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln beschäftigen wird. Das Gleiche legt eine Diskussion über die Aufhebung einer Kultur der Nähe durch digitale Kommunikations-mittel offen. Sie bringt einen öffentlichen Diskurs auf den Weg, der die Frage offen lässt, ob die digitale Nähe die Gegenwirkung sozialer Ferne ausgleicht. Nähe hat Vertrauen zur Grundlage. Das Vertrauen steht aber nicht in einem gleichen Verhältnis zur Kommunikation, sondern es tritt ihr eher diametral entgegen: Soll die unmit-telbare Nähe im Vordergrund (eines sozialen Kontakts) stehen, dann gibt es nicht viel zu vermitteln; genauso wie es bei einer vollen Vertrauenssituation nicht viel gibt, worüber man kommuniziert. Kann Kommunikation bei der Abwesenheit von Vertrauen dennoch soziale Systeme bilden? Können die Kommunikationstechnolo-gien in den digitalen Kulturen Vertrauen fördern oder verringern sie es im Gegenteil? Obwohl ein Kommu-nikationsmittel die Überbrückung von Distanz bezweckt, widmet sich dieser Beitrag der Frage, ob in einem digitalen Rahmen die Herstellung von Nähe möglich ist oder ob die digitalen Medien zu einer Ausweitung der Entfernung beitragen. Schlüsselwörter Kommunikationsmedien, Vermittlung, Differenz, Weltkomplexität, Unmittelbarkeit, Vertrauen Abstract Today, society is required to take a new approach to social bonds. Proximity is a risk, and its absence is compensated for by means of communication. Protective measures against close contact give rise to a new mode of social behaviour called "social distancing". The question of whether digital communication media can satisfy the need for proximity is and will remain a topic that will occupy us from various perspectives in the near future. This also touches upon the discussion regarding the elimination of a culture of proximity by digital means of communication. The result is a public discourse that leaves open the question of whether digital proximity can compensate for the contrary effects of social distancing. The basis of proximity is trust. Trust, however, does not have the same relationship to communication; rather, it is diametrically opposed: if immediate proximity is the main point (of a social contact), then there is not much to communicate; just as there is not much to communicate about in a situation of full trust. Can communication still form social systems in the absence of trust? Can communication technologies in digital cultures promote trust or do they, on the contrary, reduce it? Although the communications media aim to bridge distance, this article will address the question of whether proximity can be established in a digital setting, or whether digital media may not contribute to widening the distance.
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Papers by Arantzazu Saratxaga
Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, I hypothesize how Heinz von Foerster's theory can be an orientation model for the epistemological problem of complexity. I have chosen this study to demonstrate complexity as an epistemological problem. This is because the question of how order arises - the core problem of complexity - is an epistemological question for which Heinz von Foerster developed an epistemology of self-organization. I do not present new research because HvF already had the complex organization of systems in mind. Rather, I build a critical approach to complexity on the research and work on operational epistemology in HvF.
Design/methodology/approach
This article aims to provide an orientation for a philosophical and epistemological understanding of complexity through a reading of Heinz von Foerster's operational theory. The article attempts to establish complexity as an epistemological phenomenon through the following method: (1) a conceptual description of the science of complexity based on the turn to thermodynamic time, (2) a genealogy of complexity going back to the systemic method, and (3) Heinz von Foerster's cybernetic approach to self-organization.
Findings
Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, the conclusion is drawn that complexity as a description is based on language games.
Research limitations/implications
The results present complexity not as an object of science, but as a description that stands for the understanding of complex description.
Social implications
The hypothesis that complexity is a question of description or observation, i.e. of description for what language serves, has enormous social implications, in that the description of complexes and the recognition of their orders (patterns) cannot be left to algorithmic governmentality, but must be carried out by a social agency.
Originality/value
HvF's operational epistemology can serve as an epistemological model for critical complexity theory.
Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, I hypothesize how Heinz von Foerster's theory can be an orientation model for the epistemological problem of complexity. I have chosen this study to demonstrate complexity as an epistemological problem. This is because the question of how order arises - the core problem of complexity - is an epistemological question for which Heinz von Foerster developed an epistemology of self-organization. I do not present new research because HvF already had the complex organization of systems in mind. Rather, I build a critical approach to complexity on the research and work on operational epistemology in HvF.
Design/methodology/approach
This article aims to provide an orientation for a philosophical and epistemological understanding of complexity through a reading of Heinz von Foerster's operational theory. The article attempts to establish complexity as an epistemological phenomenon through the following method: (1) a conceptual description of the science of complexity based on the turn to thermodynamic time, (2) a genealogy of complexity going back to the systemic method, and (3) Heinz von Foerster's cybernetic approach to self-organization.
Findings
Based on the reception of the principle of self-organization, the core of Heinz von Foerster's operational theories, the conclusion is drawn that complexity as a description is based on language games.
Research limitations/implications
The results present complexity not as an object of science, but as a description that stands for the understanding of complex description.
Social implications
The hypothesis that complexity is a question of description or observation, i.e. of description for what language serves, has enormous social implications, in that the description of complexes and the recognition of their orders (patterns) cannot be left to algorithmic governmentality, but must be carried out by a social agency.
Originality/value
HvF's operational epistemology can serve as an epistemological model for critical complexity theory.