Ernst von Glasersfeld (March 8, 1917,

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

– November 12, 2010, Leverett,

Franklin County, Massachusetts Franklin County is a nongovernmental county in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the population was 71,029, which made it the least populous county on the Massachusetts mainland, and the third leas ...

) was a

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, and

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

at the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

, research associate at the Scientific Reasoning Research Institute, and adjunct professor in the Department of Psychology at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

. He was a member of the board of trustees of the American Society for Cybernetics, from which he received the McCulloch Memorial Award in 1991. He was a member of the scientific board of the Instituto Piaget,

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. Glasersfeld is known for the development of

radical constructivism Radical constructivism is an approach to epistemology that situates knowledge in terms of knowers' experience. It looks to break with the conception of knowledge as a Correspondence theory of truth, correspondence between a knower's understanding of ...

Biography

Glasersfeld was born in

, where his father, Leopold, worked as a

cultural attaché Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

in Vienna before going into photography after World War I. He was a student of mathematics at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

before having to move out because of the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

threat, considering that his Pan-European family (they subscribed to the ideology of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi) was known to be "enemies of any form of nationalism" and his grandfather was

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

(a convert to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

). The younger Glasersfeld thus spent large parts of his life in Ireland (1940s), in Italy (1950s) where he worked with

Silvio Ceccato Silvio Ceccato (Montecchio Maggiore, Italy 25 January 1914 – Milan, 2 December 1997) was an Italian philosopher and linguist. Born in Montecchio Maggiore, he studied law and music. In 1949 he founded the international magazine ''Methodos'', whic ...

, and in the United States. He graduated from

Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz is an international boarding school in Zuoz, near St. Moritz in Switzerland. Founded in 1904, it is located in the upper part of the alpine village in the area of Surmulins. There are around 300 pupils, including 220 in the ...

, a Swiss boarding school. He studied and elaborated upon the work of

Giambattista Vico Giambattista Vico (born Giovan Battista Vico ; ; 23 June 1668 – 23 January 1744) was an Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist during the Italian Enlightenment. He criticized the expansion and development of modern rationali ...

Jean Piaget Jean William Fritz Piaget (, ; ; 9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980) was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called genetic epistemology. ...

genetic epistemology Genetic epistemology or 'developmental theory of knowledge' is a study of the origins (genesis) of knowledge (epistemology) established by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. This theory opposes traditional epistemology and unites constructivism and ...

Bishop Berkeley George Berkeley ( ; 12 March 168514 January 1753), known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland), was an Anglo-Irish philosopher, writer, and clergyman who is regarded as the founder of "immaterialism", a philos ...

's theory of perception,

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's ''

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was publishe ...

'', and other important texts. Von Glasersfeld developed his model of

, which is an

ethos ''Ethos'' is a Greek word meaning 'character' that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the ...

shared by all of these writers to one degree or another. The Ernst von Glasersfeld Archive, part of the Research Institute Brenner-Archiv at the University of Innsbruck, maintains the literary estate and also organizes the Ernst von Glasersfeld Lectures. The literary executors are Theo Hug and Josef Mitterer. On the occasion of Ernst von Glasersfeld's 100th birthday in 2017, the international conference "Radical Constructivism – Past, Present and Future" took place at the University of Innsbruck.

Honors and awards

* 1991: Warren McCulloch Memorial Award of the American Society for Cybernetics * 1997:

Honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

of the

University of Klagenfurt The University of Klagenfurt ( or ''Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt'', AAU) is a federal Austrian research university and the largest research and higher education institution in the States of Austria, state of Carinthia. It has its campus in ...

* 2002: Reconnaissance du Mérite scientifique of the

University of Quebec A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". U ...

* 2005: The Wiener Gold Medal of the American Society for Cybernetics * 2005: Gregory Bateson-award of the Heidelberg Institute for Systemic Research e.V. * 2007: Journal of

Constructivist Foundations ''Constructivist Foundations'' is an international triannual Peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal that focuses on constructivist epistemology, constructivist approaches to science and philosophy, including radical constructivism, enactivism ...

honoured him on his 90th birthday with a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

Glasersfeld * 2007: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class * 2008: Honorary doctorate of the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian States of Austria, ...

* 2009: Honorary Medal of the City of Vienna in gold

Selected publications

*Glasersfeld, E. von, (2001
The radical constructivist view of science
In: A. Riegler (Ed.), Foundations of Science, special issue on "The Impact of Radical Constructivism on Science", vol.6, no. 1–3: 31–43. *Glasersfeld, E. von (1989). �
Cognition, Construction of Knowledge and Teaching
” Synthese, 80(1),121-140. *Glasersfeld, E. von (1990). “Environment and Communication.” In L.P. Steffe & T. Wood (eds.), Transforming Children’s Mathematics Education: International Perspectives, (pp. 30–38). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. *Glasersfeld, E. von (1992). �
Questions and Answers About Radical Constructivism
.” In M.K. Pearsall (ed.), Scope, Sequence, and Coordination of Secondary Schools Science, Vol. 11, Relevant Research, (pp. 169–182). Washington DC: NSTA.

References

External links

Ernst-von-Glasersfeld-Archive

Ernst von Glasersfeld

Biography of Ernst von Glasersfeld

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glasersfeld, Ernst von 1927 births 2010 deaths Educational psychologists German epistemologists German people of Austrian-Jewish descent 20th-century German philosophers Writers from Munich Giambattista Vico scholars James Joyce scholars Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Recipients of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class University of Georgia faculty 21st-century German philosophers Alumni of Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz

Biography

Honors and awards

Selected publications

See also

References

Further reading

External links