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 between a knower's understanding of their experience and the world beyond that experience. Adopting a
sceptical position towards correspondence as in principle impossible to verify because one cannot access the world beyond one's experience in order to test the relation, radical constructivists look to redefine epistemology in terms of the viability of knowledge within knowers' experience.
[Glasersfeld, E. von. (1990). An exposition of constructivism: Why some like it radical. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education Monograph, 4, 19-29. https://doi.org/10.2307/749910][Glasersfeld, Ernst von. (1984). An introduction to radical constructivism. In P. Watzlawick (Ed.), The invented reality (pp. 17-40). Norton. http://www.vonglasersfeld.com/070.1] This break from the traditional framing of epistemology differentiates it from "trivial" forms of
constructivism that emphasise the role of the knower in constructing knowledge while maintaining the traditional perspective of knowledge in terms of correspondence. Radical constructivism has been described as a "post-epistemological" position.
Radical constructivism was initially formulated by
Ernst von Glasersfeld
Ernst von Glasersfeld (March 8, 1917, Munich – November 12, 2010, Leverett, Franklin County, Massachusetts) was a philosopher, and emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Georgia, research associate at the Scientific Reasonin ...
, who drew on the work of
Jean Piaget,
Giambattista Vico, and
George 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 whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immate ...
amongst others. Radical constructivism is closely related to
second-order cybernetics, and especially the work of
Heinz von Foerster,
Humberto Maturana, and
Francisco Varela. During the 1980s,
Siegfried J. Schmidt played a leading role in establishing radical constructivism as a paradigm within the German speaking academic world.
Radical constructivism has been influential in educational research and the philosophy of science.
[Glanville, R. (2001). An observing science. Foundations of Science, 6(1), 45-75. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1011353225749 ]
''
Constructivist Foundations'' is a free online journal publishing peer-reviewed articles on radical constructivism by researchers from multiple domains.
References
{{Reflist
Further reading
* Foerster, H. von, & Poerksen, B. (2002). Understanding systems (K. Leube, Trans.). Kluwer Academic.
* Glanville, R. (2007). The importance of being Ernst. Constructivist Foundations, 2(2/3), 5-6. http://constructivist.info/2/2-3/005.glanville
* Glasersfeld, E. von (1995). Radical constructivism: A way of knowing and learning. Routledge Falmer.
* Glasersfeld, E. von. (1984). An introduction to radical constructivism. In P. Watzlawick (Ed.), The invented reality (pp. 17-40). Norton. http://www.vonglasersfeld.com/070.1
* Glasersfeld, E. von. (1990). An exposition of constructivism: Why some like it radical. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education Monograph, 4, 19-29. https://doi.org/10.2307/749910
* Poerksen, B. (2004). The Certainty of Uncertainty: Dialogues Introducing Constructivism. Ingram Pub Services.
Epistemology
Cybernetics