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2017
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(2017): The aesthetics of minorities against the correlation of strong institutionalism, scientism and technicality. on the voice-praxis of the minorities as art-literature. In: CLAREIRA-REVISTA DE FILOSOFIA DA REGIAO AMAZONICA (4/1), S. 13-48
Abstract: In the paper, we defend that the aesthetic voice-praxis allows to social movements, citizen initiatives and political-cultural minorities the self-expression and self-affirmation from themselves and by themselves in terms of lyrical-political I-We, so that to frame and overcome the correlation of strong institutionalism, scientism and technicality which characterizes the constitution, legitimation, evolution and social-political linking of modern institutions, such as science, law, political parties and economy. These modern institutions or social systems are logical-technical, non-political and non-normative structures-subjects, marked and streamlined for a self-referential and self-subsisting dynamics which is eminently endogenous, autonomous and overlap in relation to the spontaneity and informality of the epistemological-political subjects, values and practices proper to civil society, centralizing and monopolizing the constitution, programming and functioning of their fields of research and objects and, from here, framing the own voice-praxis of these civil society's epistemological-political subjects in their nowadays action and relatively to institutions. In this sense, in the correlation of strong institutionalism, scientism and technicality, the institutions become the basis, the arena, the value and the epistemological-political subject par excellence and exclusive of the foundation of themselves and even relating to the social-cultural structuration and evolution, peripherizing the informal and spontaneous epistemological-political subjects of civil society. Against this apolitical and depoliticizing tendency assumed by modern social systems, we argue in favor of an aesthetics of the minorities that enables both their spontaneous and informal, political, politicizing and normative self-affirmation and self-expression, with no scientist and institutionalist mediations, and a political-normative praxis which is alternative and opposed to strong institutionalism and its scientism and technicism, because it is inclusive, participative and direct. Therefore, the social criticism, political-normative praxis and cultural resistance need a non-systemic, non-institutionalist, non-technicist and non-scientificist voice-praxis that can be founded and allowed by aesthetics in its anti-paradigmatic, non- institutionalist and anti-scientificist sense.
Keywords: Ästhetik, Bruch, Diskriminierung, Fehlverhalten, Gesellschaft, institutionalism, Interaktion, Kunstgeschichte, Minderheiten, minorities, Normativität, Normen, Poesie in der Politik, scientism, social systems, Soziale Klasse / Schicht, Soziale Systeme, soziokulturelle Strukturen, Subjekte, subversive, technicism, Technizität -
(2017): Monologic versus Dialogic Distinctions of Selves. In: CONSTRUCTIVIST FOUNDATIONS (13/1), S. 18-21
Abstract: This commentary contrasts the monologic accounts of self-reference pursued in Kauffman's target article with natural language notions of referring to one's self, drawing distinctions, and constructing identities collaboratively. It suggests that mathematical calculi, which assume the perspective of observers, are fundamentally incapable of accounting for how the selves of interactively involved participants in social systems come to be. It questions the claim that a mathematical notion of "self" can shed light on the being of humans and argues for dialogical distinctions of identities. Finally, it suggests that publishing and enacting monological conceptions of selves can have undesirable social consequences.
Keywords: Beobachter, Beobachterperspektive, Disziplin, Identität, Identitätsstiftung, Incalculability of the self, Kauffmann, Konstruktion des Selbst, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Monolog, natürliche Sprache, Philosophie, Selbst, Selbstreferenz, Self Concept, Dialog, social systems, Soziale Angemessenheit, soziale Konsequenzen, Soziale Systeme, Systemtheorie -
(2017): The Rawlsian Critique of Utilitarianism. A Luhmannian Interpretation. In: Journal of Business Ethics 142 (1), S. 25-35. DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2786-y
Abstract: The present paper builds on the Rawlsian critique of utilitarianism in order to identify the moral implications of Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory. While Luhmann aptly discerned the pervasive problems of the precarious system-environment relations throughout the modern society, he took moral communication to be person-centered and thus ill-equipped to deal with these problems. At the same time, the Rawlsian possibility of sacrificing fundamental liberties for the sake of economic gains not only exemplifies the Luhmannian precariousness of the relations of the economic system to its societal environment, but also shows this precariousness to be a moral problem. Thus, from the systems-theoretic perspective, the Rawlsian idea of justice denotes the moral dimension of the capacity of the societal environment to carry the economic system. More generally, the proposed complementarity between Rawls and Luhmann allows to see the precariousness of system-environment relations, for any type of social system, as a moral problem. Two implications follow. First, the morally problematic manifestations of the precarious system-environment relations are not limited to the Rawlsian case of the discrimination of the least advantaged groups but rather include a broad range of social costs and damaging effects of business on society and nature. Second, and related, the proposed systems-theoretic perspective explicates the moral value of sustainability of the economic as well as other social systems in their environment, societal and ecological alike.
Keywords: BUSINESS, business ethics, ethics, CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP, Disziplin, Economic system, Ethik, Gesellschaftsprofit, John Rawls, Justice, Kosten-Nutzen, Luhmann, Moral, moralische Dimension, Moralphilosophie, Morals, Moraltheorie, Niklas Luhmann, Philosophie, Rawls, SOCIAL COSTS, social systems, Societal environment, SYSTEMS, Utilitarianism, Utilitarismus 2016
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(2016): Clarifying Some Misunderstandings about Social Systems and their Mechanisms. In: Philosophy of the Social Sciences 34 (3), S. 371-381. DOI: 10.1177/0048393104266860
Abstract: The goal of this article is to answer some of the criticisms of my views on social science formulated by contributors to the symposium on my philosophy of social science.
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(2016): A Critical Social Systems View of the Internet. In: Philosophy of the Social Sciences 37 (4), S. 471-500. DOI: 10.1177/0048393107307664
Abstract: The article discusses principles that form part of evolutionary systems thinking in social sciences and humanities. It is argued that introducing the concept of self-organization relates agency and structures in a way that makes it possible to take up certain features of Critical Theory by which it can meet the demands for a critical social science. These principles are applied to the question of whether there is convergence or divergence in and by means of the Internet. It will be clarified that the Internet is basically a social system and that it is a subsystem of the larger and overarching system of the whole society. It will be shown how the Internet can be perceived as a possible trigger for societal developments bringing about fundamental change in the nature of society. Thus the article cuts across philosophical, system theoretical, social theoretical, sociology of technology, and information society theory considerations.
Keywords: agency, critical Theory, Disziplin, dynamic, epistemology, Evolution, Handlungsmacht, information society, Informations- & Kommunikationstechnik, Internet, Kritische Theorie, mechanism, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Philosophie, Realtechnik, revolution, Selbstorganisation, self-organization, social system, social systems, soziales System, Soziologie, STS, Technik -
(2016): The Mechanisms of Emergence. In: Philosophy of the Social Sciences 34 (2), S. 260-282. DOI: 10.1177/0048393103262553
Abstract: This article focuses on emergence in social systems. The author begins by proposing a new tool to explore the mechanisms of social emergence: multi agent based computer simulation. He then draws on philosophy of mind to develop an account of social emergence that raises potential problems for the methodological individualism of both social mechanism and of multi agent simulation. He then draws on various complexity concepts to propose a set of criteria whereby one can determine whether a given social mechanism generates emergent properties, in the sense that their explanation cannot be reduced to a mechanistic account of individuals and their interactions. This combined account helps to resolve the competing claims of methodological individualists and social realists. The author's conclusion is that the scope of mechanistic explanation may be limited due to the extreme complexity of many social systems.
Keywords: complexity, Disziplin, emergence, Emergenz, Emergenz in sozialen Systemen, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, Interaktion, Komplexität, Komplexitätsforschung, Künstliche Intelligenz, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), multi agent based computer simulation, multi-agent systems, Multi-Agenten-Systeme, Ontologische Differenzierungen: Tier, Mensch, Maschine, Philosophie, philosophy of mind, Realtechnik, Reflexionen über MTR, simulation, social realism, social systems, soziale Mechanismen, Soziale Systeme, Technik 2015
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(2015): Critical Theory of Technology and technoscientific citizenship: resistance, "insistence" and hacking. Resistência, insistência e hacking. In: Revista de Filosofia Aurora 27 (621). DOI: 10.7213/aurora.27.040.DS07
Abstract: In recent years, the notion of citizenship and its novel forms and practices have been criticized, discussed, and re-conceptualized by several scholars in the Latin-American context, especially in fields as political sciences and sociology. Feenberg's work is of great value to apply and foster such discussions in the context of Science and Technology Studies, and to investigate potentialities and practices for a technical citizenship. We show how what we will call political and epistemological hacking may allow the reconceptualization of citizenship and the visibility of possible paths for an experimental ethics and a bottom-up politics, not based in principles or axioms, but on a Critical Practice of Technology. Changing social systems and technological codes is possible, if analysis and practices are grounded not on an essentialist vision of technique, nor on a normative notion of human nature, but on a dynamic, dialectic approach to the human condition and its technical environment.
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(2015): Systematic Theoretical Approach to the Explanation of The Social Reality. Philosophical or Sociological Methodology?
Abstract: Studying the relation of sociology and philosophy, the authors distinguish between two different types of philosophy: scientific philosophy that studies the world and man's place in it and evaluative philosophy that seeks meaning of human existence in the world. The authors examine different interpretations of sociology, stopping at one of them, which studies the social life as a system, it's integrity and historical types of existence (Momdzhyan K.Kh).The article discusses the validity of the proposed current interpretations of two key concepts - the "social" and "society" (Krzhevov VS.). Special attention is paid to describe characteristic obstacles to a potential constructive dialog between sociological and philosophical communities (Podvoyskiy D.G.). Some prospects of systemic philosophy of sciences (in framework of the sociology of knowledge) are considered in their consequences for the philosophical theory of truth (Antonovskiy A.Yu). Some resources of the theory of social systems (especially the concepts of double contingency and self descriptions) are drawn as an interdisciplinary methodology of analyze of culture and multiculturalism (Barash R.E.).
Keywords: communication theory, Disziplin, Interaktion, Kultur, multiculturalism, Philosophie, social systems, Social Theory, social theory of science, society, sociology of knowledge, Soziale Systeme, Soziologie, Soziologie und Philosophie, systemic approach, Systemischer Ansatz, valuation philosophy -
(2015): (MIXED) CULTURAL IDENTITIES: CONSTRUCTION AND DEKONSTRUCTION. In: Annales - Anali za Istrske in Mediteranske Studije - Series Historia et Sociologia
Abstract: The paper is based on two presuppositions, namely that identity (as understood in the western philosophical tradition) as well as cultural identity that derives from the former are both social constructs, which were formed in specific socio-historical conditions. Accordingly, (mono) cultural identity as such is a "fiction" that demands constant reification, i.e. maintenance and legitimization by the ideological state apparatuses. And the second presupposition is that the omnipresence and prevalence of the discourse of culturally homogeneous and monocultural identifications is misleading. To that end, several empirical studies are presented in which the authors are trying to demonstrate the omnipresence of transcultural and culturally mixed identities. At the same time, they argue that we as individuals are used to think within the frames of culturally homogeneous nationalistic categories that are implicitly as well as explicitly transmitted by all main socialization agents of the contemporary social systems. The paper points out that special attention to the contextuality in the interpretations of cultural and ethnic (self-)identifications must be taken into account. The informants' statements imply that the culturally mixed/monocultural identities must be understood in the context of the existing social order, within which the monoethnic identity is still the prevailing norm and thus the monoethnic paradigm is encouraged and reified. As we are trapped in the existing notions and consequently "used to think" monoethnically and exclusively, many individuals do not recognise and reflect their actual ethnic and cultural mixedness, they overlook it or do not know how to express it. (Cultural) Identity, as other social phenomena, does not exist in a social vacuum; it is produced and reproduced by the agents and institutions of power and influence, state-making and nationalistic processes. This is the reason why the apparent, illusory and evident existence of homogeneous self-identifications should not be taken easily In their reflections about the influence of hegemonic national(istic) power the authors claim, that we are actually all, to some extent, mixed even though not all of us might know how to grasp this mixedness.
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(2015): On the distinction between distinction and division. In: Technoetic Arts 13 (3), S. 245-251. DOI: 10.1386/tear.13.3.245_1
Abstract: In this article I discuss the use of distinctions as a method for reasoning. First I trace the role of distinctions in three different theories: the formal calculus of George Spencer Brown, the constructivist biology of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, and Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems. In the second part, play is used as an example to illustrate the concept. In particular, I contrast walking through a series of distinctions with traditional ways of argumentation based on definitions. Finally, I hint at the role of distinctions in a metaphysical sense.
2014
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(2014): Believing on trust. In: Synthese 191 (9), S. 2009-2028. DOI: 10.1007/s11229-013-0376-z
Abstract: The aim of the paper is to propose a way in which believing on trust can ground doxastic justification and knowledge. My focus will be the notion of trust that plays the role depicted by such cases as concerned Hardwig (J Philos 82:335-49, 1985; J Philos 88:693-708, 1991) in his early papers, papers that are often referenced in recent debates in social epistemology. My primary aim is not exegetical, but since it sometimes not so clear what Hardwig's claims are, I offer some remarks of interpretation that might be of interest. The main purpose of the paper, however, is this: following various cues in Hardwig's writing, I specify certain epistemic properties of agents in social systems, such that, roughly speaking, for agents to know (or be justified in believing) what the 'system knows', social relations of epistemic trust between agents in the system are necessary. I will suggest that we can view this social form of epistemic trust as non-inferential dispositions to believe what some individual or other source of information asserts or transmits. When this disposition is discriminating and defeater-sensitive, it can ground knowledge and justification. Or, more cautiously, we should be sympathetic to this view if we are inclined to accept the core insight of process reliabilism. Finally, I will offer some remarks about how epistemic trust and epistemic reasons may relate on this picture.
Keywords: Agenten-Überzeugung, Annahmen, Disziplin, Epistemische Logik/Modallogik/Doxastische Logik/Wissenslogik, Intellektualtechnik, Kogn. Architektur, kognitive Architekturen, Künstliche Intelligenz, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Philosophie, Realtechnik, social systems, Sozialverstehen, Technik, Trust, Überzeugung, Vertrauen -
(2014): Managing subjects, manufacturing citizens. Picturing sites of social control in nineteenth-century America. In: Early Popular Visual Culture 12 (2), S. 104-126. DOI: 10.1080/17460654.2014.923160
Abstract: This article examines structures of social control that became institutionalized in the United States in the 1870s and 1880s. In particular, it examines how key philanthropic and penal institutions within New York City, including the school, workhouse and prison, were represented in the illustrated popular press as sites for both controlling and training an industrializing workforce. Examining how the language of scientific management seeped into the social realm, this essay argues that visual representations of these sites helped to reinforce normative middle-class ideals about education, work and punishment. Examining the ways that artists interpreted and framed these sites for a group of primarily middle-class viewers and readers, this essay argues that social systems helped to construct an ideal, imagined citizen who is, first and foremost, an efficient worker. The purpose of these institutions was, in main part, to teach their inmates to labor and to replicate the state apparatus by maintaining social order. This article also deals with the increasingly structured and professional implementation of education and social work during the years leading up to the Progressive Era.
Keywords: Bildsemantik, education, Identitätsstiftung, Kulturtechnik, Kunst, Kunstgeschichte, labor, Rollen, social control, Social Rank, social systems, Soziale Klasse / Schicht, Soziale Ordnung, United States, Vergangenheit / Erziehung, visual culture, Vorurteile, Zuschreiben einer erwarteten Rolle -
(2014): Social Autopoiesis?. In: CONSTRUCTIVIST FOUNDATIONS (9/2), S. 153-166
Abstract: In previous papers, I suggested six rules proposed by Varela, Maturana and Uribe as a validation test to assess the autopoietic nature of a complex dynamic system. Identifying possible non-biological autopoietic systems is harder than merely assessing self-organization, existence of embodied boundaries and some observable autonomous behavioural capabilities: any rigorous assessment should include a close observation of the "intra-boundaries" phenomenology in terms of components' self-production, their spatial distribution and the temporal occurrence of interaction events. >Problem . Under which physical and components' relational conditions can some social systems be properly considered as autopoietic unities compliant with the six rules? >Results . Dynamic systems can be classified according to "degrees of autonomous behaviour" that they may acquire as a result of the emergence of organizational closure (i.e., autonomy). Also, the different "degrees of attainable systemic autonomy" depend on the "degrees of autonomy" shown by a system's dynamic components. For human social systems, a necessary balance between individuals' autonomy and the heteronomous behaviour brought about on people by social norms (laws, culture, tradition or coercion) sets limits to the "degree of systemic autonomy" that human organizations may acquire. Therefore social systems, defined as dynamic systems composed of physical agents, could not attain the high "levels of systemic autonomy" ascribable to autopoietic systems without constraining the autonomy of agents to "levels" that are incompatible with spontaneous human behaviour. Also, social organizations seen as composed of physical agents interacting in physical space cannot be construed as autopoietic systems. Alternatively, if seen as composed of "process-like" entities, where agents participate as actors within processes, some social systems could be described as autopoietic wholes existing in the abstract space in which we distinguish interactions between processes, provided that we can assess compliance with the rules for some specific cases. >Implications . These conclusions contribute to the debate on the possible autopoietic nature of some human social systems and to grasping the opportunity to shift focus to the more interesting issue of the "degrees of systemic autonomy" that human organizations could acquire (if needed) without imposing unbearable limitations on the autonomy of human actors. Also, the conceptual framework of this explanatory approach could be used in practical terms to assist the development of new dynamic modelling languages capable of simulating social systems.
Keywords: autonomy, Autopoiesis, causation, complex dynamic system, degrees of autonomous behaviour, Disziplin, heteronomy, Luhmann, Maturana, Multi-Agenten-Systeme, organizational closure, Philosophie, self-organization, simulating social systems, simulation, social system, social systems, Soziologie, Technikphilosophie, Varela 2012
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(2012): Epistemic Justice as a Virtue of Social Institutions. In: Social Epistemology 26 (2), S. 163-173. DOI: 10.1080/02691728.2011.652211
Abstract: In Epistemic injustice, Miranda Fricker makes a tremendous contribution to theorizing the intersection of social epistemology with theories of justice. Theories of justice often take as their object of assessment either interpersonal transactions (specific exchanges between persons) or particular institutions. They may also take a more comprehensive perspective in assessing systems of institutions. This systemic perspective may enable control of the cumulative effects of millions of individual transactions that cannot be controlled at the individual or institutional levels. This is true not only with respect to the overall distribution of such goods as income and wealth, but also with respect to the goods of testimonial and hermeneutical justice. Cognitive biases that may be difficult for even epistemically virtuous individuals to correct on their own may be more susceptible to correction if we focus on the principles that should govern our systems of testimonial gathering and assessment. Hence, while Fricker's focus on individual epistemic virtue is important, we also need to consider what epistemic justice as a virtue of social systems would require. My paper will indicate some directions forward on this front, focusing on the need for integration of diverse institutions and persons engaged in inquiry.
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(2012): Decision making and equilibria. In: Synthese 187 (1), S. 293-304. DOI: 10.1007/s11229-011-0029-z
Abstract: In economics and in the social sciences, the study of decision making of the single individual is an important preliminary step to provide a sound foundation for the analysis of equilibria in economic and social systems. Neuroeconomic analysis of the process has been a recent fruitful development in this direction. In the more recent past a new direction of research has emerged, studying the interplay of the decision making of the single individual with the economic and social environment that surrounds him. We review some of the results in this field, both theoretical and experimental, and suggest that a closer development of these two methods of research will be necessary in the future.
2009
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(2009): From autonomy to heteronomy (and back). The enaction of social life. In: Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 8 (4), S. 527-550. DOI: 10.1007/s11097-009-9139-1
Abstract: The term "social cognition" can be construed in different ways. On the one hand, it can refer to the cognitive faculties involved in social activities, defined simply as situations where two or more individuals interact. On this view, social systems would consist of interactions between autonomous individuals; these interactions form higher-level autonomous domains not reducible to individual actions. A contrasting, alternative view is based on a much stronger theoretical definition of a truly social domain, which is always defined by a set of structural norms; moreover, these social structures are not only a set of constraints, but actually constitute the possibility of enacting worlds that would just not exist without them. This view emphasises the heteronomy of individuals who abide by norms that are impersonal, culturally inherited and to a large extent independent of the individuals. Human beings are socialised through and through; consequently, all human cognition is social cognition. The article argues for this second position. Finally, it appears that fully blown autonomy actually requires heteronomy. It is the acceptance of the constraints of social structures that enables individuals to enter new realms of common meaningfulness. The emergence of social life marks a crucial step in the evolution of cognition; so that at some evolutionary point human cognition cannot but be social cognition.
Keywords: autonomy, cognition,, Disziplin, Interaction, Kognitionswissenschaft/Social Sciences/Humanities, Kognitive Skills/Social Cognition, Kultur, kultureller Zusammenhang, Kulturspezifizität, Kulturtheorie, Normativität, Normen, Philosophie, Social Cognition, social learning, social systems, Sozialisierung, Sozialverhalten, Voraussetzungen für sozial angemessenes Verhalten 2005
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(2005): Nonlinearity, chaos, and complexity. The dynamics of natural and social systems. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. Online verfügbar unter http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=177022
Abstract: Covering a broad range of topics, this text provides a comprehensive survey of the modelling of chaotic dynamics and complexity in the natural and social sciences. Its attention to models in both the physical and social sciences and the detailed philosophical approach make this an unique text in the midst of many current books on chaos and complexity. Part 1 deals with the mathematical model as an instrument of investigation. The general meaning of modelling and, more specifically, questions concerning linear modelling are discussed. Part 2 deals with the theme of chaos and the origin of chaotic dynamics. Part 3 deals with the theme of complexity: a property of the systems and of their models which is intermediate between stability and chaos. Including an extensive index and bibliography along with numerous examples and simplified models, this is an ideal course text.
Keywords: Adaptive Systeme, Chaos, Chaotic behavior in systems, Dynamics, Dynamique, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, Komplexitätsforschung, Künstliche Intelligenz, Mathematical models, Mathematik, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modèles mathématiques, Modell, Modellierung, Multi-Agenten-Systeme, Nonlinear theories, Ontologische Differenzierungen: Tier, Mensch, Maschine, Realtechnik, Reflexionen über MTR, social systems, Soziale Ordnung, Soziale Systeme, Systemtheorie, Technik, Théories non linéaires, Überblick 2002
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Kron, Thomas (2002): Luhmann modelliert. Sozionische Ansätze zur Simulation von Kommunikationssystemen. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften
Abstract: Die Theorie sozialer Systeme von Niklas Luhmann genießt in der Wissensgemeinschaft ungebrochene Popularität weit über die Grenzen der Soziologie hinaus. Doch trotz deren anhaltender Faszinationskraft wurde die Frage der Modellierung dieser soziologischen Theorie bislang vernachlässigt. In diesem Sammelband treffen Soziologen und Informatiker erstmals in einem interdisziplinären Projekt aufeinander, um die Theorie sozialer Systeme von Niklas Luhmann u.a. mit Hilfe von Simulationen zu modellieren. Der Sammelband zeigt, welche Modellierungsmöglichkeiten realisierbar erscheinen. Die Besonderheit liegt dabei im methodischen Vorgehen: Erstmals wird die Modellierung der Theorie sozialer Systeme systematisch im interdisziplinären Kontext von Soziologie und Informatik - sozionisch - aufgegriffen und durchgeführt.
2001
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(2001): Toward a general theory of action. Theoretical foundations for the social sciences. Abridged ed.. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers (Social science classics)
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