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Cybernetics of Epistemology*
HEINZ VON FOERSTER
Translated by Peter Werres
Summary
If “epistemology” is taken to be the theory of knowledge acquisition, rather
than of knowledge per se, then—it is argued—the appropriate conceptual
framework for such an epistemology is that of cybernetics, the only discip-
line that has given us a rigorous treatment of circular causality. The processes
by which knowledge is acquired, i.e., the cognitive processes, are interpreted
as computational algorithms which, in turn, are being computed. This leads
to the contemplation of computations that compute computations, and so
one, that is, of recursive computations with a regress of arbitrary depth.
From this point of view the activity of the nervous system, some experi-
ments, the foundations of a future theory of behavior and its ethical con-
sequences, are discussed.
Introduction
When I agreed to deliver my talk here in German, I had no idea what dif-
ficulties this would cause me. Over the last twenty years I have only thought
and talked in English when it comes to scholarly matters. Many terms and
research results were baptized in English after their conception and resist
any translation efforts.
After vain attempts to turn my lecture into German, I have finally decided
to step out of myself to look at the whole quilt of my thoughts as if they were
a piece of tapestry and to describe to you, to the best of my ability, the figures,
ornaments and symbols woven into its fabric. If in the process I appear to
get lost in labyrinthine syntactical constructions, then this will not constitute
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