Through an analysis of some key theoretical texts of historical Surrealism, this article elucidates the connection between the theory and practice of artistic Surrealism and the Kellyan concept of reconstruction. Its main thesis is that Surrealism originates in a reconstruction of the most superordinate construct in both Western aesthetics and Western ontology—the construct real-unreal—and that the ultimate aim of Surrealist poetics is to provoke a similar reconstruction in the audience.

In this essay Clarence Joldersma explores radical constructivism through the work of its most well-known advocate, Ernst von Glasersfeld, who combines a sophisticated philosophical discussion of knowledge and truth with educational practices. Joldersma uses Joseph Rouse’s work in philosophy of science to criticize the antirealism inherent in radical constructivism, emphasizing that Rouse’s Heideggerian critique differs from the standard realist defense of modernist epistemology. Next, Joldersma develops an alternative conception of truth, in terms of disclosure, based on Lambert Zuidervaart’s work in aesthetics. Joldersma concludes by arguing that this notion of truth avoids the pitfalls of both realism and antirealism, giving educational theorists a way forward to accept some of the major insights of constructivism with respect to learning and teaching without having to relinquish a robust notion of truth.

Excerpt: [I]n saying that every living being exists in a psychic space, I am saying also that the experiences that we call mental, or psychic, or spiritual, arise in us as reflexive distinctions in language of our emotional involvement with different aspects of our biological dynamic congruence with our domain of existence. But, as I say what I say, I also insist in that the biological dynamic congruence with the domain of existence which is the biological fundament for the distinction of those experiences, is proper to all living beings as a condition of their existence as such. indeed, it is not rare to observe that other animals exhibit some behaviours which remind us of our own psychic or mental experiences. One which reminds me of our aesthetic experience, is the well being that animals show as they relate with their domain of existence, and that appears some times as an actual contemplation of the landscape. But there is more. The fact that what we enjoy as natural beauty is precisely the comfortable coherence with each other that living beings exhibit when their conditions of existence have not been disturbed, shows that we pertain to the same constitutive domain of biological congruence as they do, as is to be expected since we are members of the same biosphere. I consider that the natural biological manner of living is constitutively aesthetic and effortless, and that we have become culturally blind to this condition In this blindness we have made of beauty a commodity. creating ugliness in all dimensions of our living, and through that ugliness, more blindness in the loss of our capacity to see, to hear, to smell, to touch and to understand, the interconnectedness of the biosphere to which we belong. We have transformed aesthetics into an, health into medicine science into technology, human beings into public… and in this way we have lost the poetic look that permitted us to live our daily life as au aesthetic experience, Finally, in that loss, wisdom is lost Which is the cure? The creation of the desire to live again, as a natural feature of our biosphere, the effortlessness of a multidimensional human living in a daily life of aesthetic experiences.

What do people consciously experience when they read? There has been almost no rigorous research on this question, and opinions diverge radically among both philosophers and psychologists. We describe three studies of the phenomenology of reading and its relationship to memory of textual detail and general cognitive abilities. We find three main results. First, there is substantial variability in reports about reading experience, both within and between participants. Second, reported reading experience varies with passage type: passages with dialogue prompted increased reports of inner speech, while passages with vivid visual detail prompted increased reports of visual imagery. Third, reports of visual imagery experiences, inner speech experiences, and experiences of conscious visual perception of the words on the page were at best weakly related to general cognitive abilities and memory of visual and auditory details.

Key words: reading, inner speech, visual imagery, introspection, experimental aesthetics, experience sampling.

Purpose: This paper aims to mediate Josef Mitterer’s non-dualistic philosophy with the claim that speaking is a process of embodied experience. Approach: Key assumptions of enactive cognitive science, such as the crossmodal integration of speech and gesture and the perceptual grounding of linguistic concepts are illustrated through selected performance pieces of multimedia artist Laurie Anderson. Findings: The analysis of Anderson’s artistic work questions a number of dualisms that guide truth-oriented models of language. Her performance pieces demonstrate that language is both sensually enacted and conceptually reflected through the integration of iconic signing (e.g. sound play, dance) with symbolic communication. Moreover, Anderson’s artistic practice demonstrates that media such as voice, gesture and recording technologies realize different forms of embodied language. Benefits: Media aesthetics in the vein of embodied cognition can overcome a number of the dualisms that inform analytical philosophy of language, linguistics, and communication studies, such as perceptual/conceptual meaning, iconicity/symbolicity, emotion/cognition, body/technology and voice/script.

Key words: language, embodiment, media, aesthetics, performance art.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine shared principles of “irreducibility” or “undecidability” in second-order cybernetics, architectural design processes and Leibniz’s geometric philosophy. It argues that each discipline constructs relationships, particularly spatio-temporal relationships, according to these terms. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is organized into two parts and uses architectural criticism and philosophical analysis. The first part examines how second-order cybernetics and post-structuralist architectural design processes share these principles. Drawing from von Foerster’s theory of the “observing observer” it analyses the self-reflexive and self-referential modes of production that construct a collaborative architectural design project. Part two examines the terms in relation to Leibniz’s account of the “Monad”. Briefly, developing the discussion through Kant’s theory of aesthetics, it shows that Leibniz provides a “prototype” of undecidable spatial relations that are also present in architectural design and second-order cybernetics. Findings: The paper demonstrates that second-order cybernetics, architectural design and metaphysical philosophy enable interdisciplinary understandings of “undecidability”. Practical implications: The paper seeks to improve understanding of the geometric processes that construct architectural design. Originality/value – The paper explores interdisciplinary connections between the disciplines, opening up potential routes for further examination Its analysis of the aesthetic and geometric value of the Monad (rather than its perspectival value) provides a particularly relevant link for discussing the aesthetic production and experience of spatial relations in second-order cybernetics and contemporary architectural design.

Key words: Cybernetics, design, architecture, geometry