This paper summarizes recent attempts by this author to create a transdisciplinary, non-Cartesian and non-reductionistic framework for information studies in natural, social, and technological systems. To confront, in a scientific way, the problems of modern information technology where phenomenological man is dealing with socially constructed texts in algorithmically based digital bit-machines we need a theoretical framework spanning from physics over biology and technological design to phenomenological and social production of signification and meaning. I am working with such pragmatic theories as second order cybernetics (coupled with autopolesis theory), Lakoffs biologically oriented cognitive semantics, Peirce’s triadic semiotics, and Wittgenstein’s pragmatic language game theory. A coherent synthesis of these theories is what the cybersemiotic framework attempts to accomplish.

Key words: cybersemiotics, information science, second order cybernetics, autopoiesis, triadic sign

This paper is a brief report on the issue of extension of the concept of autopoiesis to social systems. The arguments developed by four groups of authors to bring a response to that issue are summarized: Maturana and Varela, the fathers of the concept of autopoieis; Zeleny & Hufford who proposed a simple extension of the concept to social systems; Luhmann and Hejel with two different transformations of the concept; Morgan and his metaphorical perspective. The determinist vs teleological conception of (social) autopoiesis explicitly or implicitly sustained by several authors is emphasized.

Key words: social systems, autopoiesis, teleology, functionalism.

In the Western world we have become accustomed to thinking of the body as a purely physical entity, which is separate from the mind and from culture. There are many debates about whether culture affects the body and, if it does so, in what ways and to what extent. However, in this piece I want to explore some of the ways in which the body has been seen as a social construction; that is, as a malleable organism which is open to reformation through its location within historically variable social relations. My position will be slightly different to recent varieties of social constructionism which focus on the discursive production of bodies and, following Foucault, see the body as a surface for textual inscription. From this standpoint the body is theorized as disciplined, regulated and turned into the subject of power. Instead of the metaphor of textual inscription, I want to consider the ways in which the body is made active by social relations: that is, how it is brought into being and mobilized by its positioning in the interweaving networks of interdependence. In this, I adopt a similar outlook to Hirst and Woolley (1982) who argue that social relations have a decisive influence on human attributes, which cannot be characterized as either natural or social, but are both: human attributes are socio-natural. I also share their view that social relations need not form one interconnected whole, but may be fragmentary and disparate (1982: 24). This means that bodily dispositions and capacities will not be uniform or even within cultures, because within any group we will find people of different characters, skills, beliefs or abilities, due largely to the varied influence of social relations upon them.

Review of: Andy Clark (1997) Being There: Putting Brain, Body and World Together Again. MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts. xiii+267pp. ISBN 0-262-03240-6. Price: $US12 pbk.

Key words: artificial intelligence, dynamical systems theory, embodiment, autonomous agents, artificial life, mental repesentation, metaphysics.

Excerpt: Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? The question invites two standard replies. Some accept the boundaries of skin and skull, and say that what is outside the body is outside the mind. Others are impressed by arguments suggesting that the meaning of our words ‘just ain’t in the head’, and hold that this externalism about meaning carries over into an externalism about mind. We propose to pursue a third position. We advocate a very different sort of externalism: an active externalism, based on the active role of the environment in driving cognitive processes.

Excerpt: For the past six years we, together with Erna Yackel and Terry Wood, have conducted a classroom-based research and development project in elementary school mathematics.’ In this paper, we draw on our experiences of collaborating with teachers and of analyzing what might be happening in their classrooms to consider three interrelated issues. First, we argue that the teacher and students together create a classroom mathematics tradition or microculture and that this profoundly influences students’ mathematical activity and learning. Sample episodes are used to clarify the distinction between the school mathematics tradition in which the teacher acts as the sole mathe-matical authority and the inquiry mathematics tradition in which the teacher and students together constitute a community of validators. Second, we consider the theoretical and pragmatic tensions inherent in the view that mathematical learning is both a process of individual cognitive construction and a process of acculturation into the mathematical practices of wider society. In the course of the discussion, we contrast constructivist attempts to cope with this tension with approaches proposed by sociocultural theorists. Finally, we use the preceding issues as a backdrop against which to consider the development of instructional activities that might be appropriate for inquiry mathematics classrooms.

Excerpt: In this chapter, I have argued that radical constructivist interpretations of constructivism differ from other interpretations in that radical constructivism is an epistemological theory based in viability. It is suggested that viability commits one to the expectation of and support for diversity in the classroom. Moreover, it obliges the radical constructivist to also reinterpret the mathematical meaning of concepts in light of the students’ inventions. To do this effectively, the radical constructivist must learn techniques of close listening and follow these by the articulation of student voice and the examination of the changes in his or her own perspective. It is the “voice-perspective” relationship which makes radical constructivism capable of deep reform in mathematics instruction.