Kybernetes: Volume 34 Issue 3/4

Preface: founder of the second order

To preface Part II of the special issue focusing on the work of Heinz von Foerster.

Introduction: continuing the magic

Presents an “in memoriam” tribute to Heinz von Foerster.

Who was von Foerster, anyway?

What is therapy? Which would be today Heinz von Foerster's answer? The authors try to unveil the mystery of an answer coming from a conversation among them. They think that Heinz…

I see that I see: a hero's impact on a family therapist

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the influence of the late Heinz von Foerster in the life of an admirer and friend who remains a leader in the field of family therapy.

Heinz von Foerster and my brief therapy work at the MRI

An attempt was made to establish a link between brief therapy à la MRI and Heinz von Foerster's view of how we might conceive of and live in the world of our creation, at least in…

On being cybernetic

To provide personal memories of the work of Heinz von Foerster.

When the diagnosis “invents” the illness

This paper develops from the constructivistic premise that our reality is a computation rather than a representation. Provides a constructive critique on the rigid…

Confessions of a cybernetic epistemologist

To determine the influence of cybernetics and systemic thinking on psychotherapy from a personal viewpoint.

Observing systems and psychotherapy: what I owe to Heinz von Foerster

To consider how the approach and work of Heinz von Foerster, among others, can aid psychotherapists.

Heinz von Foerster: the withoutist

To write about Heinz von Foerster: to interpret him, to describe his real thoughts, to be “a foersterist”.

The challenge of “And” – tolerating the undecidable

This paper has the purpose of discussing the phenomenon of two competing positions, which appear in philosophy and psychology in a similar way, and the emerging possibilities when…

The responsibility of the social worker: ethical implications of theory and practice

To focus on the topic of ethics and responsibility, specifically on the ethical action of the social worker.

Second‐order cybernetics! In systemic management thinking?

The following contribution tries to answer the question of whether the management theory's interpretation of cybernetics has something to do with second‐order cybernetics, or in…

Self‐responsibility. Thoughts to the education of our management elites

How responsible is the management elite for the so‐called “world‐problems”, e.g. like “the scandalous economic scissors between north and south”, population growth and food…

Systemic inquiry – exploring organisations

Change management approaches and attempts of organisational development often fail. In search of business excellence, best practice managers and consultants overestimate the value…

Observing observers. Von Foerster, Luhmann, and management thinking

The paper discusses possible implications of Heinz von Foerster's notion of second‐order cybernetics for management thinking. The purpose of this paper is to outline challenges of…

Teaching and testing the understanding of literature: A continued dialogue with Heinz von Foerster

To apply Heinz von Foerster's ideas on learning and testing to the teaching of literature in German higher education.

Learning how to learn

Some of Heinz von Foerster's central topics of reflection (the crucial role of the observer, the admission of the autonomy of the knowing subject, the rejection of all absolute…

Heinz von Foerster in the art department. A collide‐oscope in four parts

To provide illumination of how systems tend to produce an output nobody expected. It is in these moments that observers may learn something about their own expectations.

Feedback and music: you provide the noise, the order comes by itself

To provide an insight into the work of sound artists who use feedback to create music based on Heinz von Foerster's “order from noise” principle.

Systemics: the social aspects of cybernetics

Conceptual discussion of central viewpoints of Heinz von Foerster including parallels to the thinking of Gregory Bateson. Application to systems theory and social problems.

Trivial and non‐trivial machines in the animal and in man

It was the aim to apply basic epistemological concepts, as presented by Heinz von Foerster, to current problems of medicine and biology.

Recursion, reiterations and remarkableness: An ontogenetic approach to a theory of the observer

A deeper understanding of cognitive development in the situation of a neither‐nor‐dilemma is the purpose of this paper.

Analog, digital, and the cybernetic illusion

To reconstruct the way in which the difference of analog vs digital was introduced in the 1940s and to investigate why this difference was so fundamental to the whole cybernetic…

The human face of cybernetics: Heinz von Foerster and the history of a movement that failed…

To discuss the concept of cybernetics, and to point out its complexities.

Forget the observer: the presence, the paradox and self‐reference

The purpose is to offer a systemic perspective how our (understanding of) logic, language, and the world could be altered to create a new kind of science and communication.

Phantoms really exist – don't they?

To discuss the concept of phantom reality.

WOSC

Special double issue: Heinz von Foerster in memorium – Part II