Ernst von Glasersfeld

Ernst von Glasersfeld (March 8, 1917 in Munich – November 12, 2010 in Leverett, Franklin County, Massachusetts) was a philosopher, and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Georgia, Research Associate at the Scientific Reasoning Research Institute, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was a member of the Board of Trustees, American Society of Cybernetics, from which he received the McCulloch Memorial Award in 1991. He was a member of the Scientific Board, Instituto Piaget, Lisbon.

Von Glasersfeld coined the term radical constructivism and spent large parts of his life in Ireland (1940s), in Italy (1950s) where he worked with Silvio Ceccato, and in the US. Elaborating upon Giambattista Vico, Jean Piaget's genetic epistemology, Bishop Berkeley's theory of perception, James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, and other important texts, von Glasersfeld developed his model of Radical Constructivism, which is an ethos shared by all of these writers to one degree or another.

Honors and awards

1991: Warren McCulloch Memorial Award of the American Society for Cybernetics
1997: Honorary doctorate of the University of Klagenfurt
2002: Reconnaissance du Mérite scientifique of the University of Quebec
2005: The Wiener Gold Medal of the American Society for Cybernetics
2005: Gregory Bateson-award of the Heidelberg Institute for Systemic Research e.V.
2007: Journal of constructivist foundations honoured him on his 90th birthday with a Festschrift Glasersfeld
2007: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class^[1]
2008: Honorary doctorate of the University of Innsbruck
2009: Honorary Medal of the City of Vienna in gold

Vienna, 2008, photograph by Christian Michelides

Glasersfeld, E. von, (2001) The radical constructivist view of science. In: A. Riegler (Ed.),Foundations of Science, special issue on "The Impact of Radical Constructivism on Science", vol.6, no. 1–3: 31–43.
Glasersfeld, E. von (1989). “Cognition, Construction of Knowledge and Teaching.” Synthese, 80(1),121-140.
Glasersfeld, E. von (1990). “Environment and Education.” In L.P. Steffe & T. Wood (eds.),Transforming Children’s Mathematics Education: International Perspectives, (pp. 200–215). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Glasersfeld, E. von (1992). “Questions and Answers About Radical Constructivism.” In M.K. Pearsall(ed.), Scope, Sequence, and Coordination of Secondary Schools Science, Vol. 11, Relevant Research, (pp. 169–182). Washington DC: NSTA.

This biography of a German philosopher is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This article about a psychologist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.