Ernst von Glasersfeld (March 8, 1917,Munich – November 12, 2010,Leverett,Franklin County, Massachusetts) was aphilosopher, andemeritus professor ofpsychology at theUniversity of Georgia, research associate at theScientific Reasoning Research Institute, and adjunct professor in the Department of Psychology at theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. He was a member of the board of trustees of theAmerican Society for Cybernetics, from which he received theMcCulloch Memorial Award in 1991. He was a member of the scientific board of theInstituto Piaget,Lisbon. Glasersfeld is known for the development ofradical constructivism.
Glasersfeld was born inMunich, where his father, Leopold, worked as acultural attaché in Vienna before going into photography after World War I. He was a student of mathematics at theUniversity of Vienna before having to move out because of theNazi threat, considering that hisPan-European family (they subscribed to the ideology ofRichard von Coudenhove-Kalergi) was known to be "enemies of any form of nationalism" and his grandfather wasJewish (a convert toRoman Catholicism).[1]
The younger Glasersfeld thus spent large parts of his life in Ireland (1940s), in Italy (1950s) where he worked withSilvio Ceccato, and in the United States. He graduated fromLyceum Alpinum Zuoz, a Swiss boarding school.[2] He studied and elaborated upon the work ofGiambattista Vico,Jean Piaget'sgenetic epistemology,Bishop Berkeley's theory of perception,James Joyce'sFinnegans Wake, and other important texts. Von Glasersfeld developed his model ofradical constructivism, which is anethos shared by all of these writers to one degree or another.
The Ernst von Glasersfeld Archive, part of theResearch Institute Brenner-Archiv at the University of Innsbruck, maintains the literary estate and also organizes the Ernst von Glasersfeld Lectures. The literary executors areTheo Hug andJosef Mitterer.
On the occasion of Ernst von Glasersfeld's 100th birthday in 2017, the international conference "Radical Constructivism – Past, Present and Future" took place at the University of Innsbruck.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
