Living systems to the test of formation: Von Foerster and the construction of the subject

The intent of this work contribution is proposing a key to interpret, today, the positions of Heinz von Foerster, both for the role of the knowing subject, both for the strategies that support his cybernetics. We want to pay attention both to the enduring formative validity of constructivism in its enhancement of the qualities of the individual, observer, and builder of knowledge and to support for a radical innovation of the discourse on science, with a perspective of the culture of complexity. On this terrain his research intersects with other authors, from Piaget to Bateson, from Ceccato to von Glasersfeld, frequently ignored by “official” science. von Foerster, coming from the “hard” sciences, felt the need for a new epistemology, open to comparison with other knowledge, like human sciences which, increasingly, during the twentieth century, went in search of their own autonomy of method, a supportive ethics of research.