Ernst von Glaserfeld

b 1917 in Munich (D), Glasersfeld studied mathematics in Zurich (CH). Beginning 1947, he worked as a journalist in Italy, where he took part in the activities of the group «The Italian Operationistic School» and later worked as a research assistant at the Center for Cybernetics in Milan. In 1970 he was a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Georgia (USA). His interests in computer linguistics led to his many years of study at the Anthropology Institute, where he researched the language acquisition of chimpanzees. Confronting Piaget’s Theory led Glasersfeld to the theory of constructivism. He is considered the founder of radical constructivism, which concerns itself with the key questions of experiencing reality and relies solely on the construction of knowledge and meaning based on the world of experiences. Since his retirement, he researches in the Physics Department of the Science Reasoning Research Institute in Massachusetts (USA). Among his many publications is the book «Knowledge, Language and Reality. Working Towards Radical Constructivism» (1987).