The Observer Story: Heinz von Foerster's Heritage

Heinz von Foerster has taught us that, basically, the history of modern epistemology might be (re-)written as the story of the observer. This story primarily deals with the consequences of the insight that whatever is said is said by an observer to another observer. And this story deals with the observer conceived of as an active agent who does not observe from outside in a neutral way but who is always enmeshed in the process of observation. Observations operate on the basis of distinctions. These distinctions are the distinctions of the observer and not those of the environment or the reality. Observations always have a blind spot, because during the process of observation the observation conditions cannot be observed at the same time. And if you want to know how observing works, Heinz von Foerster states, then observe how an observer observes. Historically seen, Kant, Nietzsche, Vaihinger, Simmel, Cassirer, Fleck, and many others have contributed their special chapters to the observer-story whose main narrators in the last two decades have become the so-called (radical or systems theoretical) constructivists. The main question in this discourse is: How do observing systems operate, and what follows from the shift of interest from the what to the how of knowledge production by observers?