Please join the Humanities Center at 4pm on Tuesday, April 18, in our gathering space on the 2nd Floor of Weeks Hall for a talk by visiting Fulbright scholar Maxim Miroshnichenko, "Reflexivity and Conflict: Is there a Place for Vladimir Lefebvre’s Reflexive Analysis in Second-Order Cybernetics?"
Talk Description:
As social systems theorist Niklas Luhmann noted, the natural sciences became self-reflexive during the second half of the 20th century. That is to say, they become concerned with objects that observe themselves. The contributions of such thinkers as Heinz von Foerster, Francisco Varela, Ernst von Glasersfeld, and others are particularly interesting from this transdisciplinary standpoint. My talk examines the relevance of Soviet-American psychologist Vladimir Lefebvre's analysis of reflexivity in the context of the second-order cybernetics movement. His version of the reflexive turn developed a formal psychophenomenology that centers on reflexive systems' "inner worlds" and their symbolic descriptions. The question I will explore in this talk is how Lefebvre - an outsider and half-forgotten figure - can be reintroduced into the international context of cybernetic and neocybernetic theory. I will compare what he called his “algebra of awareness” to other second-order cybernetic solutions to the problem of self-reference explored in self-reproducing systems of consciousness/awareness.
Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to humanitiescenter@ttu.edu by Monday, April 17.
