CFP: Special Issue of Constructivist Foundations: Second-order Science

Special Issue of Constructivist Foundations to be published November 2014

Edited by Karl H. Mueller and Alexander Riegler

Deadline for submissions: 15 May 2014

Traditional science excludes the observer in an effort to manufacture objectivity -- a strategy that worked well in the age of classical sciences. Many recent research areas such as human cognition and quantum physics, however, call observer-independence into question. Would including the observer in science threaten the firm nature of scientific insight, and is the second-order inclusion of the observer still science?

Historically, the inclusion of the observer was anticipated by the transition from (first-order) cybernetics to second-order cybernetics. While cybernetics (similarly to all of science) was understood as "cybernetics of observed systems," Heinz von Foerster et al. pressed for a second-order cybernetics that is defined as the "cybernetics of observing systems" (which became one of the unifying themes across constructivist approaches).

A second motivation for second-order science is domain-specific. Second-order science can be introduced as the science of science or as a science that operates on the products of normal or first-order science. Tests of clinical tests, evaluations of already available evaluations, models of models, cybernetics of cybernetics or sociology of sociology and many other self-reflexive issues can be viewed as the domain of second-order science.

Both motivations are strictly independent from one another. In principle, it is possible to work on an issue of second-order science with traditional and objective methods, leaving the observer outside the realm of investigation. Likewise, observer-inclusive research can be pursued in a typical topic of normal or first-order research.
The general aim of this special issue is to investigate whether well-defined methods and procedures can be defined for second-order science that are both self-reflexive with respect to their domain and observer-inclusive. It is our goal that the research outputs of second-order science can be examined through peer review, just as traditional science can. Our target is to provide a comprehensive overview of the potential of the new set of approaches to second-order science. Therefore, contributors to the special issue are invited to address the following critical questions: * What are the comparative advantages of observer-inclusive approaches for first- and second-order science?
* Which type of knowledge can be produced by shifting to second-order domains?
* What are the effects of second-order science on first-order research?
* Can one find methods of second-order science outside second-order cybernetics and outside constructivist approaches in general that can be adopted or accommodated by constructivist approaches?
* What is the special role and function of second-order cybernetics for second-order science?

Article submissions
If you are interested in contributing to the issue, please let us know in your Expressions of Interest whether you intend to submit a scholarly paper and/or whether you want to contribute actively to the discussion with an Open Peer Commentary.

Expressions of interest should reach us by 15 February 2014. If you submit a paper, provide us with a short abstract of the topic you intend to write about. Submission of the full paper (in English) is due 15 May 2014. It is followed by a double-blind review that all submitted papers must undergo, including invited contributions. In the case of conditional acceptance, time will be allocated for the revisions requested. The special issue will be published in the November 2014 issue of Constructivist Foundations. This will be also the first issue in the 10th anniversary year of the journal.
Please follow the guidelines at http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/guidelines

For your convenience, a Word template is available at http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/journal/guidelines/template.doc

Note that all publications are subject to anonymous (yet constructive) peer reviewing. Declarations of interest in contributing, paper submissions, and all further inquiries should be sent to the editors at [email protected]  

Timetable
15 February 2014: Expressions of interest
15 May 2014: Submission deadline for papers
1 August 2014: Revised papers due
1 October 2014: Open Peer Commentaries due
15 November 2014: Publication

About the journal
Constructivist Foundations (ISSN 1782-348X) is a scholarly peer-reviewed e-journal concerned with the critical interdisciplinary study of constructivist and related approaches to science and philosophy. It is indexed in the ISI Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) and Current Contents/Arts & Humanities. In Scopus's journal ranking it ranks 23rd among journals in history and philosophy of science, and 98th in philosophy in general. Currently, the journal has more than 7,000 subscribers. Constructivist Foundations does not ask for author processing charges and is free for its readers.