Il Cognitivismo Costruttivista

Michael J. Mahoney (1946-2006):

According to Thomas Kuhn, science progresses by means of 'essential tensions' expressed at the boundaries of tradition and revolution. Shortly before he died, Kuhn (2000) made it clear that many popular renditions of his work had missed the point. The essential tension that he had spent a lifetime trying to understand was not the one popularized as a standoff between dogmatic theoretical conservatives and liberal anarchists. Nor was it a linear sequence of normal science disturbed by revolutionaries who - when triumphant - imposed their own norms on the subsequent cycle of history. Kuhn's central insight was made much clearer in his final book, which was published posthumously. Scientific revolutions, he said, are born in and through dynamic changes in the everyday activities of language communities. The process is often more subtle than simple, and its power is pervasive. Kuhn saw that language is a key medium of imaginary exchange. Changes in how we use language about our worlds can reflect as well as contribute to changes we are bringing about in those worlds.
Few disciplines have changed as much or as rapidly as psychology. Even a cursory glance will reveal its robust differentiation and growth in a period of less than two centuries. The definitions of the discipline itself have undergone massive shifts. Originally defined as the science of consciousness, psychology was redefined as the science of behavior in the early half of the 20th century. That shift was part of an explicit mission launched by John B. Watson and elaborated by B. F. Skinner. Following the cognitive revolution at mid-century, basic textbooks began to render definitions that dilated again toward the more inclusive end of the spectrum. Contemporary definitions often include not only cognitive, behavioral, and emotional elements, but also biological, social, and even spiritual dimensions. The language communities that constitute the discipline are showing signs of dialectics and development.
One expression of the changing language in psychology is the increasing use of terms that express constructive dimensions. The words "construct" and "construction" have been in use for centuries, of course. But "constructivism" is a relatively new word. Yet it is appearing with an accelerating frequency in the titles of books and articles in psychology.
The verb "to construct" comes from the Latin con struere, which means to arrange or give structure. Ongoing structuring (organizing) processes are the conceptual heart of constructivism. Among the earliest recorded proponents of some form of constructivism are Lao Tzu (6th century BC), Buddha (560-477 BC), and the philosopher of endless change, Heraclitus (540-475 BC). In western cultures, constructivists often trace their intellectual genealogy to Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), and Hans Vaihinger (1852-1933). Vico had emphasized the role of fantasy and myth in human adaptation. Kant emphasized the power of patterns in our thinking, and he regarded ideas as regulative principles in our experiencing. His "categories" were predecessors of what are now called "constructs" and "schema."
In 1876 Hans Vaihinger elaborated some of Kant's ideas. In The Philosophy of "As If," Vaihinger argued that the primary purpose of mind and mental processes is not to portray or mirror reality, but to serve individuals in their navigations through life circumstances. Vaihinger said that we live our lives by means of "functional fictions." This idea would form the cornerstone of Alfred Adler's theory of individual psychology. Vaihinger's work would also influence the later writings of `personal construct' theorist George Kelly. William James also explored several constructivist themes, and he and several colleagues carried the curiosity of constructivism across the transition from the 19th to the 20th centuries.
Drawing on the dynamic view of learning described by Johann Herbart (1776-1841), Jean Piaget developed a model of cognitive development in which balance was central. Piaget described knowing as a quest for a dynamic balance between what is familiar and what is novel. He noted that we organize our worlds by organizing ourselves. This theme of developmental self-organization pervades constructive views of human experience. A powerful theoretical presentation of constructivism was offered in Friedrich A. Hayek's (1952) book, The Sensory Order. In this treatise, Hayek showed that “much that we believe to know about the external world is, in fact, knowledge about ourselves.” He was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1974.
Constructivism continued to grow throughout the second half of the 20th century, and it is now the focus of numerous books and two international journals. The rapidity of its growth has sometimes made constructivism seem like a recent development, when in fact it has been emerging for centuries. In 1996 the Society for Constructivism in the Human Sciences was formed to encourage and communicate developments in theory, research, and practices that reflect an appreciation for "human beings as actively complex, socially-embedded, and developmentally dynamic self-organizing systems." Honored contributors to this Society include Walter Truett Anderson, Albert Bandura, Jerome S. Bruner, James F. T. Bugental, Donald H. Ford, Viktor E. Frankl, Kenneth J. Gergen, Vittorio F. Guidano, Hermann Haken, Yutaka Haruki, Humberto R. Maturana, Joseph F. Rychlak, Francisco J. Varela, Heinz von Foerster, Ernst von Glasersfeld, and Walter B. Weimer. Besides psychology, psychiatry, and medicine, this list includes scholars from biology, history, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, physics, and political science. Constructivism is clearly more than a parochial endeavor. But what, exactly, is constructivism? Five basic themes pervade the diversity of theories expressing constructivism.
These themes are (1) active agency, (2) order, (3) self, (4) social-symbolic relatedness, and (5) lifespan development. With different language and terminological preferences, constructivists have proposed, first, that human experiencing involves continuous active agency. This distinguishes constructivism from forms of determinism that cast humans as passive pawns in the play of larger forces. Second comes the contention that much human activity is devoted to ordering processes – the organizational patterning of experience by means of tacit, emotional meaning-making processes. In a third common contention, constructivists argue that the organization of personal activity is fundamentally self-referent or recursive. This makes the body a fulcrum of experiencing, and it honors a deep phenomenological sense of selfhood or personal identity. But the self is not an isolated island of Cartesian mentation. Persons exist and grow in living webs of relationships.
(died unexpectedly in his home on May 31, 2006)

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