ALEXANDER RIEGLER


Affiliations | Alumni | Research | Publications | Talks | Oher Scientific Activities | Teaching

Affiliations

Alumni
  • Department of Theoretical Biology, University of Vienna (Austria)
  • Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Zurich (Switzerland)

Research

My areas of interest include (1) cognitive science (in particular representation and anticipation), (2) philosophy of science (in particular computational approaches and social epistemology), and (3) artificial life (in particular post-Darwinian approaches in evolutionary theory).

My objective is to establish a conceptual constructivist framework that brings together and integrates the various lines of thought with regard to the following facets: (1) A better understanding of concepts pertaining to knowledge, rational thinking, and nonconscious cognition in order to identify their similarities and differences. (2) The evolution of cognitive structures based on the modularity approach to biological complexity. (3) Bringing together various disciplines in order to take advantage from their cross-fertilization and dissemination potential.

Furthermore, I am the editor-in-chief of Constructivist Foundations (CF, ISSN 1782-348X), an independent academic peer-reviewed e-journal. Its aim is to promote interdisciplinary scientific foundations and applications of constructivist sciences such as radical constructivism, cybersemiotics, enactive cognitive science, epistemic structuring of experience, non-dualistic philosophy, second order cybernetics, and the theory of autopoietic systems.

Publications

57.Riegler, A. & Weber, S. (eds.) (2010) Die Dritte Philosophie. Kritische Beiträge zu Josef Mitterers Dualismuskritik. Velbrück Wissenschaft: Weilerswist, in preparation.
56.Riegler, A. (2010) Radikal anders: Gründe gegen einen naturalistischen oder idealistischen Radikalen Konstruktivismus. In: Rusch, G. (ed.) Neuer Konstruktivismus. Carl-Auer: Heidelberg (in press).
55.Riegler, A. (2009) Die Konstruktion des Neuen. APA Zukunft Wissen. Special Feature "Innovating Innovation - wie kommt das Neue in die Welt?"
54.Riegler, A. (2009) The arrival of the fittest: Evolution of novelty from a cybernetic perspective. In: Wallis, S. E. (ed.) Cybernetics and systems theory in management: Tools, views and advancements. IGI Global, in press.
53.Riegler, A. & Douven, I. (2009) Extending the Hegselmann–Krause Model III: From single beliefs to complex belief states. Episteme 6(2): 145–163.
52.Riegler, A. & Douven, I. (2009) Extending the Hegselmann–Krause Model II. In: Kijania-Placek, K. (ed.) Proceedings of ECAP6. College Publications: London, in press.
51.Douven, I. & Riegler, A. (2009) Extending the Hegselmann-Krause Model I. The Logic Journal of the IGPL, in press.
50.Riegler, A. (2008) Natural or internal selection? The case of canalization in complex evolutionary systems. Artificial Life 14(3): 345-362.
49.Riegler, A. (2008) Wirklichkeit. In: Farzin, S. & Jordan, S. (eds.) Lexikon Soziologie und Sozialtheorie. Hundert Grundbegriffe. Reclam: Stuttgart, pp. 322-324.
48.Riegler, A. (2008) The paradox of autonomy: The interaction between humans and autonomous cognitive artifacts. In: Dodig-Crnkovic, G. & Susan Stuart, S. (eds.) Computing, philosophy, and cognitive science. The nexus and the liminal. Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Cambridge, pp. 292-301.
47.Riegler, A. & Weber, S. (2008) Non-dualizing from now on? Constructivist Foundations 3(3): 120-122.
46.Riegler, A. & Weber, S. (eds.) (2008) Special Issue "The Non-dualizing philosophy of Josef Mitterer". Constructivist Foundations 3(3).
45.Glanville, R. & Riegler, A. (2007) Editorial: Ninety years of constructing. Constructivist Foundations 2 (2-3): 2-4.
44.Glanville, R. & Riegler, A. (eds.) (2007) Festschrift for Ernst von Glasersfeld at the occasion of his 90th birthday. Constructivist Foundations 2(2-3). Enlarged edition reprinted as: Glanville, R. & Riegler, A. (eds.) The importance of being Ernst. Echoraum: Vienna.
43.Riegler, A. (2007) Is Glasersfeld's constructivism a dangerous intellectual tendency? In: Glanville, R. & Riegler, A. (eds.) The importance of being Ernst. Echoraum: Vienna, pp. 263-275.
42.Riegler, A. (2007) Superstition in the machine. In: Butz, M. V. et al. (eds.) Anticipatory behavior in adaptive learning systems: From brains to individual and social behavior. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer: New York, pp. 57-72.
41.Riegler, A. (2007) The radical constructivist dynamics of cognition. In: Wallace, B. (ed.) The Mind, the Body and the World: Psychology After Cognitivism? Imprint: London, pp. 91-115.
40.Riegler, A. (2007) The impact of the interdisciplinary radical constructivist framework on cognitive research. In: Vanchevsky, M. A. (ed.) Focus on cognitive psychology research. Nova Science Publishers: Hauppauge, NY, pp. 153-170.
39.Riegler, A. (2006) Is a closed-loop discovery system feasible? In: Magnani, L. (ed.) Computing and philosophy. Associated International Academic Publishers: Pavia, pp. 141-149.
38.Riegler, A. (2006) The goose, the fly, and the submarine navigator: The case for interdisciplinarity in artificial cognition research. In: Loula, A., Gudwin, R. & Queiroz, J. (eds.) Artificial cognition systems. Idea Group Publishing: Hershey, PA, pp. 1-26. Reprinted in: Sugumaran, V. (ed.) (2008) Intelligent information technologies, pp. 1636-1657.
37.Riegler, A. (2005) Editorial. The constructivist challenge. Constructivist Foundations 1(1): 1-8.
36.Riegler, A. (2005) Constructive memory. Kybernetes 34 (1/2): 89-104.
35.Riegler, A. (2005) Cognitive systems do not pick up knowledge from the environment. In: Russell, A. et al. (eds.) Proceedings of AMKLC'05. International symposium on adaptive models of knowledge, language and cognition. Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland, pp. 1-7.
34.Riegler, A. (2005) Act always so as to increase the number of scientific perspectives. Introduction to the Heinz von Foerster volume. Kybernetes 34 (1/2): 6-14.
33.Riegler, A. (2005) Like cats and dogs: Radical constructivism and evolutionary epistemology. In: Evolutionary epistemology, language and culture: A non-adaptationist, systems theoretical approach. Springer-Verlag: Dordrecht, pp.47-65.
32.Riegler, A. (2005) Konstruierte oder konstruierende Seele? Gedanken zum Seelebegriff aus kognitiv-konstruktivistischer Perspektive. In: Peschl, F. (ed.) Die Rolle der Seele in der Kognitionswissenschaft und der Neurowissenschaft. Auf der Suche nach dem Substrat der Seele. Königshausen und Neumann: Würzburg, pp. 215-230.
31.Riegler, A. (2005) Inclusive worldviews: Interdisciplinary research from a radical constructivist perspective. In: Aerts, D., D'Hooghe, B. & Note, N. (eds.) Worldviews, science and us: Redemarcating knowledge and its social and ethical implications. World Scientific: Singapore.
30.Riegler, A. (2005) Der Radikale Konstruktivismus als historistische Netzwerktheorie. In: Stadler, F. & Stöltner, M. (eds.) Proceedings of the 28th International Wittgenstein Symposium.
29.Riegler, A. (2005) Decision-making and anticipations: Why Buridani's ass is an unlikely creature. In: Smit, I., Wallach, W. & Lasker, G. E. (eds.) Cognitive, emotive and ethical aspects of decision making in humans and in AI. Volume IV. Windsor, Canada: The International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics, pp. 35-40.
28.Riegler, A. (ed.) (2005) Heinz von Foerster. Double special issue of Kybernetes 34(1/2).
27.Riegler, A. (2004) Turing's choice: Human and artificial volition. First global conference, "Artificial intelligence: Exploring critical issues."
26.Riegler, A. & Pajeva, D. A. (2004) The phenomenological-constructivist approach to interdisciplinary inquiry. In: Milutinovic, V. (ed.) International conference on advances in internet, processing, systems, and interdisciplinary research. CD-ROM publication
25.Riegler, A. (2003) Whose anticipations? In: Butz, M., Sigaud, O., and Gerard, P. (eds) Anticipatory behavior in adaptive learning systems: Foundations, theories, and systems. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer-Verlag: Dordrecht, pp. 11-22.
24.Riegler, A. (2003) Memory ain't no fridge: A constructivist interpretation of constructive memory In: Kokinov, B. and Hirst, W. (eds) Constructive memory. NBU Series in Cognitive Science: Sofia, pp. 277-289.
23.Riegler, A. (2002) When is a cognitive system embodied? Cognitive Systems Research, special issue on "Situated and Embodied Cognition" 3:339-348.
22.Riegler, A. (2002) A better world. Karl Jaspers Forum: An electronic journal for target articles TA40 C4
21.Broeker, M. & Riegler, A. (eds.) (2001) Human becoming – becoming human. Festschrift for Heinz von Foerster. http://www.univie.ac.at/consructivism/HvF/festschrift/
20.Peschl, M. P. & Riegler, A. (2001) Virtual science. Virtuality and knowledge acquisition in science and cognition. In: Riegler, A. et al. (eds.) Virtual reality. Peter Lang Verlag: Frankfurt/M., pp. 9-32.
19.Riegler, A. (2001) Towards a radical constructivist understanding of science. Foundations of Science, special issue on "The Impact of Radical Constructivism on Science" 6(1-3): 1-30.
18.Riegler, A. (2001) The role of anticipation in cognition. In: Dubois, D. M. (ed.) Computing anticipatory systems. Proceedings of the American Institute of Physics 573, pp. 534-541.
17.Riegler, A. (2001) The cognitive ratchet. The ratchet effect as a fundamental principle in evolution and cognition. Cybernetics and Systems 32 (3-4): 411-427.
16.Riegler, A. (ed.) (2001) The impact of radical constructivism on science. Part 1: The Paradigm, biology and cognition. Special issue of Foundations of Science 6(1–3).
15.Riegler, A. (ed.) (2001) The impact of radical constructivism on science. Part 2: Physics, reasoning and learning. Special issue of Foundations of Science 6(4).
14.Riegler, A., Peschl, M., Edlinger, K., Fleck, G. & Feigl, W. (eds.) (2001) Virtual reality: Cognitive foundations, technological issues & philosophical implications. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
13.Riegler, A. (2000) Asymmetry of behavior and evolution. In: Trappl, R. (ed) Cybernetics and systems 2000. Vienna: Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies, pp. 211-214.
12.Riegler, A. (2000) Können wir das Problem der Echtzeitkognition lösen? In: Edlinger, K., Feigl, W. & Fleck, G. (eds) Reduktion - Spiel - Kreation. Probleme des molekularbiologischen Reduktionismus und des Künstlichen Lebens. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, pp. 48-59.
11.Riegler, A. (2000) Moving on with constructivism. Karl Jaspers Forum: An electronic journal for target articles TA24 C15.
10.Heylighen, F., Bollen, J. & Riegler, A. (eds.) (1999) The evolution of complexity. Kluwer: Dordrecht.
9.Peschl, M. & Riegler, A. (1999) Does representation need reality? In: Riegler, A., Peschl, M. & Stein, A. von (1999), pp. 9-17.
8.Riegler, A. Peschl, M. & Stein, A. von (eds.) (1999) Understanding representation in the cognitive sciences. Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers: New York.
7.Riegler, A. (1998) The end of science: Can we overcome cognitive limitations? Evolution & Cognition 4(1): 37-50.
6.Riegler, A. (1997) Ein kybernetisch-konstruktivistisches Modell der Kognition. In: Müller, A, Müller, K. H. & Stadler, F. (eds.) Konstruktivismus und Kognitionswissenschaft. Kulturelle Wurzeln und Ergebnisse. Springer: Wien, New York, pp. 75-88.
5.Riegler, A. (1996) A Cognitive architecture based on Piagetian and radical constructivism. In: Schachner, W. (ed.) Constructivism, interactionism and their applications. Symposium proceedings at the conference “The growing mind. Multidisciplinary approaches.” Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 14–18, 1996.
4.Riegler, A. (1995) CALM – Eine konstruktivistische Kognitionsarchitektur für Artificial Life. In: Dautenhahn, K. et al. (eds.) Proceedings of the workshop “Artificial Life”. GMD Studien No. 271, pp. 73–82.
3.Riegler, A. (1994) Fuzzy interval stack schemata for sensorimotor beings. In: Gaussier, P. & Nicoud, J.-D. (eds.) Proceedings of the from perception to action conference (PerAc94). IEEE Computer Society Press: Los Alamitos, pp. 392–395.
2.Riegler, A. (1994) Constructivist artificial life: The constructivist-anticipatory principle and functional coupling. In: Hopf, J. (ed.) Proceedings of the 18th German conference on artificial intelligence (KI-94). Workshop on genetic algorithms within the framework of evolutionary computation. Max-Planck-Institute Report No. MPI-I-94–241, pp. 73–83.
1.Riegler, A. (1992) Constructivist artificial life, and beyond. In: McMullin, B. (ed.) Proceedings of the workshop on autopoiesis and perception. Dublin City University: Dublin, pp. 121–136.

Talks

28.Invited talk "Constructivist Approaches Revisted" at the First Cybernetic Coalition Symposium, Vienna, 16 November 2008.
27."Extending the Hegselmann-Krause Model" at the Workshop on Computer Simulations in Social Epistemology, Leuven 30 October 2008.
26.Invited talk "Is Glasersfeld's Constructivism a Dangerous Intellectual Tendency?" at the Third International Heinz von Foerster Congress, Vienna, 16–18 November 2007.
25.Invited talk "Constructivist Foundations" at the Second Heinz von Foerster Congress, Vienna, 11-13 November 2005.
24.Invited talk "Past, present and future of (radical) constructivism" at the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) 2005 Conference, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 27-30 October 2005.
23.Talk "Levels of scientific understanding" at the conference Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Understanding, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 25-27 August 2005.
22.Talk "Der Radikale Konstruktivismus als historistische Netzwerktheorie" at the 28th International Wittgenstein Symposium, Kirchberg am Wechsel, Austria, 7-13 August 2005.
21.Talk "Decision making and anticipation: Why Buridani's ass is an unlikely creature" at the Special Focus Symposium on Cognitive, Emotive and Ethical Aspects of Decision-Making in Humans and in AI at the 17th International Conference on Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics (InterSymp-2005) in Baden-Baden, Germany, 3-4 August 2005.
20.Poster presentation "The radical constructivist dynamics of cognition" at the Post-Cognitivist Psychology conference, Univ. of Strathclyde, Glasgow, 4-6 July 2005.
19.Talk "Cognitive systems do not pick up knowledge from the environment" at the Symposium on Adaptive Models of Knowledge, Language and Cognition (AMKLC'05), Helsinki, Finland, 15 June 2005.
18.Talk" The paradox of autonomy: The interaction between humans and autonomous cognitive artifacts at the conference" at Computing and Philosophy (E-CAP2005), Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden, 2-4 June 2005.
17.Invited talk "Radikal anders. Gründe gegen die einen naturalistischen oder idealistischen Radikalen Konstruktivismus" at the "konstruktivismus04. Zum Status Quo des konstruktivistischen Diskurses", University of Siegen, Germany, 2-3 December 2004.
16.Talk Turing's Choice: Human and Artificial Volition 1st Global Conference "Artificial Intelligence: Exploring Critical Issues," 4-6 December 2003, Vienna.
15.Invited Talk Under Construction at the International Heinz von Foerster Congress Knowledge - Organization - Society Wittgenstein-Haus, Vienna, 13-15 November 2003.
14.Talk "The Phenomenological-Constructivist Approach to Interdisciplinary Inquiry" at the conference "Internet, Processing, Systems, Interdisciplinaries" (IPSI 2003), Sveti Stefan, Montenegro, 4-11 October 2003.
13.Talk "Memory Ain't No Fridge: A Constructivist Interpretation of Constructive Memory" at the Advanced Interdisciplinary Workshop on Constructive Memory: Data and Models, Sofia, New Bulgarian University, 12-14 July 2003.
12.Talk "Construction of Arbitrariness and Arbitrariness of Construction" at the Heinz von Foerster Symposium, Vienna, Austria, 13 November 2002.
11.Invited talk Wer konstruiert wirklich? Gedanken zum Seelebegriff aus kognitiv-konstruktivistischer Perspektive [Who constructs really? The notion of "soul" from a cognitive-constructivist perspective] at the fourth "Die Seele" symposium on "Die Rolle der Seele aus der Perspektive der Cognitive Science und des Artificial Life", Vienna, Austria, 10 November 2001.
10.Invited talk Het constructivistische wereldbeeld: Implementatie en consequenties [The Constructivist World View: Implementation and Consequences] at the Centrum voor Logica en Wetenschapsfilosofie, Brussels, Belgium, 8 November 2001.
9.Invited talk Die drei Ebenen der Erkenntnisgewinnung und ihre Beziehung zum Radikalen Konstruktivismus at the Austrian Academy of Science, Vienna, Austria, 20 April 2001.
8.Invited talk Science from a Radical Constructivist Point of View at the University of Freiburg, Germany, 22 August 2000.
7.(Invited) talk Is the Mind Weakly or Strongly Anticipatory? at the Fourth International Conference on Computing Anticipatory Systems (CASYS'2000), 9 August 2000 in Liege, Belgium.
6.Talk "Machines As Scientists?" at the 6th Congress of the Austrian Society of Philosophy, Linz, Austria, 3 June 2000.
5.Invited talk "Evolution oder Fortschritt von Kognition?" at the Austrian Research Institute of Artificial Intelligence, 31 May 2000.
4.Invited talk "Können wir das Problem der Echtzeitkognition lösen?" at the symposium "Artificial Life: Organismisch-systemische Perspektiven künstlichen Lebens" in Vienna, Austria, 24 April 1999.
3.Invited talk "A Computational Model for Popper's Searchlight View On Mind" at the Philosophy and Moral Science Department of the University of Ghent, Belgium, 26 Jan 1999.
2.Invited talks at Lund University Cognitive Science, Sweden, Oct 1998 on "A constructivist cognitive architecture - with application to a serendipitous webagent" and "Cognitive limits of science and the nature of models".
1.Talk "Lock-Ins, Canalization, Functional Dependency--Where does this all lead to?" at the workshop Emergent Semantic and Computational Processes in Distributed Information Systems at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, 10 August 1998.

Oher Scientific Activities
  1. Guest editor for a special issue for "Kybernetes" that focuses on the work of Heinz von Foerster.
  2. Co-organisator of the conference "NTCS-01 Virtual Reality" in Vienna, Austria, Sep 2001.
  3. Guest editor for a special issue of the Kluwer journal Foundations of Science (FOS) on "Radical Constructivism and the Sciences".
  4. Founding member of the Austrian Society of Cognitive Science (ASoCS).
  5. Co-organisator of the conference "NTCS-97 Does Representation Need Reality?" in Vienna, Austria, May 1997.
  6. Maintainer of the Radical Constructivism Homepage, a collection of papers, books, information of proponents, organizations, and other links related to the constructivist epistemology.

Teaching
  1. "Integrative Ansätze in der Kognitionswissenschaft" [Integrative approaches in cognitive science] at the University of Vienna, 2001.
  2. "Artificial Life" at the University of Zürich, 1997.
  3. "Cognitive Science" (co-lecturer) at the University of Vienna, 1995.