Cybernetics and Human Knowing is a quarterly international multi- and interdisciplinary journal on second order cybernetics, autopoiesis and cybersemiotics.

The journal is devoted to the new understandings of self-organizing processes of information in human knowing that have arisen through the cybernetics of cybernetics, or second order cybernetics and its relation and relevance to other interdisciplinary approaches such as semiotics (cybersemiotics). This new development within cybernetics is a non disciplinary approach. Through the concept of self-reference it tries to explore: the meaning of cognition and communication; our understanding of organization and information in human, artificial and natural systems; and our understanding of understanding within the natural and social sciences, humanities, information and library science, and in social practices as design, education, organisation, teaching, therapy, art, management and politics.

Scientific endeavour in the post-modern age is becoming increasingly complex and transdisciplinary. Researchers and practitioners in the arts and the natural, medical and social sciences realize that the sharing of knowledge is both desirable, necessary and possible. For people working in the IT-sector, second-order cybernetics can be translated to the understanding of his/hers cognitive relation to the artificial system “user”. In this, Cybernetics & Human Knowing is a valuable complementary to technologically oriented magazines as we provide a rich epistemological soil for the emergence of future metaphors. Our focus is on the need for change in the basic concepts of ourselves, our cultures, world views, values and views of what “genuine” knowledge is, and on the call for a new exchange between theoreticians and practitioners. A basic feature of this work is the attempt to integrate scientific thinking with ethical and aesthetic perspectives in both theory and practice, in an attempt to bridge what C.P. Snow called “The Two Cultures”.

The journal as such is an autonomous knowledge and communication system, partly affiliated with the American Society for Cybernetics but with editors from many other cybernetic and systems organizations and journals and interested researchers from semiotics. Because of the interdisciplinary character, articles are generally written in such a way that readers from other domains can understand them. Authors from a wide range of disciplines, whose common ground is a passion for interdisciplinary, cybernetic, and semiotic description and explanation, will write with a sensitivity for language that will make their ideas clear and their subject fascinating. Scientific papers are of course peer reviewed. Now and then, space will be given to more technical papers, and a paper from a practitioner. The journal is thus a meeting place for those developing cybernetic and semiotics with those doing cybernetics and systemic work. The lay-out and illustrations of every issue is done by an artist, whose contribution is an integral part of the journal. Within this frame, embodying the creative with the (multi)disciplinary, the journal has a high scientific standard and integrity – following Gregory Bateson’s model of rigor AND imagination.

The journal also support columns where prominent researchers express their views on various aspects of the subject area.

This strategy makes the journal interesting and readable for those interested in cybernetic and semiotic practice in government, industry, education, therapeutic fields and the various fields of information and communication sciences.

To learn more about the journal, please visit this website.