Mesocosm

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The mesocosm (from ancient Greek "μέσος": middle; κόσμος: world, order) is the area of ​​objects that can be clearly grasped by humans. This is understood as an intermediate area between microcosm and macrocosm .

This approach is related to triadic thinking , which understands human culture as a separate third world or as a “middle world”.

Use in evolutionary epistemology

The concept of the mesocosm is a central concept of evolutionary epistemology and is related to a social constructivism with regard to many objects of experience. Konrad Lorenz , in particular , provided the ideas ; in the context of his own ethological research and taking into account the epistemological theory of Immanuel Kant, he hypothesized that the conditions that Kant thought to be a priori and structuring experience had arisen historically - that is, evolutionarily .

However, the term mesocosm was only used by Gerhard Vollmer in 1975 .

Use in ecology

In ecology , mesocosm describes an artificially created, mostly simplified and clear, but not necessarily completely delimited environment on which observations or experimental investigations are carried out. An example from ecology are "sandpit ecosystems" planted with trees, which are used to collect data for material balances.

Use in culture philosophy

Axel Montenbruck sees in cultural humanity the pragmatic middle world between the worlds of ought and being .

See also

literature

  • Gerhard Vollmer: Mesocosmos and objective knowledge. In: Konrad Lorenz, Franz M. Wuketis (ed.): The evolution of thinking. Munich 1983, pp. 29-91.
  • Gerhard Vollmer: Beyond the mesocosm. In: The physics lesson. Volume 18, 1984, pp. 5-22.
  • Gerhard Vollmer: Can we leave the social mesocosm? In: Jürgen Mittelstraß (Ed.): The future of knowledge. XVIII. German Congress for Philosophy (Konstanz 1999). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2000, pp. 340–352.
  • Axel Montenbruck: Middle world and three-middle man. Socially real dehumanization and civilization as synthetic pragmatism , 2nd considerably expanded (partial) edition, 2013, 374 p., Series civil religion. A Philosophy of Law as a Philosophy of Culture, Volume IV - Holistic Superstructure, Free University of Berlin ( Access ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Art. Μέσος ; κόσμος In: Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott: A Greek-English Lexicon. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1940.
  2. ↑ Cf. Konrad Lorenz: Kant's doctrine of the a priori in the light of contemporary biology. In: Leaves for German Philosophy. Volume 15, 1941, pp. 94-125; also in: Ders .: The structure of effects of nature and the fate of people. Munich 4th ed. 1983, pp. 82-109; as well as in: Ders. / Franz M. Wuketits (Ed.): The evolution of thinking. Munich 1984.
  3. ^ Gerhard Vollmer: Evolutionary epistemology. Hizel, Stuttgart 1st edition 1975, 2nd edition 1980, p. 161.
  4. ^ Bernard T. Bormann, F. Herbert Bormann , William B. Bowden, Robert S. Piece, Steve P. Hamburg, Deane Wang, Michael C. Snyder, CY Li, Rick C. Ingersoll: Rapid N ^ 2 Fixation in Pines, Alder, and Locust: Evidence From the Sandbox Ecosystems Study. In: Ecology. Volume 74, No. 2, 1993, pp. 583-598.
  5. ↑ Axel Montenbruck : Middle world and three-middle man. Socially real dehumanization and civilization as synthetic pragmatism , 2nd considerably expanded (partial) edition, 2013, series civil religion. A Philosophy of Law as a Philosophy of Culture, Volume IV - Holistic Superstructure, Free University of Berlin ( Access ), 193-218.