Ernst von Glasersfeld, "An Introduction to Radical Constructivism" (1984) as quoted in Frederick Burwick & Walter Pape, Aesthetic Illusion: Theoretical and Historical Approaches (1990) pp.26-27.
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Once knowing is no longer understood as the search for an iconic representation of ontological reality but, instead, as a search for fitting ways of behaving and thinking, the traditional problem disappears. Knowledge can now be seen as something which the organism builds up in the attempt to order the as such amorphous flow of experience by establishing repeatable experiences and relatively reliable relations between them. The possibilities of constructing such an order are determined and perpetually constrained by the preceding steps in the construction. That means that the “real” world manifests itself exclusively there where our constructions break down. But since we can describe and explain these breakdowns only in the very concepts that we have used to build the failing structures, this process can never yield a picture of a world that we could hold responsible for their failure.

— Ernst von Glasersfeld on Ontology

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Once knowing is no longer understood as the search for an iconic representation of ontological reality but, instead, as a search for fitting ways of behaving and thinking, the traditional problem disappears. Knowledge can now be seen as something which the organism builds up in the attempt to order the as such amorphous flow of experience by establishing repeatable experiences and relatively reliable relations between them. The possibilities of constructing such an order are determined and perpetually constrained by the preceding steps in the construction. That means that the “real” world manifests itself exclusively there where our constructions break down. But since we can describe and explain these breakdowns only in the very concepts that we have used to build the failing structures, this process can never yield a picture of a world that we could hold responsible for their failure." in the context of "Ernst von Glasersfeld, "An Introduction to Radical Constructivism" (1984) as quoted in Frederick Burwick & Walter Pape, Aesthetic Illusion: Theoretical and Historical Approaches (1990) pp.26-27." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Ontology" (Quotes, F-J) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Ernst von Glasersfeld

About Ernst von Glasersfeld

Ernst von Glasersfeld (March 8, 1917 – November 12, 2010) was an Austrian-born American philosopher, and Professor of Psychology at the University of Georgia.