Urban Kordeš

A peaceful coexistence of epistemologies – philosophy from the constructivist's point of view

Purpose – To explore possible innovations that constructivism and its epistemological participatory position offer to philosophy, in particular to the age‐old problem of grounding epistemological assumptions.Design/methodology/approach – The paper follows von Foersters account of the participatory position as an epistemological stance. It tries to explain why it is called a “position” rather than “insight” or “theory”. Constructivist (participatory) concepts are explored and related to “classical” philosophical debates such as the “Munchhausen trilemma”. In the conclusion the paper sketches possible ways of how to apply the answers of the participatory position to the philosophical discourse.Findings – The paper points at the possibility to go beyond the insurmountable boundaries dividing different epistemological positions one continuously encounters when searching for the appropriate epistemological starting point. As a result, one cannot expect answers to be universally valid. The paper takes that int...