On this website, you will find the main conclusions of my more than 50 years of academic life, driven and guided by the question of what determines the development and integral well-being of human beings and the organizations they form, from the individual level to the planetary scale.
What I most wish to share is that the Radical Constructivist paradigm, which I discovered and adopted in the 1980s through the Biology of Knowing, Conversing, and Loving by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela -world-renowned Chilean biologist-philosophers-, provides an excellent philosophical platform for achieving the sought-after goal of living and coexisting better than we are currently managing in the world, advancing toward the challenge left to us by Gabriela Mistral, the great Chilean schoolteacher and poet awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature: “We still need to Humanize Humanity“.
The central tenet of biologically based Radical Constructivism is that human beings -¡including scientists and philosophers! – cannot access an objective reality independent of the observer. Knowing is always an interpretation of lived experience, contingent upon the structure of the one who knows, which in turn depends on the paradigms that have shaped that structure throughout personal evolutionary history.
From an engineering perspective, knowing reality is constructing it. Not metaphorically. Literally. Beyond the structure of the nervous system, the mood of the person knowing also influences the construction of reality. Additionally, an important role is played by the focus of attention, which is connected to the intention behind the interaction with what is being sought to know.
Seen this way, you are going to construct this website! It will depend on your paradigms -also referred to here as mental models, beliefs, etc.-, on your current mood and on the intention and attention you bring to this experience, whether this website will be beneficial, enjoyable, and motivating for you.
Can these variables be changed? Yes, they can. Give it a try.
If you want to explore the consequences and benefits of Radical Constructivism, don’t read with the mindset of agreeing or disagreeing with what I propose in the texts and videos on this website. Instead, focus on seeing possibilities in what surprises you, in what triggers emotions, and sparks new reflections in you. Likewise, allow yourself to be surprised and even unsettled by what you don’t understand. Put all your attention on what you experience while exploring this site rather than on what you read and see “out there” which, from the Radical Constructivist perspective, isn’t out there. You are constructing it. So, construct something positive for yourself. Shift your gaze, shift your hearing, shift your mind, and most importantly, shift your heart, and you will create an interesting and beneficial website.
What reflections might this experience spark that could positively influence the paradigms you live in?
What do you become aware of about yourself as you interact with the texts and videos you will watch and listen to, keeping in mind that in constructivism this is not the same as merely seeing and hearing?. In the constructivist paradigm, you transform what your senses perceive in interpretations you make, based on them. The phrases “I saw it with my own eyes” or “I heard it with my own ears” -which often lead to debates with someone who does not share the same view- are meaningless in the radical constructivist view.
As the popular saying goes, “Nothing is true, nothing is false. Everything depends on the color of the glass through which it is seen“. Exchanging “lenses” before starting a conversation can prevent it from turning into a discussion. It’s possible that you will quickly agree on which “lens” -glasses, frames, paradigms- is best suited to address the situation that gave rise to the conversation.
I offer you a Curriculum Summary and an Autobiographical Review. This latter one will play an important role in building the website you’re about to explore, as it reveals the place from which I do what I do, especially those personal dimensions often left out in conventional resumes: our vulnerabilities, crises, and shadows.
Many spiritual teachers, sages, and philosophers agree that it is precisely in the unpleasant, in crises and conflicts, where we learn the most, elevate our consciousness, heal emotionally, and grow spiritually. This has been my experience.
For those of us who investigate the roots of human suffering and seek ways to free ourselves from it, it is precisely these critical moments that help us generate interpretative and actionable proposals to achieve this goal, to live and live well together. It is said that Einstein pointed to this idea as well.
When people reveal themselves in all their dimensions, it becomes easier to build trust, empathize, and create meaningful relationships. This is what I hope you experience as you explore this webpage, especially as you delve into my Autobiographical Review, which is, in essence, an essay with both didactic and healing aims. You will soon see why I say this.
Let your heart -and “the reasons that the mind ignores”- along with a dose of intuition, guide you in deciding which of these two sections to begin with.
Chilean, 75 years old, Industrial Civil Engineer and Master of Science in Engineering Economics, from the Universidad Chile (1975). Free graduate studies in Political Economy and Economic Development at the University of Sussex (UK, 1975-1977).
This autobiographical review, in addition to helping you know “where I speak from” – which is as important as what I speak about – is a sort of summary of my interpretative and action proposals, since I will link these proposals with the circumstances of my life in which they emerged.
In radical constructivism we build reality by living it. We also build ourselves, in the interaction with the circumstances we live, particularly with other people. I will now tell you some of the most important ones in life. I invite you to remember some of yours, exploring from now on the potential of rebuilding yourself to move in the direction of what you would like to improve in your life.
