Herbert Alexander Simon, a central epistemological reference point for a complex Didactics of Languages-Cultures (DLC)

Abstract

Herbert Alexander Simon was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1978, and the Turing Medal (known as the "Nobel of Computing") in 1975 for his research into Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science. I consider him to be one of my three main reference authors for the epistemology of the discipline, along with the French philosopher of complexity, Edgard Morin, and the American pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty. In this short synthetic article, I propose to summarize H.A.'s seven ideas, all of which can be found in his 1969 book The Sciences of the Artificial (available online; see reference in final bibliography). The order in which these ideas are presented here is not significant:

1) Artificiality to manage complexilty.

2) The relationship between artificiality and engineering: the notions of "device" and "project”.

3) Adopting the adequacy paradigm and abandoning the optimization paradigm.

4) Shifting the focus from product to process.

5) Ontogenesis recapitulates phylogenesis.

6) Criticism of applicationism. 7) The project approach (by way of conclusion).

In this short article, I refer you to some ersonal publications that can be downloaded online for each of these ideas. Available too on ResearchGate . Version française également disponible sur ResearchGate.