Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf

Tractatus Zweiter Ordnung (Second-Order Treatise)

Tractatus Zweiter Ordnung (Second-Order Treatise) by Sebastian Heidelberg is an audio collage of speeches and lectures by the Austrian scholar and philosopher Heinz von Foerster.

As a pioneer of cybernetics, Heinz von Foerster shaped a worldview in which self-referential processes are a central principle of thought and action. Thus, the heraldic animal of cybernetics is the mystical serpent Ouroboros, which bites its own tail. Heinz von Foerster himself repeatedly called Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Treatise on Logic and Philosophy a pioneering youthful inspiration, one of the most important analyses in the history of European philosophy of language by means of language itself. The form of the Second-Order Treatise is oriented to the brutally logical form of the original, whose several hundred successive subparagraphs give the reader not even a single paragraph for taking a deep breath. Some paragraphs are strictly logical-mathematical, while others are mystical and cryptic.

Heinz von Foerster seems to have always been successful in carrying out the balancing act between science, which tries to explain, and magic, which prefers to remain unexplained. He conveyed his enthusiasm for both in his unique, entertaining and unpretentious way. For just over six minutes, the listener encounters the talking man Heinz von Foerster in the Second-Order Treatise and is immersed in his world. Starting with a deep breath is recommended, because there are no pauses for drawing breath. What’s the point? Everyone has to decide for themselves or, in the words of Heinz von Foerster: “Not the speaker, but the listener determines the meaning of a statement.”

The entire original material comes from the double CD “2 x 2 = green” published by supposé (3rd edition, 1999).

The Second-Order Treatise was created as a final project for the Music and Text major at the IMM of the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf. Marc Matter supervised the project work.