@article{intel:/content/journals/10.1386/tear.16.1.43_1, author = "Westermann, Claudia", title = "On delight: Thoughts for tomorrow", journal= "Technoetic Arts", year = "2018", volume = "16", number = "1", pages = "43-51", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1386/tear.16.1.43_1", url = "https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/tear.16.1.43_1", publisher = "Intellect", issn = "1758-9533", type = "Journal Article", keywords = "art", keywords = "poetics", keywords = "China", keywords = "aesthetics", keywords = "second-order cybernetics", keywords = "Conversation Theory", abstract = "Abstract The article introduces the problematics of the classical two-valued logic on which Western thought is generally based, outlining that under the conditions of its logical assumptions the subject I is situated in a world that it cannot address. In this context, the article outlines a short history of cybernetics and the shift from first- to second-order cybernetics. The basic principles of Gordon Pask’s 1976 Conversation Theory are introduced. It is argued that this second-order theory grants agency to others through a re-conception of living beings as You logically transcending the I. The key principles of Conversation Theory are set in relation to the poetic forms of discourse that played a key role in art as well as philosophical thinking in China in the past. Second-order thinking, the article argues, is essentially poetic. It foregoes prediction in favour of the potentiality of encountering tomorrow’s delights.", }