Personal identity as knowing organization: examining the relationship between constructivism and postrationalist cognitivism

The Postrationalist theory in psychology emerges attempting to overcome the manner in which Cartesian objectivism conceptualizes the relationship between subject and reality within the traditional cognitive paradigm. This theory is in large part due to its most fundamental concept –personal identity as a knowing organization– by Humberto Maturana’s Constructivism. In spite of the close connection, the conceptual relationship between these two approaches remains obscure. This article examines in detail the relationship between Vittorio Guidano’s postrationalism and Humberto Maturana’s constructivism -focusing on the concept of personal identity– in order to clarify coincidences and conceptual divergences.