Björn Kraus (born 1969) is a German philosopher, who unfolds epistemological theories for social work. He therefore picks up on the doubt about the possibilities of human perception, a topic that has been emphasized over and over in occidental philosophy. He thus stands in tradition of a skepticism as for example defined by Immanuel Kant and Ernst von Glasersfeld.
Biography
Kraus studied social work in Ludwigshafen, educational science in Landau (diploma in social pedagogy) and education management (M.A.) in Freiburg. He received a doctor's degree in philosophy (Dr. Phil.) at Heidelberg University, Germany. In the environment of the "Heidelberger Schule," he obtained further education as systemic therapist, coach and clinical supervisor. The "constructivist turn", which had taken place in the early 1980s in this field, gets obvious in his fundamental theory work. Since 2005, he is a professor of social work sciences at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Freiburg, Germany. Note that in Germany the title "protestant", although referring to the Protestant Church's sponsorship, does not influence the tuition or scientific content taught at this institution. In this context, clerically managed universities do not differ from state-run universities. His research priorities are epistemology, communication and power, professional decision-making and responsibility as well as systemic anthropology and methodology.
Work
Kraus has set up the foundation of an epistemology-based theory of interaction and the social constitution of subjective reality in several monographs, anthologies and essays. Coming from his perspective of an epistemological constructivism the relational constructivism, he first developed a theory of communication and power and, based on that, discussed questions about professional decision-making.
He focuses on the socio-scientific important questions about the possibilities of perception, communication, decision-making and intervention. He analyses them regarding limits and possibilities, which remain in spite of the assumed self-referentiality or result from it at the first place.
The keystones of his (epistemology-based) theory of interaction and the social constitution of subjective reality are communication, lifeworld and power.
Epistemological constructivism / Relational constructivism
Björn Kraus developed an epistemological constructivism named relational constructivism. His ideas are based on the notion that cognitive development depends on two determining factors. On the one hand side cognitive development is dependent on a person's own, individual cognitive structures. On the other hand, side it relies on the person's environmental conditions (German: Grundsätzliche Doppelbindung menschlicher Strukturentwicklung). Accordingly, his main focus is placed on the relationship between the social and material environment of a person (objective reality or life conditions/German Lebenslage) and, in contrast, its individual perception (subjective experience or lifeworld/German Lebenswelt). This perspective becomes obvious, when Kraus reformulates Husserl's lifeworld concept in a systemic, constructivist way: In opposing the terms lifeworld (subjective reality) and life conditions (objective reality) to each other, he is able to review their interrelation. For Kraus, the lifeworld is a person's subjective construct, which is neither random, nor manipulable from the outside. Apart from the field of social work, the terms lifeworld and life condition, which were constructivistically reformulated by Kraus, are used in the field of educational science (education, special needs education and community pedagogy) as well as in the field of sociology.
Kraus defined "lifeworld" and "life conditions" as follows:
"Life conditions mean a person's material and immaterial circumstances of life.
Lifeworld means a person's subjective construction of reality, which he or she forms under the condition of his or her life circumstances."
This contrasting comparison provides a conceptual specification, enabling in the first step the distinction between a subjectively experienced world and its material and social conditions and allowing in the second step to focus on these conditions' relevance for the subjective construction of reality.