A Mind at Work

The book, edited by two distinguished scholars from Spain, who authored also special issue of Anthropos dedicated to the work of Mihai Nadin, assembles contributions from European and American scholars in various fields where acquainted with Nadin the person and with his work: Frieder Nake, Peter Bogh Andersen, Jeffrey Nickerson, Solomon Marcus, Heinz von Foerster, Umberto Eco, Frederic Chorda, among others. Corinne Whitaker writes about Nadin's innovative work as it affects the aesthetic dimension of human activity. Phil Smith makes reference to the education of minds. Blossom Kirschenbaum discusses the inevitable accommodation scholars must make with the new civilization.

Mihai Nadin's ideas are different and innovative; most are not yet part of mainstream thinking. But academia and other institutions will eventually catch up with him. He departs from the world of determinism and from the cultural forms that impose a single norm for the unfolding of human destiny. Having demonstrated that the traditional idea of literacy as the dominant criterion for knowledge and authority belongs to the past, Nadin argues for many possible paths of creativity, for diversity characteristic of our new civilization.

One section of the book provides a selection of Nadin's articles in art history, aesthetics, education, mind, computer science, semiotics, along with his own literary works. Last but not least, Nadin's introductory essay, written for this book, traces his own mind at work.

INHALT
Introduction Mercedes Vilanova and Frederic Chordá

Chapter 1: Ahead of His Time:
The Digital Age
Peter Bøgh Andersen, Cohesion and Coherence in Programs
Frieder Nake, Third Culture Man
A Civilization of Many Literacies
Frederic Chordá, Civilization of Illiteracy: Language, Reality and Renewal
Steven Bleicher, Literacy Lost
Blossom Kirschenbaum, We don't have tjoin the culture of illiteracy, but it helps tunderstand it
Victor Terras, A Positive Pragmatist
Jay Lemke, Beyond Literacy: Semiotics and the Civilization of Hypercomplexity
E.D. Hirsch, Jr., "...transcends McLuhan"
Umberto Eco, "...not among the usual lamentations"
Intelligence is Process
Philip L. Smith, GReconfigure: Ideas About Education in the Digital Age
Corinne Whitaker, Reinventing the Mind
Jeffrey V. Nickerson, Cognitive Energy:
Twelve Themes in the Work of Mihai Nadin
Heinz von Foerster, "Mind manifests itself in dialogue...."
Identity
Mercedes Vilanova, The values of the civilization of literacy are nlonger valid
Thomas Gillespie, Ich Bin Ein Illiteratus
Solomon Marcus, He was never only what he seemed tbe

Chapter 2: Mihai Nadin: Imprints of Knowledge
The History of the Future
The Message is the Medium
The Architecture of Thought
Themes in Mihai Nadin's work
History and Awareness of the Future
Anticipation - A Spooky Computation
Aesthetics
Negotiating the World of Make-Believe
Art and Technology
Science and Beauty: Aesthetic Structuring of Knowledge
Art history and criticism
...That Old Sire

Chapter 3: Mihai Nadin: Fiction, Poetry, Drama
Short stories
Letters
Suicide
In the Right Direction
Enthusiasm
Words
Permission to think
The Ruins of Utopia
Novels (excerpts)
A Day for Jewels
Suspension of Gravity
EXIT
Poetry
1964 - 1966
1978 - 1980
Drama
The Longest Wait
Contributors
Index