On the Knowledge-sociological Problems in using Philosophy of Science Methods to solve Transdisciplinary Problems: Andur’s Contribution to Interdisciplinary Research Across Knowledge Borders

In 1979 I was almost kicked out of biology for making a philosophy and historical analysis of Konrad Lorenz work in developing Ethology. I was saved by Jesper Hoffmeyer and Iven Reventlow, who was a behavioral psychologist, who then created a prize essay in the problem area, which I answered and got a Gold medal in psychology, which helped me getting three years of research in comparative psychology at Psychological Laboratory Coph. U. My main interdisciplinary problem was how to conceptualize the causal role of experience in cognitive and communicative behavior. At the time the dialectical materialism of Leontjev was a possible way of making a common philosophical framework for biology and psychology that really did not share a common ontological framework at the time. But when I realized that diamat could not contain a phenomenological aspect in its ontological framework I suddenly found myself in conflict with the Marxists that dominated the professional framework of rationality in the psychology department. I had no way to go further within that professional setting. I got a job at the royal Danish Library School. Here I discovered the same type of interdisciplinary problem in information science. Suddenly there was research money to upgrade your position by making a PhD I was looking for a supervisor. But who would support such a project falling outside all professional areas and without any formal PhD study and any economic compensation for the work? Andur of course. We had deep discussions about Daniel Dennet’s take on this problem and on Prigogine and Stengers revolutionary work in physics and how its introduction of irreversible time changed the ontology of the natural sciences. It was very inspirational and confirmed that I was onto something valid and interesting after all. After a couple of years I managed to finish and a year after it was published as a book. "Information er sølv ...: om muligheden for en pragmatisk informationsteori baseret på anden ordens kybernetik, semiotik og sprogspilsteori" Forlaget Biblioteksarbejde 1994. It saved my possibility of having a carrier in Academia and the rest of it has only been possible through people like Andur that had the intellectual capacity and the courage to go across knowledge borders and still keep their position in their own field. I know I am not the only one in that situation Andur has supported over the years. He became an institution in fostering interdisciplinarity in Danish academia. He gave us courage: In 2006 I became Doctor of Philosophy with "Cybersemiotics: Why Information is not Enough" published at Toronto Univ. P. in 2008, (2010, 2013).