New Releases
Current Publications by Johannes Heinrichs
The New Main Work
Das kosmische Kaleidoskop (The Cosmic Kaleidoscope)
A Structural Ontology of Subjectivity, Nature, Sociality and Mediality
Author: Johannes Heinrichs
Series: Collected Works (Volume 44)
Publisher: Reflexivity Press, São Martinho do Porto
Year: 2026
Here Heinrichs grasps the structure that carries his work from the side of the world, in four parts on subjectivity, materiality, sociality and mediality. The second part contains his philosophy of nature, from inorganic to human physis, with the thesis that nature contains reflexivity without having consciousness. In German; an English edition is in preparation.
Heinrichs himself sees this book as the sum of his thinking: the work towards which his efforts over decades have been leading.
Dialectics
Dialectic as Logic of Reflection
An Essay in Systematics of Dialectical Types
Author: Johannes Heinrichs
Series: Collected Works (Volume 43)
Publisher: Reflexivity Press, São Martinho do Porto
Year: 2025
The systematic account of dialectics
Dialectic as Logic of Reflection is Johannes Heinrichs’ systematic presentation of dialectics as logic of reflection — the result of over five decades of philosophical work. The book clarifies the conceptual confusion around “dialectics” and develops a precise methodology based on the self-relatedness of human consciousness.
Core Theses
- Dialectic as Logic of Reflection: Dialectics is not merely an argumentative technique, but the logic of self-relatedness. It springs from the “miracle” of self-consciousness — the unique human ability to relate to oneself.
- Implicit and Explicit Reflection: Heinrichs distinguishes two forms of reflection: lived (implicit, ontological) reflection as the mode of being of consciousness itself, and retrospective (explicit) reflection as conscious thinking.
- The Tetrad of Meaning Elements (I-You-It-Medium): Reflection-logical analysis leads to a universal structure of four “meaning elements”: It (Objectivity), I (Subjectivity), You (Intersubjectivity), and Medium (Mediation).
- Critique of Hegel: The book shows that Hegel had not yet fully recognized the essence of dialectics as logic of reflection.
Topics of the Book
- Self-consciousness as the source of dialectics
- From Thomas Aquinas via Kant to Hegel
- The instruments of the logic of reflection
- The many types of dialectics that result from the tetrad of meaning elements
- Applications in ethics, politics and philosophy of science
- Dialectics of nature and mysticism
Books about Johannes Heinrichs
By Kai Froeb, published by Reflexivity Press under the Zero Marginal Cost License 1.3: free to read and to share for non-commercial purposes. In German.
Die Entdeckung Johannes Heinrichs
Eine Philosophie aus dem Vollzug
Field by field, what Heinrichs has to offer – action, language, society, democracy, nature – and for each, the book in which it is worked out. The place to start for anyone new to him.
Einführung in die Reflexions-Systemtheorie
Johannes Heinrichs' Denken für alle
The four stages of reflection shown in everyday scenes, and what follows from them for society, democracy, language, art and mysticism. No prior knowledge needed.
Reflexive Systemtheorie
Anwendungen der Reflexionslogik von Johannes Heinrichs auf Kooperation, Konflikte und künstliche Intelligenz
Heinrichs' stages of reflection applied to game theory, peace research and the architecture of artificial intelligence.
Reflexive Künstliche Intelligenz
Neue Perspektiven durch Johannes Heinrichs' Reflexionstheorie
What Heinrichs' theory of reflection says about the limits and possibilities of today's AI systems.
Recent Articles
149.
Action, Language, Art, and Mysticism as Reflection Levels of an Alternative Semiotics, and the Spiritual Perspective of a Value-Levels-Semocracy
in: Pragmatisme, Spirituality and Society. New Pathways of Consciousness, Freedom and Solidarity, ed. by Ananta Kumar Giri, Singapore 2021 (Palgrave Macmillan), 219-248.
Explores the four reflection levels of semiotics and their implications for democratic theory, connecting spiritual perspectives with practical governance structures.
150.
Sachparteien statt Machtparteien. Wertstufendemokratie als innere Synthese von direkter und repräsentativer Demokratie
in: Humane Wirtschaft 3/2021
Proposes “subject-matter parties” instead of power parties, presenting value-level democracy as an internal synthesis of direct and representative democracy.
151.
Kompetenzdemokratie oder teurer Kult des Dilettantismus? Eine Replik auf den Beitrag “Aufwand und Nutzen von Bürgerräten” von Maxim Wermke
in: Humane Wirtschaft 01/2022
A response critiquing the “expensive cult of dilettantism” and advocating for competency-based democratic participation through citizens’ councils.
152.
What follows from the Nature of Human Communication for a Future Democracy as a “Communication-Society”? At the Crossing of Social-Philosophical and Spiritual Meditation
in: Rethinking Media Studies: Media, Meditation and Communication (Routledge, London and New York 2024, edited by Ananta Kumar Giri and Santosh Kumar Biswal), 15-35.
Examines the implications of human communication’s nature for democratic theory, bridging social philosophy with spiritual meditation practices.
153.
Transzendentale gleich reflexionslogische Sprachtheorie nach dem Irrweg des “linguistic turn”
in: Transzendentalität und Transkulturalität, ed. by Martin Bunte & Fabian Völker, Freiburg i.B. (wbg bei Herder), 112-148.
Develops a transcendental language theory based on reflection logic, moving beyond the limitations of the “linguistic turn” in philosophy.
154.
Levels of Reflection in Transdisciplinarity: The Paradigm of Philosophy as a Theory of Reflection or “Science Teaching”
in: Mathias Schüz (Ed.), Transdisciplinary Thinking and Acting. Fundamentals and Perspectives, Heidelberg 2025 (Springer Nature), 75-90.
Presents philosophy as a theory of reflection and “science teaching,” exploring the different levels of reflection in transdisciplinary research.
Complete Publications: → View Full Bibliography