A Vision of Transdisciplinarity: Laying Foundations for a World Knowledge Dialogue

by Darbellay; Frederic

• ISBN13: 9781420092288
• ISBN10: 1420092286
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-04
• Publisher: EFPL Press

Summary

This book unites an international team of leading researchers and educators around the theme of knowledge dialogue. Spanning topics from natural complexity to neuroscience, from education theory to climate change, from immunology to archaeology and human migrations, these renowned multidisciplinarians engage each other, through a series of original essays, in an atmosphere of constructive criticism and with the ambition to build a new foundation for the transdisciplinary approach.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Where, and Whence?	p. xii
The Rules of the Game for a Knowledge Dialogue	p. xiv
Introduction	p. xvii
For a World Knowledge Dialogue	p. xix
Complexity and Neurosciences in Dialogue: Towards a New Theory of the Brain?	p. 1
From Brain Dynamics to Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination	p. 3
Towards a Neuroscience of the Capable Person: Unity, Diversity and Oneself as Another	p. 11
New Discoveries Defining Complexity	p. 19
Searching for Simplicity in Complexity; Growth, Innovation, Economies of Scale, and the Pace of Life from Cells to Cities	p. 21
Understanding and Managing Planetary Complexity	p. 26
Why Physics is Easy and Autism is Hard	p. 31
Complexity and Knowledge Dialogue in Discussion	p. 41
Knowing Complex Systems: The Limits of Understanding	p. 43
Consilience and the Status of Human-Level Truth	p. 51
Boundaries: Boundaries between Disciplines and Boundaries in the Mind	p. 60
An Immunologist's View on Establishment of a Knowledge Dialogue	p. 75
Towards a Nonmodern Nonhumanism	p. 84
Promoting Scientific Dialogue as a Lifelong Learning Process	p. 94
Origin and Migrations of Modern Humans: Palaeontology, Anthropology, Genetics and Linguistics in Dialogue	p. 103
Human Migrations in Prehistory - the Cultural Record	p. 105
The Origins of Modern Humans: Linguistic Issues	p. 110
A Genetic View of Human Origins	p. 114
Knowledge Dialogue: Academic Institutional Governance, Education and Experiences	p. 119
Societal Responsibility of Universities. Wisdom and Foresight Leading to a Better World	p. 121
Patterned Diversity in Interdisciplinary Dialogues: Lessons from an Empirical Study of Interdisciplinary Research at the Frontier	p. 137
Increasing Scientific Literacy in Undergraduate Education: A Case Study from "Frontiers of Science" at Columbia University	p. 148
Organizing Cross-disciplinary Dialogue in Academia: Debating Complexity and Organic Development at Singapore Management University	p. 162
New Initiatives of the University of Tokyo toward Establishing a Strategy for Sustainability through Knowledge Structuring and a Transdisciplinary Approach	p. 167
BRAINetwork: an Experiment in Transdisciplinarity	p. 173
Knowledge, Culture and Interdisciplinary Dialogue	p. 184
The Paradigm Shift in the Relationship Between Science and Society	p. 190
Anthropology in the United States - when Dialogue IS the Discipline: A Multi-level Evolutionary Consideration of Knowledge Production	p. 197
Conclusion and Perspectives	p. 203
Where and Whence?	p. 205
Contributors	p. 209
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