The Hermeneutics of Transdisciplinarity: A Gadamerian Model of Transversal Reasoning
Read moreIntroduction Eric Weislogel has recently argued that the increasing hyper-specialization of higher education is creating a unique challenge for the 21st century: “It’s not that specialization needs to be overcome, it’s that individuals, communities, and civilization in general will need to develop the complementary means by which to appropriate and take the measure of all particular expertise… We must regain
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Disciplinary Realities and Interdisciplinary Prospects
Read moreExploring being in the world, proclaiming life signified nothing, analyzing assumptions and developing syntheses were once the domain of philosophy and literature. Attempts were made to understand the whole of human existence. Gradually, grand theories about life became replaced by adoration of science. Whether or not there was a palace of wisdom seemed less relevant to some when empirically grounded
The Transdisciplinary Logic of Transdisciplinarity
Read moreIntroduction. Logic and Contradiction Transdisciplinarity is about man, man and the reality of which he is a part. Transdisciplinarity is thus about human successes – progress and creativity, but also failures and regression, or virtue and vice in the traditional expression. In a word, it must account for contradictions and inconsistencies, as well as the appearance of new forms and
A Long-Standing Tradition of Transdisciplinarity and the Usual Suspects
Read moreHyper-specialisation is a rather recent problem of modern societies. In distinction from traditional philosophical approaches to reality, post-modern thinking has had to face the change in the academic and public world it is speaking about and talking with. While metaphysical approaches to reality from antiquity up to the 20th century contrived to maintain all reality to be essentially one, post-modern
Critiquing the Creation of Knowledge in the Liberal Arts: An Interdisciplinary Course on Death
Read moreFor nearly a decade, I regularly start the semester by asking students in my upper-level interdisciplinary general studies seminar what distinguishes the sciences, social sciences, and humanities from one another. Though they are intelligent soon-to-be-graduates of a fairly selective mid-sized private institution, Elon University in North Carolina, few can offer more than vague ideas of how they differ. Most can
