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Moderators
·Christophe Heintz
·Gloria Origgi
·Dan Sperber
Guest Panel
·Daniel Andler
·Noga Arikha
·Bruno Bachimont
·Nicolas Balacheff
·Sarah Bendaoud
·Alban Bouvier
·Roberto Casati
·James Collier
·Jochen Glaser
·Davydd J. Greenwood
·Stevan Harnad
·Rainer Kamber
·Julie T. Klein
·Grit Laudel
·William Lynch
·Vanessa Nurock
·Pietro Redondi
·Claude Rosental
·Jean-Michel Salaün
·Hans Siggaard Jensen
·Marta Spranzi
·Peter Weingart
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Social scientists, philosophers, historians, anthropologists and cognitive scientists will share their experience on the matter and will focus on the impact of new forms of communication on interdisciplinary research.
Starting from February 9th 2004, a general discussion is open by the moderators.
Previous texts, by Dan Sperber, Helga Nowotny, Pierre Jacob, Catherine Garbay, Steve Fuller, Dominique Pestre; Howard Gardner and Veronica Boix-Mansilla and Ian Hacking are archived at the botton of this page.
This seminar is supported by the C.N.R.S. project Society of Information In partnership with
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Rethinking Interdisciplinarity. Emergent Issues
Christophe Heintz
Gloria Origgi
The moderators round up the virtual conference, offering a preliminary assessment of the main themes that have been raised by the papers and the discussions, and open a general debate with the speakers, participants and organizers.
Date of publication: 9 February 2004
The Complacent Disciplinarian
Ian Hacking
Collaborations between disciplines as well as openness between fields of expertise don’t necessarily mean breaking down disciplinary boundaries.
Ian Hacking draws on his personal experience to reflect on the very sense of interdisciplinary research, without describing himself as an “interdisciplinary” researcher, rather as someone who applies his discipline in different directions.
Date of publication: 5 January 2004
Assessing Interdisciplinary Work at the Frontier. An empirical exploration of 'symptoms of quality'
Veronica Boix Mansilla
Howard Gardner
How does one ascertain the quality of interdisciplinary work when criteria
from the individual disciplines do not suffice? Assessment is one of the most important and least understood aspects of interdisciplinary research.
Building on an empirical study of interdisciplinary work in exemplary
institutions, we describe common challenges and propose epistemic criteria by which interdisciplinary work can by evaluated.
Date of publication: 1 December 2003
The Evolution of Knowledge Domains. Interdisciplinarity and Core Knowledge.
Dominique Pestre
This article is a general reflection and a proposal for action on the research policies of the French CNRS. It reflects in an historical perspective upon the question of the evolution of knowledge domains in the medium term and proposes, as far as possible, bold and nonconformist readings that can help in thinking about the current situation.
Date of publication: 1 November 2003
Interdisciplinarity. The Loss of the Heroic Vision in the Marketplace of Ideas
Steve Fuller
In this paper, I provide the background historical and philosophical assumptions that inform my rather ‘heroic’ interpretation of the value of interdisciplinary inquiry. Unlike most contemporary defenses of interdisciplinary research, mine does not presuppose that interdisciplinarity supplements, complements, or replaces discipline-based research. Rather, I see the matter the other way round, namely, that disciplines are artificial ‘holding patterns’ of inquiry whose metaphysical significance should not be overestimated
Date of publication: 1 October 2003
The Role of Information Science in Interdisciplinary Research: A Systemic Approach
Catherine Garbay
This paper focuses on the key role of Information and Communication Technology for the development of interdisciplinary programs in contemporary scientific research. An integrated model of the relation between humans and artifacts is discussed that leads to a new perspective on human affairs, technical matters and knowledge construction.
Date of publication: 1 September 2003
A philosopher’s reflections on his interactions with a neuroscientist
Pierre Jacob
What is the philosophy of the cognitive sciences all about? Why
should one want to be a philosopher of the cognitive sciences?
In my view, there are two broad ways one can think about these
questions. One can approach the cognitive sciences either as
a philosopher of science primarily interested in the nature of
cognitive scientific explanations or as a philosopher of mind
primarily interested in the nature of minds. I am interested
in both. In this paper, I shall tell the two-tier story of my
collaboration with the cognitive neuroscientist, Marc Jeannerod.
I will describe how we worked together towards the creation
of the Lyon Institute of Cognitive Science and how we came to
write a book together on human vision.
Date of publication: 1 June 2003
The Potential of Transdisciplinarity
Helga Nowotny
Transdisciplinarity has a semantic appeal which differs from what one often calls inter- or multi- , or pluri- disciplinarity. And, note that the prefix - trans- is shared with another word, namely transgressiveness. If it is true that knowledge is transgressive, then it means transdisciplinarity does not respect disciplinary boundaries. It goes beyond the disciplinary boundaries, but it does not respect institutional boundaries, either. In addition, there is a kind of similarity, a kind of convergence or co- evolution, between what is happening in the sphere of knowledge production and what we can see going on in the way that societal institutions are developing.
Date of publication: 1 May 2003
Why Rethink Interdisciplinarity?
Dan Sperber
There is a conventional discourse in favor of interdisciplinary research. At the same time there is much indifference or even disregard for such research and there are important institutional obstacles to its development. This virtual seminar, and this first contribution in particular, aim at feeding reflexion on the conditions in which this research is either truly beneficial, even necessary, or is of little value. Favorable conditions for interdisciplinary research have a history, linked to that of scientific disciplines and their institutions. Is this history in the process of taking a new turn with the development of new forms of scientific communication through the Internet? Dan Sperber draws on his experience in the social and the cognitive sciences to reflect on the strength and weaknesses of interdisciplinary research and on its future.
Date of publication: 1 April 2003
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