Transdisciplinarity: the hidden third, between the subject and the object

• Authors: Basarab Nicolescu
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In the introduction we explain why the relation between the Object and the Subject is a crucial problem of philosophy. The key point in understanding the Object-Subject relation is the vision on Reality that humans shared in different periods of the historical time. We next describe some historical aspects concerning the transdisciplinary concept of “level of Reality”, namely in relation with the work of John of the Ladder (c. 525-606), Nicolai Hartmann (1882-1950) and especially Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976). We finally analyze a unified theory of levels of Reality - the transdisciplinary approach, with its three axioms: levels of Reality, logic of included middle and complexity. We describe an important consequence of the transdisciplinary approach: the existence of a zone of non-resistance, which plays the role of a third between the Subject and the Object. This Hidden Third is an interaction term which allows the unification of the transdisciplinary Subject and the transdisciplinary Object while preserving their difference.

Keywords

EN

Subject- Object relation; levels of Reality; Hidden Third; transdisciplinarity; reductionism; non-reductionism; trans-reductionism.

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human and Social Studies
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 13-28

Dates

published

2012-10-01

online

2012-11-09

Contributors

author

Basarab Nicolescu

References

• Badescu, H., and B. Nicolescu, eds. Stéphane Lupasco - L'homme et l'oeuvre. Monaco: Rocher, 1999.
• Hartmann, N. Der Aufbau der realen Welt. Grundriss der allgemeinen Kategorienlehre. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 1940.
• Heisenberg, W. Philosophie - Le manuscrit de 1942. Trans. Catherine Chevalley. Paris: Seuil, 1998.
• Heisenberg, W. Reality and its Order. Trans. M.B. Rumscheidt and N. Lukens http://werner-heisenberg.unh.edu/t-OdW-english.htm#seg01.
• Hoffmeyer, J. Signs of Meaning in the Universe. Bloomington, Indianopolis: Indiana University Press, 1993.
• Husserl, E. Méditations cartésiennes. Trans. Gabrielle Peiffer and Emmanuel Levinas Paris: Vrin. 1966.
• Knight, Ch. C. The God of Nature - Incarnation and Contemporary Science. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007.
• Lupasco, St. Le principe d’antagonisme et la logique de l’énergie - Prolégomènes à une science de la contradiction. 1951. 2nd ed. Monaco: Rocher, 1987.
• Basarab Nicolescu, B. “Sociologie et mécanique quantiqueǁ.” 3e Millénaire. 1 (March-April 1982).
• Nicolescu, B. Nous, la particule et le monde. Paris: Le Mail. 1985.
• Nicolescu, B. Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity. 1996. Trans. Karen-Claire Voss. New York: SUNY Press, 2002.
• Nicolescu, B. “Hylemorphism, Quantum Physics and Levels of Reality.” Aristotle and Contemporary Science. Ed. Demetra Sfendoni-Mentzou. Vol. I. New York: Peter Lang, 2000. 173-184.
• Nicolescu, B. “Towards an apophatic methodology of the dialogue between science and religion.” Science and Orthodoxy, a necessary dialogue. Eds. B. Nicolescu and M. Stavinschi. Bucureşti: Curtea Veche, 2006. 19-29.
• Nicolescu B., ed. Transdisciplinarity - Theory and Practice. Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press, 2008.
• Pauli, W. “Letter of Pauli to Fierz.” August 12, 1948. Wolfgang Pauli. Wissenchaftlicher Briefwechsel, Band 1V, Teil I: 1940-1949. K. von Meyenn, Berlin: Springer, 1993. 559.
• Peirce, Ch. S. Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. 8 vols. Eds. Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss, and Arthur Burks. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1931-1958.
• Peirce, Ch. S. Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance). Ed. Philip P. Wiener. New York: Dover Publications, 1966.
• Peirce, Ch. S. The New Elements of Mathematics. 4 vols. Ed. C. Eisele. The Hague: Mouton Humanities Press, 1976.
• Poli, R. “The Basic Problem of the Theory of Levels of Reality.” Axiomathes. 12 (2001): 261-283.[Crossref]
• Poli, R. “Three Obstructions: Forms of Causation, Chronotopoids, and Levels of Reality.” Axiomathes. 1 (2007): 1-18.
• van Breda, J. “Towards a Transdisciplinary Hermeneutics - A New Way of Going beyond the Science/Religion Debate.” Transdisciplinarity in Science and Religion. 2 (2007): 103-156.
• Witzany G., ed. Biosemiotics in Transdisciplinary Contexts. Proceedings of the Gathering in Biosmiotics 6. Finland: UMWEB Publications, 2007.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10317-012-0002-5