Transforming the Way We Think 5 6 Transforming the Way We Think Foreword Acknowledgements
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Institute of Advanced Study Study Advanced Institute EDITOR of VERONICA STRANG Institute of Advanced Study EDITED BY VERONICA STRANG Published in the United Kingdom in 2016 by The Institute of Advanced Study Durham University Cosin’s Hall Palace Green Durham DH1 3RL https://www.dur.ac.uk/ias/ © 2016 The Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and publisher of this book. CUR/05/16/016 CONTENTS Foreword Stuart Corbridge 6 Acknowledgements Veronica Strang 7 Introduction A Decade of Interdisciplinarity Veronica Strang 8 Chapter 1 The Legacy of Charles Darwin Robert Barton 18 Chapter 2 Modelling Martin Ward 32 Chapter 3 Being Human Robert Layton and 44 Charles Fernyhough Chapter 4 Water Veronica Strang 56 Chapter 5 Futures l Barbara Graziosi 68 Chapter 6 Futures ll Nicholas Saul 80 Chapter 7 Time Veronica Strang 90 Chapter 8 Light Martin Ward 102 Chapter 9 Emergence Robert Barton 116 Chapter 10 Evidence Tom McLeish 130 List of figures 144 Contributors 148 TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE THINK 5 6 TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE THINK FOREWORD ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS According to Stefan Collini, ‘Universities provide a home for attempts This book has benefited from the efforts of many. The chapter to extend and deepen human understanding in ways which are, authors carefully reviewed each IAS theme year to bring out simultaneously, disciplined and illimitable’ (Collini, 2012, What examples of the stellar research produced by the IAS Fellows and Are Universities For? London: Penguin, p195). I like this working Durham academics. It was challenging to represent the complex definition and would say it works very well for all the institutions ideas that emerged across such a wide range of disciplinary areas, in which I have been fortunate enough to research and teach. and we hope that our College of Fellows and Durham colleagues Certainly, it describes Durham very well, a university which prides will forgive the inevitable oversimplifications of their work. Robin itself not just on the structured nature of its academic Disciplines Hendry and Nancy Cartwright kindly provided some key insights, – and the rigorous intellectual training they provide – but also on and special thanks are due to Nick Saul, who nobly agreed to read its desire to address questions of great significance that cannot be and comment on all of the chapters. Linda Crowe, as always, contained by disciplinary boundaries. And within Durham it is our provided magnificent administrative support to the project. Research Institutes, including very notably the Institute of Advanced The IAS team is also immensely grateful to our Development Board Study (IAS), which provide a home for thinking and discussion members, Michael Stephenson and Stephen Gardner, for the about ‘the illimitable’, or for pushing the boundaries of human generous funding that made the production of this book possible. understanding in ways which allow us all to see the world just a bit We hope that it will serve its purpose as an emissary for the IAS, differently and more acutely. and for the transformational interdisciplinary research supported by Durham University. The Institute of Advanced Study is now ten years old. It has advanced a lot of thought in its first decade, brought together many new acquaintances and now old friends to help us think through Structure, Scale, Evidence, Emergence, Light, Time, Futures, Water, Modelling, Being Human and more. Its Fellows come from all round the world, carrying the torch not just for scholarship from visual Veronica Strang culture to physics, or from geography to biology, but also, we hope and believe, for the IAS itself and Durham University. Now is the time to move on, to rethink and to build on a wonderfully successful first decade. New intellectual challenges lie ahead that the IAS will help Durham and others to think through. New friendships will be made through the IAS’s base in Cosin’s Hall, right in the heart of historic Durham. And through the IAS, and our academic Departments and Colleges, historic Durham will be reenergised as a modern globalised University, proud of its past and excited about its future contributions. More power to its elbow – and happy birthday to the IAS. Stuart Corbridge TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE THINK 7 8 TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE THINK A DECADE OF INTERDISCIPLINARITY TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE THINK THE VALUE OF COLLABORATION INTRODUCTION ‘So Dawkins is quite wrong’, concluded the philosopher of science, John Dupré, in his contribution to our very first lecture series in 2007, Legacies of Darwin, ‘evolution functions at least as much through altruistic cooperation as it does through selfishness’.1 Since this introductory series, Durham’s Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) has remained dedicated to producing such transformational thinking, and its capacity to do so is founded on a similar recognition: that cooperation is as vital to intellectual progress as competition. Founded in 2006, the IAS was one of the first such wide-ranging interdisciplinary research institutes to be established in the UK. Today, it has an international reputation for its work in fulfilling the creative and practical potential of collaboration across the academy. The purpose of this book is not merely to mark the IAS’s decennial milestone, but also to reflect on how its activities support the University and the wider academic community in our collective efforts to A DECADE OF realise the potential of interdisciplinary research. To strengthen this area in Durham, the IAS was given a three-part remit composed of internationalisation, interdisciplinary research development and public engagement. Its primary INTERDISCIPLINARITY role is to act as a flagship for the University, heightening its international visibility and its linkages with scholarly institutions around the world, and bringing leading scholars to Durham VERONICA STRANG to engage with and promote the University’s research. Its core activities are directed towards fostering and supporting interdisciplinary collaborations, both within this growing international network and across Durham’s departments, schools, institutes and centres. The IAS also plays a major role in external engagement, showcasing the University’s interdisciplinary research to a range of groups, including policy and decision-makers, public audiences, local and regional communities, and the academy as a whole. The IAS is composed of several key elements: a small team of internationally respected academics (comprised of a full-time Executive Director, and three part-time Co-Directors drawn from each of Durham’s faculties); light but highly effective administrative support; and – of particular importance for international visitors – the historic and beautiful Cosin’s Hall, a former Bishop’s residence situated on Palace Green between Durham’s medieval Cathedral and Castle. Further stalwart backup is provided by Figure 0.1 the University’s colleges, who provide both a Institute of Advanced Study, Cosin’s Hall. domestic base and a wider interdisciplinary PHOTOGRAPH: VERONICA STRANG. community for the IAS’s visiting Fellows. TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE THINK 9 10 TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE THINK A DECADE OF INTERDISCIPLINARITY Figure 0.2 months, coinciding with the University’s first two terms. They therefore have a substantial Durham University’s Palatine Centre. IMAGE COURTESY OF DURHAM UNIVERSITY. period of time in which to integrate with the University’s academic community and to make the most of the ‘away from the normal demands’ space that the Institute provides for them, and for The Institute now administers four Fellowship schemes: its original scheme for distinguished Durham’s own academics. international visitors; two smaller schemes – the Addison Wheeler and Christopherson-Knott Fellowships – and, since 2011, a major scheme funded by the European Union, which locates It is this capacity to create an environment away from everyday constraints, in which visiting Fellows directly in Durham’s departments. conversations across disciplinary divides can develop and flourish, that underpins the IAS’s success. An inspiring architectural space at the heart of the World Heritage site is a crucial part The IAS Fellowships lie at the centre of the Institute’s activities. Each year, through a of it, but Cosin’s Hall is above all a social space in which the IAS’s foundational principles of combination of nominations and applications, the IAS brings together up to twenty equality and mutual respect, and its commitment to encouraging free thinking and lively distinguished researchers from around the world and across the disciplines, and provides them exchanges of ideas between disciplinary areas, is manifested. It is this that most fully enables with offices in Cosin’s Hall. Two cohorts, of nine to ten Fellows each, visit Durham for three the experimental and creative interdisciplinary research for which Durham is now well TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE THINK 11 12 TRANSFORMING THE WAY WE THINK A DECADE OF INTERDISCIPLINARITY recognised internationally, and which leads many Fellows to comment, in their End-of- successful collaborative relationships have been established, it is much easier for the Fellowship reports, that the experience has ‘transformed the way they think’. participants to embark