The Worldviews group Perspectives on the World: an interdisciplinary reflection /1 VUBPRESS CLEA is an interdisciplinary centre at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel This volume is part of the cLEA-series on Interdisciplinary Studies CLEA tel + 32 2 6293373 fax + 32 2 6292276 e-mail:
[email protected] Table of Contents Introduction 7 First published as Cirkelen om de wereld, concrete invullingen van het The Worldviews group wereldbeelden-project, 1994, Uitgeverij Pelckmans, Kapellen The game of the biomousa: A view of discovery and creation 17 DiederikAerts From cell to consciousness: a world of life 49 Edel Maex The many faces of the world: World views in agrarian civilisations and in modern societies 71 Staf Hellemans World views, science and technology 103 Bart De Moor The conceptual framework of the system theory 125 Translation by Gregory BalI, Ghent Hubert Van Belle Cover: Danny Somers Layout: Boudewijn Bardyn No man without a cosmos. No cosmos without man? 159 Illustrations in contribution pg 51-55 by Patricia Konings Jan Van der Veken Symmetry and symmetry breaking: ontology in science (An Outline of a © Copyright 1995 VUBPRESS-VUB university press, Brussels Whoie) 175 ISBN 90 5487113X NUGI 611 DI 1995 I 1885 1017 LeoApostel The Unfinished Symphony: Positions, Agreements, Disagreements and All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in Gaps 219 any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. LeoApostel References 241 VUBPRESS-VUB university Press, Pleinlaan 2 - B 1050 Brussels - Belgium fax + 32 62(2694 e-mail:
[email protected] i!- The Authors 245 \ Introduction From proj ect to preliminary sketches We are quickly approaehing the end of the millennium and the 'magical' year 2000.