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Methodology of Transdisciplinarity–Levels of Reality, Logic of the Included Middle and Complexity 17 Basarab Nicolescu Methodology of Transdisciplinarity{Levels of Reality, Logic of the Included Middle and Complexity 17 Methodology of Transdisciplinarity–Levels of Reality, Logic of the Included Middle and Complexity Basarab Nicolescu, International Center for Transdisciplinary Research and Studies (CIRET), France, Email: [email protected] doi: 10.22545/2010/0009 he concept of levels of Reality, formulated in teraction term which allows the unification of the 1982, is the key concept of transdisciplinar- transdisciplinary Subject and the transdisciplinary Tity1. The introduction of the levels of Real- Object. This interaction term is called the Hidden ity induces a multidimensional and multi-referential Third. The ternary partition (Subject, Object, Hid- structure of Reality, signifying the coexistence be- den Third) is, of course, radically different from the tween complex plurality and open unity. Every level binary partition (Subject vs. Object) of classical re- is characterized by its incompleteness; the laws gov- alism.. erning this level are just a part of the totality of Keywords: reality, levels, transdisciplinarity, clas- laws governing all levels. And even the totality of sical realism, quantum realism, logic of the included laws does not exhaust the entire Reality; we have middle, complexity, disciplinary boundaries, spiritu- also to consider the interaction between Subject and ality, homo economicus, homo religiosus. Object. The zone between two different levels and beyond all levels is a zone of non-resistance to our experiences, representations, descriptions, images, 1 The War of Defination and mathematical formulations. The Gdelian struc- 1.1 How Transdisciplinarity was Born ture of levels of Reality implies the impossibility of a selfenclosed complete theory. Knowledge is forever Transdisciplinarity is a relatively young approach; open. The unity of levels of Reality of the Object Swiss philosopher and psychologist Jean Piaget and its complementary zone of non-resistance defines (1896-1980) developed the concept seven centuries the transdisciplinary Object. The unity of levels of after disciplinarity had evolved. The word itself Reality of the Subject and this complementary zone first appeared in France, in 1970, in the talks of of non-resistance defines the transdisciplinary Sub- Jean Piaget, Erich Jantsch, and Andr Lichnerowicz ject. The zone of non-resistance plays the role of at the international workshop \Interdisciplinarity a third between the Subject and the Object, an in- { Teaching and Research Problems in Universities," organized by the Organization for Economic Co- 11Apostel et al., 1972. operation and Development (OECD) in collabora- Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science Vol. 1, pp. 17-32, (December, 2010) ISSN: 1949-0569 online Basarab Nicolescu Methodology of Transdisciplinarity{Levels of Reality, Logic of the Included Middle and Complexity 18 tion with the French Ministry of National Education transdisciplinarity and also of introducing values in and University of Nice1. this field of knowledge. In his contribution, Piaget gives the following de- Finally, the approach of Andr´eLichnerowicz, a scription of transdisciplinarity: \Finally, we hope known French mathematician, is radically mathe- to see succeeding to the stage of interdisciplinary matical. He sees transdisciplinarity as a transversal relations a superior stage, which should be `transdis- play to describe \the homogeneity of the theoretical ciplinary,' i.e. which will not be limited to recognize activity in different sciences and techniques, indepen- the interactions and/or reciprocities between the dently of the field where this activity is effectuated.”5 specialized researches, but which will locate these And, of course, this theoretical activity can be for- links inside a total system without stable boundaries mulated, he thinks, only in mathematical language. between the disciplines."2 While this description is Lichnerowicz writes: \The Being is put between vague, it has the merit of pointing to a new space of parentheses, and it is precisely this non-ontological knowledge \without stable boundaries between the character which confers to mathematics its power, disciplines." However, the idea of a \total system" its fidelity, and its polyvalence."6 The interest of opens the trap of transforming transdisciplinarity Lichnerowicz for transdisciplinarity was accidental, into a super- or hyperdiscipline, a kind of \science but his remark about the non-ontological character of sciences." In other words, the description of Pi- of mathematics has to be remembered. aget leads to a closed system, in contradiction with I described in some detail the three different posi- his own requirement of the instability of boundaries tions of Piaget, Jantsch, and Lichnerowicz concern- between disciplines. The key point here is the fact ing transdisciplinarity because they can be found that Piaget retained only the meanings \across" and again, a quarter of a century later, in what I call \the \between" from the Latin prefix trans, eliminating war of definitions.” The word \war" does not belong the meaning \beyond." Understood in such a way, in the transdisciplinary vocabulary. However, I use transdisciplinarity is just a new, \superior stage of it purposely because it appeared in the issue \Guerre interdisciplinarity. I think Piaget was fully conscious et paix entre les sciences: disciplinarit´ettransdisci- of this alteration of transdisciplinarity, but the in- plinarit´e/ War and Peace Between Sciences: Disci- tellectual climate was not yet prepared for receiving plinarity and Transdisciplinarity"7 of a French mag- the shock of contemplating the possibility of a space azine. In this issue, one of the authors asked for the of knowledge beyond the disciplines. The proof is interdiction of the word \transdisciplinarity."7 His that in his introduction to the Proceedings of the desire was obviously not satisfied. workshop, Pierre Duguet honestly recognized that would like to add to this discussion about the some experts wanted to see the word" transdisci- incipient phase of transdisciplinarity the name of plinarity in the title of the workshop, but authorities Edgar Morin. A short time after the Nice meeting, of the OECD refused to do so because they were Morin begins to use the word \transdisciplinarity," afraid to confuse some representatives of the member and he even leads a transdisciplinary laboratory in countries3. human sciences within the framework of a prestigious In his contributions, Erich Jantsch, an Austrian French research institution. It is true that Morin thinker living in California, falls in the trap of defin- did not give a definition of transdisciplinarity. For ing transdisciplinarity as a hyperdiscipline. He writes him, transdisciplinarity was, in that period, a kind of that transdisciplinarity is \the coordination of all messenger of the freedom of thinking, a go-between disciplines and interdisciplines of the teaching sys- discipline. tem and the innovation on the basis of a general axiomatic approach."4 He clearly situates transdis- 1.2 Beyond Disciplines ciplinarity in the disciplinary framework. However, I proposed the inclusion of the meaning \beyond the historical merit of Jantsch was to underscore disciplines" in 19858 and have since developed this the necessity of inventing an axiomatic approach for idea over the years in articles, books, and various 2Piaget, 1972, p. 144. 55Lichnerowicz, 1972, pp. 130-131. 3Duguet, 1972, p. 13. 66Ibid., pp. 127. 4Jantsch, 1972 a, p. 108. The same ideas are expressed in 7Alain Caill, in Guerre,, 1996. Jantsch, 1972 b. 8Nicolescu, 1985. Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science Vol. 1, pp. 17-32, (December, 2010) ISSN: 1949-0569 online Basarab Nicolescu Methodology of Transdisciplinarity{Levels of Reality, Logic of the Included Middle and Complexity 19 official international documents. Many other re- tific; an object of scientific studies to be dissected, searchers over the world contributed to this devel- formalized, and manipulated. The Man { God has opment of transdisciplinarity. A key date in this become a Man { Object, of which the only result can development is 1994, when the Charter of Transdis- be self-destruction. The two world massacres of this ciplinarity9 was adopted by the participants at the century, not to mention the multiple local wars and First World Congress of Transdisciplinarity (Con- terrorism, are only the prelude to self-destruction on vento da Arrbida, Portugal). This idea did not come a global scale. from heaven or just from the pleasure of respect- In fact, with very few exceptions { Husserl, Hei- ing the etymology of the word trans but from my degger, Gadamer, or Cassirer, for example { modern long practice of quantum physics. For an outsider, and post-modern thinkers gradually transformed the it might seem paradoxical that it is from the very Subject in a grammatical subject. The Subject is core of exact sciences that we arrive at the idea of today just a word in a phrase10. limits of disciplinary knowledge. But from within, it The quantum revolution radically changed this provides evidence of the fact that, after a very long situation. The new scientific and philosophical no- period, disciplinary knowledge has reached its own tions it introduced { the principle of superposition limitations with far-reaching consequences not only of quantum \yes" and \no" states, discontinuity, for science but also for culture and social life. nonseparability, global causality,
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