Basarab Nicolescu The Need for Transdisciplinarity in Higher Education in a Globalized World 11 The Need for Transdisciplinarity in Higher Education in a Globalized World Basarab Nicolescu, International Center for Transdisciplinary Research and Studies (CIRET), Paris, France and University Babes-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Email: [email protected] doi: 10.22545/2012/00031 viable education can only be an integral edu- levels of reality, logic of the included middle, nature, cation of the human being. Transdisciplinary epistemology. Aeducation is founded on the inexhaustible rich- ness of the scientific spirit which is based on ques- tioning, and of the refusal of all a priori answers 1 Introduction and all certitude contradictory to the facts. At the same time, it revalues the role of the deeply rooted Why transdisciplinarity is today not only realistic a intuition, of the imaginary, of sensitivity, and of the realistic aim but also a necessary one? body in the transmission of knowledge. It is only in The first argument is the big-bang of the num- this way that the society of the twenty-first century ber of disciplines who increased from 7 (when first can reconcile effectivity and respect for the poten- universities were founded in the 13th century), to tiality of every human being. The transdisciplinary more than 8000 en 2012. A great expert in a given approach will be an indispensable complement to the discipline is totally ignorant in more than 7999 disci- disciplinary approach, because it will mean the emer- plines. The decisions which are taken in our troubled gence of continually connected beings, who are able world are based on ignorance and this fact provokes to adapt themselves to the changing exigencies of inevitable crisis which will be deeper and deeper in professional life, and who are endowed with a perma- the future. nent flexibility which is always oriented towards the Second argument: the rapid changes in our con- actualization of their interior potentialities. If the temporary world induce more and more unemploy- University intends to be a valid actor in sustainable ment and therefore human beings have to change development it has first to recognize the emergence of their jobs several times during their active life. But a new type of knowledge: transdisciplinary knowledge. passing from one job to another is practically im- The new production of knowledge implies a necessary possible in the context of an accelerated super- multidimensional opening of the process of learning: specialization. towards civil society; towards cyber-space-time; to- Third argument: recent discoveries in neurophys- wards the aim of universality; towards a redefinition iology illustrated, for example, by the works of of the values governing its own existence. Antonio Damasio [1], underline the unexpected fact Key Words: higher education, transdisciplinarity, that the analytic intelligence is too slow compared with the intelligence of feelings. Therefore, we have Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science Vol. 3, pp. 11-18, (December, 2012) ISSN: 1949-0569 online Basarab Nicolescu The Need for Transdisciplinarity in Higher Education in a Globalized World 12 Table 1: Comparison between disciplinary education (DE) and transdisciplinary education (TE). Disciplinary education (DE) Transdisciplinary education (TE) IN VITRO IN VIVO One level of Reality Several levels of Realitys External world - Object Correspondence between external world (Object) and internal world (Subject) Accumulation of knowledge Understanding Analytic intelligence New type of intelligence - harmony between mind, feelings and body Binary logic Included middle logic (absolute truth / absolute falseness) (relative truth) Oriented towards Oriented towards power and possession astonishment and sharing Exclusion of values Inclusion of values of education{the transdisciplinary education (TE), to find equilibrium in our educative system between distinct from but complementary to our present dis- the analytic intelligence and the interior being. ciplinary education (DE) (see Table 1). Fourth argument: globalization induces an enor- It is important to realize that the disciplinary mous migratory flux of people belonging to countries knowledge and the transdisciplinary knowledge are of a given culture, religion and spirituality towards not antagonist but complementary. Both their countries of another culture, religion and spiritual- methodologies are founded on scientific attitude. ity. The new education has to establish the dialogue Building the transdisciplinary mind at the University between cultures, religions and spiritualities. is our main challenge today. Fifth argument: the rapid advance of means of In order to explore the new, transdisciplinary communication implies an increased complexity in education, we have to apply the transdisciplinary an interconnected world. The new education has methodology [2]. to invent new methods of teaching, founded on new The methodology of transdisciplinarity is founded logics. The old classical binary logic, that of \yes" on three postulates: and \no", i. e. the logic of the excluded middle, is 1. The ontological postulate: There are, in Nature no more valid in the context of complexity. and in our knowledge of Nature, different levels The last argument I would like to formulate is of Reality of the Object and different levels of the following: solving problems in the real world Reality of the Subject. forces university to interact with society, industry, banks and ecology. These problems clearly belong 2. The logical postulate:The passage from one level to the field of \trans": their resolution asks us to go of Reality to another is insured by the logic of beyond academic disciplines. Transdisciplinarity is the included middle. therefore realistic and necessary for the survival of 3. The epistemological postulate: The structure universities. of the totality of levels of Reality is a complex structure: every level is what it is because all 2 Disciplinary Education and the levels exist at the same time. Transdisciplinary Education The first two postulates received, in the 20th cen- tury, experimental evidence from quantum physics The transdisciplinary knowledge corresponds to an [3], while the last one has its source not only in in vivo knowledge, concerned with the correspon- quantum physics but also in a variety of other exact dence between the external world of the Object and and human sciences. the internal world of the Subject. By definition, the The key concept of the transdisciplinary approach transdisciplinary knowledge includes a system of val- to Nature and knowledge is the concept of levels of ues, the humanistic values. It leads to a new type Reality [4]. Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science Vol. 3, pp. 11-18, (December, 2012) ISSN: 1949-0569 online Basarab Nicolescu The Need for Transdisciplinarity in Higher Education in a Globalized World 13 3 Emergence of a Transdisciplinary 5 Learning to Know Culture Learning to know means first of all training in the The emergence of a transdisciplinary culture capable methods which help us distinguish what is real from of contributing to the elimination of the tensions what is illusory, and in the techniques which enable menacing life on our planet will be impossible with- intelligent access to the fabulous knowledge of our out a new type of education which takes into account age. In this context the scientific spirit, one of the all the dimensions of the human being. highest goals ever attained in the human adventure, All the various tensions{economic, cultural, is indispensible. Precocious initiation into science is spiritual{are inevitably perpetuated and deepened beneficial because it provides access, from the very by a system of education founded on the values of beginning of human life, to the inexhaustible richness another century, and by a rapidly accelerating im- of the scientific spirit which is based on questioning, balance between contemporary social structures and and on the refusal of all a priori answers and all the changes which are currently taking place in the certitude contradictory to the facts. However, \the contemporary world. More or less embryonic wars scientific spirit" does not at all mean the thoughtless between economies, cultures, and civilizations never increase of teaching scientific matters or retreating stop leading, here and there, to actual wars. In fact, to an interior world based on abstraction and for- our entire individual and social life is structured by malization. Although such excess is, unfortunately, education. Education is at the center of our becom- still current, it can lead only to the exact opposite ing. The future is shaped by the education which is of the scientific spirit: previous ready-made answers delivered in the present, here and now. are replaced by other new ready-made answers (this In spite of the enormous diversity of the systems time, having a kind of \scientific” brilliance); thus, of education that can be found in various countries, in the final analysis, one dogmatism is replaced by the globalization of the challenges of our era involves another. Nor is it the assimilation of an enormous the globalization of the problems of education. The quantity of scientific knowledge which gives access different upheavals continually confronting educa- to the scientific spirit, but the quality of that what is tion in one or another country are only symptoms of taught. And here \quality" means to lead the child, one and the same