"Rethinking Interdisciplinarity" is a web-based seminar organised by the Institut Nicod (CNRS, Paris) at: http://www.interdisciplines.org/interdisciplinarity . People of various backgrounds (philosophy, sociology, history, cognitive and social sciences) share their experience of interdisciplinary research and their practice in its institutional organisation in an open forum. Every month a new paper is put on line in both English and French for open discussion.
For the month of October 2003, a paper by Steve Fuller is open to discussion: "Interdisciplinarity: The loss of the heroic vision in the marketplace of ideas". You are all invited to join the debate at: http://www.interdisciplines.org/interdisciplinarity/papers/3
Here is the opening paragraph of Fuller's paper:
<<<In this paper, I provide the background historical and philosophical assumptions that inform my rather 'heroic' interpretation of the value of interdisciplinary inquiry. Unlike most contemporary defenses of interdisciplinary research, mine does not presuppose that interdisciplinarity supplements, complements, or replaces discipline-based research. Rather, I see the matter the other way round, namely, that disciplines are artificial 'holding patterns' of inquiry whose metaphysical significance should not be overestimated. A key feature of my perspective is that inquiry needs a social space where it can roam freely. That space, the natural home of interdisciplinarity, is the university. Unfortunately, that institution is often deconstructed, if not completely under erasure, in contemporary discussions of interdisciplinarity.>>>
Previous texts and debates are archived on the website.
For information, please contact:
Gloria Origgi
Researcher at C.N.R.S. Paris
Editor of the http://www.interdisciplines.org project
[log in to unmask]
Steve Fuller
Professor of Sociology
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom
Phone: 44+ (0) 2476 523 940
Fax: 44+ (0) 2476 523 497
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~sysdt/Index.html
See first chapter of new book, _Kuhn vs Popper: The Struggle for the Soul of Science_: http://www.iconbooks.co.uk
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