Unity of Knowledge in Transdisciplinary Research for Sustainable Development theme is a component of Encyclopedia of Social Sciences and Humanities in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Today, there is a social need for a comprehensive unity of knowledge that would provide orientation and ensure action in the context of the complex problems of modern civilization. Based on an intellectual need for unity of knowledge, different concepts of unity of knowledge have emerged in the course of the history of ideas. The intellectual need for unity can be directed at the world, science, action or the individual. It can involve the quest for the unity of the world based on a principle that is immanent in it, the unity of science as a theoretical, methodical or epistemological unity, the unity of action as a correlation of scientific, pragmatic and moral knowledge or, finally, unity as the educational task of the individual. The concepts associated with unity of knowledge can go in two directions. The first assumes that there is a unity existing in the world that can be perceived by man. It is thought of as an order of being, i.e. an ontological unity of the plurality of phenomena, that consist in their common nature. The other direction is based on the assumption that unity is a construction of a subject, based on its cognitive principles and structures. Thus it is not something that can be discovered as an existing objective order, and is instead subjective. These two volumes present some aspects of Unity of Knowledge in Transdisciplinary Research for Sustainable Development in three parts. The purpose of the first part is to trace back the core ideas in transdisciplinary thinking in the history of western philosophy and science, to locate socially the concerns of transdisciplinary research and to give an account of the development of transdisciplinary research. The second group of chapters deals with methodological and management problems related to transdisciplinary research with regard to problem identification and structuring of research questions, with knowledge integration in problem investigation as well as with evaluation. An outline of the institutional measures and transformations to enable and support transdisciplinary research is given in the third part. Institutional strategies build on organizational arrangements and links across academic institutions in education and research, on networks between science and society for joint knowledge production in temporally limited settings of research programs or projects, but they also set up new institutions, such as centers for advanced studies, national offices, agencies and networks. These two volumes are aimed at a wide spectrum of audiences: University and College Students, Educators, Research Personnel and all those concerned with sustainable development.

Unity of Knowledge in Transdisciplinary Research for Sustainable Development theme is a component of Encyclopedia of Social Sciences and Humanities in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty Encyclopedias. Today, there is a social need for a comprehensive unity of knowledge that would provide orientation and ensure action in the context of the complex problems of modern civilization. Based on an intellectual need for unity of knowledge, different concepts of unity of knowledge have emerged in the course of the history of ideas. The intellectual need for unity can be directed at the world, science, action or the individual. It can involve the quest for the unity of the world based on a principle that is immanent in it, the unity of science as a theoretical, methodical or epistemological unity, the unity of action as a correlation of scientific, pragmatic and moral knowledge or, finally, unity as the educational task of the individual. The concepts associated with unity of knowledge can go in two directions. The first assumes that there is a unity existing in the world that can be perceived by man. It is thought of as an order of being, i.e. an ontological unity of the plurality of phenomena, that consist in their common nature. The other direction is based on the assumption that unity is a construction of a subject, based on its cognitive principles and structures. Thus it is not something that can be discovered as an existing objective order, and is instead subjective. These two volumes present some aspects of Unity of Knowledge in Transdisciplinary Research for Sustainable Development in three parts. The purpose of the first part is to trace back the core ideas in transdisciplinary thinking in the history of western philosophy and science, to locate socially the concerns of transdisciplinary research and to give an account of the development of transdisciplinary research. The second group of chapters deals with methodological and management problems related to transdisciplinary research with regard to problem identification and structuring of research questions, with knowledge integration in problem investigation as well as with evaluation. An outline of the institutional measures and transformations to enable and support transdisciplinary research is given in the third part. Institutional strategies build on organizational arrangements and links across academic institutions in education and research, on networks between science and society for joint knowledge production in temporally limited settings of research programs or projects, but they also set up new institutions, such as centers for advanced studies, national offices, agencies and networks. These two volumes are aimed at a wide spectrum of audiences: University and College Students, Educators, Research Personnel and all those concerned with sustainable development.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them." —The Wall Street Journal One of our greatest scientists—and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for On Human Nature and The Ants—gives us a work of visionary importance that may be the crowning achievement of his career. In Consilience (a word that originally meant "jumping together"), Edward O. Wilson renews the Enlightenment's search for a unified theory of knowledge in disciplines that range from physics to biology, the social sciences and the humanities. Using the natural sciences as his model, Wilson forges dramatic links between fields. He explores the chemistry of the mind and the genetic bases of culture. He postulates the biological principles underlying works of art from cave-drawings to Lolita. Presenting the latest findings in prose of wonderful clarity and oratorical eloquence, and synthesizing it into a dazzling whole, Consilience is science in the path-clearing traditions of Newton, Einstein, and Richard Feynman.

How can we understand what a transdisciplinary (TD) approach might actually comprise of, given its complex and various uses? This book asks the question of leading practitioners in the field of higher education and transdisciplinarity. The emergence of transdisciplinarity has been a response to the often-failed closed-system, discipline-based approaches to solving complex social problems (various reports and definitions may be found in projects reported by the OECD, UNESCO and EU). These failures are often contingent upon disaggregated notions of epistemology and the compounding failures of ontological incongruities that are evident in these discipline-based approaches. Such approaches are not necessarily confined to large, seemingly insurmountable social problems, but apply equally well to issues in educational institutions as workplaces. Transdisciplinary knowledge is in the liberation of new and imaginative understanding of the structured reality of open social systems. It gives rise to generative mechanisms, which are central to relationships of agency and structure.

A novel, integrated approach to understanding long-term human history, viewing it as the long-term evolution of human information-processing. This title is also available as Open Access.

Transdisciplinary Research (TR) is an emerging field in the knowledge society for relating science and policy in addressing issues such as new technologies, migration, and public health. This handbook provides a structured overview of the manifold experiences gained in these fields. In the first part, 21 projects from all over the world present their research approaches. In the second part, cross-cutting challenges of TR are discussed in reference to the same projects.

Knowledge democracy is an emerging concept that addresses the relationships between knowledge production and dissemination, as well as the functions of the media and democratic institutions. Although democracy has been the most successful concept of governance for societies for the last two centuries, representative democracy, which became the hallmark of advanced nation-states, seems to be in decline. Media politics is an important factor in the downfall of the original meaning of representation, yet more direct forms of democracy have not yet found an institutional embedding. Further, the Internet has also drastically changed the rules of the game, and a better educated public has broad access to information, selects for itself which types to examine, and ignores media filters. Some citizens have even become "media" themselves. In a time where the political agendas are filled with combatting so-called evils, new designs for the relationships between science, politics and media are needed. This book outlines the challenges entailed in pursuing a vital knowledge democracy.