Transdisciplinary Approaches to Foundational Questions
Volume 6 Issue 1
www.metanexus.net

Prologue

“[T]he greatest enterprise of the mind has always been and always will be the attempted linkage of the sciences and the humanities. The ongoing fragmentation of knowledge and resulting chaos in philosophy are therefore not reflections of the real world but artifacts of scholarship."– E.O. Wilson, Consilience

Features

Bodily Resurrection and the Dialectic of Spirit and Matter,
by Joseph A. Bracken
“As Whitehead and Peirce each in his own way has made clear, it is time to set aside the ontological dualism which has bedeviled philosophers from the time of Plato onwards and encouraged natural scientists and others of a more empirical bent simply to write off the reality of spirit and to focus exclusively on the world of material reality. Rather, we should be, as Peirce recommends, 'objective idealists,' recognizing the ontological primacy of mind or spirit over matter but likewise acknowledging that spirit at all levels of existence and activity (including the divine) must somehow express itself in terms of matter.” [More]

The Varieties of Mystical Experience: Paul Tillich and William James,
by David H. Nikkel
"Paul Tillich and William James both offer rich resources for thinking about mysticism, religious faith, the nature of the object of religious faith, and the ultimate meaningfulness of life. While there are interesting similarities in their efforts, because of differing epistemologies of religious experience they come to contrasting and/or complementary conclusions. This fundamental epistemological difference is that Tillich affirms a mystical a priori embedded in all experience, while James in pragmatist, empirical fashion maintains that mystical experiences are particular experiences that happen to a minority of people. While the primary purpose of this article is to expound/amplify and compare the respective positions of the two thinkers, it will conclude with brief evaluative remarks." [More]

Field Analysis of Competitive Dynamics and Cultural Evolution of Religions and God Concepts, by David Sloan Wilson
“We seek explorations of the competitive and cultural forces that shape religions and the conceptualization of God. Numerous questions in this domain remain: What mechanisms influence the evolution of God concepts and vice versa? Is there a "natural selection" of religious ideas and does it slowly move society closer to truth? How can interactions among religions advance spiritual understanding? What are the results of the American experiment in religious pluralism? What role has secularization played in the progress of spirituality? This topical area seeks inquiries that approach religion and spirituality from the perspective of an important creative or causal factor in the formation of society. Approaches relevant to this area include evolutionary psychology, economic models, rational choice theory, game theory, computer models and simulations, and other models for cultural development.” [More]

Field Analysis of Religion, Spirituality and Human Flourishing,
by Robert A. Emmons
“An increasingly vigorous area of research is human virtue. The study of virtue, at the nexus of the psychology of religion, personality psychology, moral philosophy, and the psychology of emotion, is making a comeback in psychology. Partly responsible for this resurgence is the positive psychology movement which has sought to systematically classify human strengths and virtues into a comprehensive taxonomy. Concepts such as forgiveness, love, hope, humility, gratitude, self-control, and wisdom appear as highly prized human dispositions in Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu thought and are affirmed universal principles in world philosophies and ethical systems. Basic research as well as interventions to cultivate these virtues is well underway. Yet there is much hard work that lies ahead.” [More]
Visual Explorations

From the Editors

Publishing with Metanexus—Online or Invisible

Metanexus Would Like to Thank You...

Why Metanexus?

Featured News and Events

Metanexus Conference 2006: Call for Papers

Public Symposia: Evolution and Happiness, Arizona State University, January 22 - 23, 2006

John Templeton Foundation Newsletter—Milestones, January 2006
Conference: Ethical Choices in Society, the Economy, and the Environment, Siena, Italy, May 5 - 6, 2006

Epilogue

"But contemporary knowledge does not seem to me fragmented, any more than does the home repair industry. The academic disciplines are not, and are not supposed to be, 'reflections of the real world.' They are supposed to provide ways of doing things in the real world, of reweaving the great seamless causal web so that various human purposes might be accomplished. Reality is one, but descriptions of it are many. They ought to be many, for human beings have, and ought to have, many different purposes."
– Richard Rorty, "Against Unity"

"If there is an economy of the life of the mind—as I assume there has to be, for the life of the mind involves the distribution of limited amounts of time, energy, and attention—then that economy, like any other, subsists upon the making of critical choices. You can't think, read, research, study, learn, or teach everything. To choose one thing is to choose against many things. To know some things well is to know other things not so well, or not at all...We are, moreover, differently talented and are called by different vocations. All this explains, and to some extent justifies, any system of specialization in work or study...There can be no objection in principle to organizing a university as a convocation of specialties and specialists; that is what a university is bound to be. "
– Wendell Berry, Life is a Miracle

"The risk now is precisely the opposite...Academe is threatened by the twin dangers of fossilization and scholasticism (of three types: tedium, high tech, and radical chic). The agenda for the next decade, at least as I see it, ought to be the opening up of the disciplines, the ventilating of professional communities that have come to share too much and that have become too self-referential."
– Thomas Bender, Intellect and Public Life

"Since our society respects specialists and suspects generalists, perhaps the way to solve the shortage of generalists is by creating a new specialty in synthesis and systems. The concept was described by the noted philosopher and essayist José Ortega y Gasset (who was also, for more than a quarter of a century, a professor of metaphysics at Central University of Madrid). He said, 'The need to create sound synthesis and systemization of knowledge ... will call out a kind of scientific genius which hitherto has existed only as an aberration: the genius of integration. Of necessity, this means specialization, as all creative effort does, but this time, the [person] will be specializing in the construction of the whole.'"
– Vartan Gregorian, “Colleges Must Reconstruct the Unity of Knowledge”

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