Transdisciplinarity

de Basarab Nicolescu

In this fascinating volume, the contributors make it very clear that far from being a faddish and superficial phenomenon, transdisciplinarity is potentially the foundation for a new, and much needed, approach to inquiry. Transdisciplinarity goes beyond the dualism of opposing binary pairs: subject/object, subjectivity/objectivity, matter/consciousness, nature/divine, simplicity/complexity, reductionism/holism, diversity/unity which have marked the history of ideas for millennia. Because transdisciplinarity is radical, in the sense that is goes to the roots of knowledge, and questions our way of thinking and our construction and organization of knowledge. It requires a discipline of self-inquiry that integrates the knower in the process of knowing. Nicolescu's vision of transdisciplinarity, and that of the international contributors to this volume, goes beyond cognicentrism and the focus on analytic intelligence to propose a new type of intelligence that reflects a harmony between mind, feelings, and body.--from the preface.