Ideas... Ideas... Ideas... What have we learned from the first WKD Conference?
September 18, 2006
Type/Items(s): Special Focus
Submitted by: Raad Abdulaziz (ICVolunteers)
Contributors: Randy Schmieder (MCART)
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Three days of frank exchanges between the world's top academics and practitioners in the natural and social sciences closed with a call from Dame Julia Higgins to do everything possible to bridge the gap between the two disciplines "for the sake of humanity".
Dame Julia Higgins, Professor of Polymer Science at Imperial College, London, began her presentation by inviting seven young scientists onto the stage. Each was from a different discipline and a different part of the world and each of them cited their own perspective of the discussions of the past three days. These seven young scientists were a clear symbol of the future. By allowing the group of young scientists to sum up the proceedings of the symposium, Dame Julia served notice of the crucial role they must play in assuring the convergence of the disciplines for the benefit of humanity.
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Now is the time to transform words of good intentions into action. Image: V. Krebs, ICVolunteers. |
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The young speakers acknowledged the importance of dialogue but also emphasized the need to establish what the discussions should focus on, where and with whom. In other words, we need to develop methods whereby contributions from multiple branches of science and the humanities can be gathered into a cohesive body of knowledge to help and inform our society.
Declaring that the first World Knowledge Dialogue (WKD) symposium had generated ideas for intellectual cross fertilization, Dame Julia told delegates it was now time for all intellectuals to transform good intentions into action. This would demonstrate to society at large that a productive dialogue was possible between the disciplines. It takes courage and intellectual honesty to climb down from the pedestals we occupy and to transform the barriers between the disciplines into bridges. That courage and self-effacing demeanor was evident throughout the final proceedings. It seemed to suggest there is hope for real dialogue and that the process of implementing these ideas had already begun.
This symposium appealed for a new age of Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Pascal and Leibniz -- the philosopher-scientist giants of Western civilization -- who had bridged the interdisciplinary gap in the past.
Dame Julia told delegates to take the ideas that had flowed freely during the conference and communicate them to society at large. She further suggested that it was now time to think in terms of concrete projects to institutionalize the dialogue. Among the suggestions she made was the creation of a virtual platform on which scientists could exchange knowledge, examine their ideas and further engage in debate. She evoked the idea of the formation of a Crans Montana Institute as a center for a trans- and interdisciplinary dialogue, suggesting that the establishment of an Institute would be one way to signal the serious intentions of the WKD organizers and raise the level and scope of the dialogue initiated at this symposium.She also invited delegates to give feedback about the conference through the WKD website and announced that the website would host an archive of contributions made during the symposium.
A Fresh Viewpoint
During the course of Symposium, Volunteer writers coming from both the social sciences and natural science backgrounds followed the sessions themselves, recording and summarising the discussions and conclusions and conducting their own interviews with participants.
"We acknowledge the courage of the symposium participants in admitting frankly the existence of a barrier between scientific disciplines", said Dame Julia, and in recognizing that humanity is served poorly when we do not communicate across disciplines. Furthermore, the major lesson to be drawn from this symposium is the sheer waste if the two disciplines do not inform each other for a greater present and future common good.
As the participants reflect on exactly what was achieved and whether the goodwill that marked the symposium's beginning was increased or not by its ending, Dame Julia wondered whether "the blurred frontier between two ways of knowing", as British philosopher Isaiah Berlin called it, had finally been crossed. Is it possible that this symposium is indeed the beginning of a remarkable meeting of minds where science and the humanities take up the philosophy of e pluribus unum - out of many, one.
Did the scientists gathered agree to a unity of knowledge and its potential to facilitate human progress? Dame Julia had no reservations that the frank and passionate discussions witnessed during this dialogue were well intentioned and that the symposium has established its own raison-d'etre. It remains to be seen whether this meeting of minds can indeed bridge the chasm that so many feel has become established in Western civilization. |
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