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We are witnessing an unprecedented revolution engendered by the fundamental sciences and in particular by physics and biology. This revolution is overturning conventional ideas of logic, espistemology and day to day life as a consequence of its technological developments. It is vital to recognize the existence of a considerable discrepancy between the new vision of the world which is emerging from the study of natural systems and the values which predominate in the social sciences and in the life of modern society; values based, to a large extent, upon mechanical determinism, positivism or nihilism. This discrepancy is extremely harmful and harbours the threat of destruction of our species. It is essential to seek the underlying causes, to reflect upon possible remedies and to try to put these into operation.
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One of the obvious causes of this discrepancy is the fragmentation of knowledge. Extreme specialisation is a necessary evil since it helps to accelerate the acquisition of knowledge, but it leads, at the same time, to a darkening of meaning. On the one hand the fragmentation leads man to see himself as a stranger in a world invaded by an incomprehensible complexity. On the other hand it causes a rupture between the organs of reflexion and those of decision-making in society. Thereby are thrown open the doors to absurdity, to non-sense, to violence and to implacable dynamic of self-destruction.
Faced with this situation it is vital to encourage, in every possible way, research activity into a new scientific and cultural approach - transdisciplinarity - in an attempt to reconstitute a coherent picture of the world.
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It is important to distinguish carefully between transdisciplinarity and other activities seemingly very similar if not identical, such as pluridisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, but which, in fact, by virtue of their methods and goals, are radically different from transdisciplinarity.
Transdisciplinarity is not concerned with the simple transfer of a model from one branch of knowledge to another, but rather with the study of isomorphisms between the different domains of knowledge. To put it another way, transdisciplinarity takes into account the consequences of a flow of information circulating between the various branches of knowledge, permitting the emergence of unity amidst the diversity and diversity through the unity. Its objective is to lay bare the nature and characteristics of this flow of information and its principal task is the elaboration of a new language, a new logic, and new concepts to permit the emergence of a real dialogue between the specialists in the different domains of knowledge.
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By its very nature, transdisciplinarity rejects all globalising projects, all closed systems of thought, utopian ideas, any enslavement to an ideology, religion or philosophical system no matter what. Its aim is not the unification of all branches of knowledge; a goal that would be absurd and illusory. More modestly, transdisciplinarity will try to bring us closer to reality by the linked study of nature, the imaginary, the universe and man, so as to permit us better to meet the challenges of our epoch.
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The need for transdisciplinarity is making itself felt more and more. Witness the mushrooming of intellectual clubs, colloquia and books which touch, more or less, upon the subject of transdisciplinarity. But these initiatives, important as they may be, cannot at all replace a real, long-term research effort, uniting the most competent specialists for each domain of knowledge and the best qualified amongst those who have reflected upon this approach.
It thus seems very desirable to us to create a genuin centre for transdisciplinarity research, which could become the special meeting-place for specialists from the different sciences and for those from other domains of activity, especially artists, industrialists and educational specialists. Such a centre for research does not exist anywhere, neither in France, nor Europe nor the entire world. Ultimately international in character, this centre, by virtue of its geographical position and its initial structure, would, to start with, have an european flavour.
Besides the defined research activity, materialising in publications and colloquia, we envisage organising an Annual International Conference, regular press briefings, and the setting up of an information bank.
It is clear that the functioning of such an International Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies and Research will demand certain material resources, and a minimum of structural organisation (even though, to be faithful to its one tenets, it ought to aim for self-organisation).
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Scientific knowledge, as a consequence of its own internal development, has arrived at a stage where it ought reestablish an active dialogue with other forms of knowledge. Founded on a spirit of scientific rigour the activity of the International Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies and Research will encourage the establishment of a dynamic exchange between the exact sciences, the social sciences and art and tradition.
While recognizing its principal role as the furthering of fundamental research, the International Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies and Research will keep an open interest in society. Special attention will be given to research into new methods of education aimed at surmounting the rupture between contemporary science and the outmoded images of the world. In the long term it is possible to envisage the creation of a "Transdisciplinary University".
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The advances in modern science lead one to forsee the birth of a new rationality, infinitely richer than that bequeathed to us by the scientific hopes of the 19th century. The creation of an International Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies and Research could help greatly towards the advent of this new rationality.
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