7 | TOWARD A TRANSDICIPLINARY SCIENCE OF SOCIETY

Today humanity is confronted by a plethora of challenging problems – political, economic, legal, social, cultural, psychological and ecological – that defy comprehension and resolution by a piecemeal approach based on the prevailing principles of social science. Efforts to combine and integrate perspectives from different disciplines are limited by the absence of a common conceptual framework. This six-day transdisciplinary course will explore a shared set of common principles for the formulation of an integrated science of society embracing insights applicable to all fields of social science. It will examine similarities and differences between the natural and social sciences; including the character of scientific laws, the place of consciousness and choice; the role of the individual human being as creator, catalyst and pioneer of social change; the need for an expanded concept of causality that takes into account the role of future anticipation as an attractor; and the applicability and limitations of systems, network and complexity theory when applied to human beings. Students are invited to join with the faculty to co-create the framework for an integrated science of society.