Ohio State Lectures

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Ohio State
Lectures
Addressing Disciplinary Fragmentation
....in Science and the Liberal Arts

• Calvin B. DeWitt
• Professor
• Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental
  Studies
• University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Based upon a paper given
at The University of ChicagoDeWitt,
C.B. 2007. The Professor and the Pupil
Addressing Secularization and Disciplinary
Fragmentation in Academia, J. Amer. Sci.
Affiliation PSCF 59(2)119-127.
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Human activity is putting such strain on the
natural functions of Earth that the ability of
the planet's ecosystems to sustain future
generations can no longer be taken for granted.
---Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment Board, 2005
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Human activity is putting such strain on the
natural functions of Earth that the ability of
the planet's ecosystems to sustain future
generations can no longer be taken for granted.
...protection of these assets can no longer be
seen as an optional extra, to be considered once
more pressing concerns such as wealth creation
or national security have been dealt with.
---Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment Board, 2005
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Human activity is putting such strain on the
natural functions of Earth that the ability of
the planet's ecosystems to sustain future
generations can no longer be taken for granted.
...protection of these assets can no longer be
seen as an optional extra, to be considered once
more pressing concerns such as wealth creation
or national security have been dealt with.
...healthy ecosystems are central to the
aspirations of humankind.
---Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board, 2005
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The Situation

• Disciplinary and Practical Fragmentation
• Separation of Science and Praxis from Values
• Placement (conceptually) of the Human Economy
• outside of the Economy of Creation
• Disruption of the Economy of Creation
• Globalization of the Degradation of Creation

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The Situation (Pass One)

• Disciplinary and Practical Fragmentation

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• My premise
• Disciplinary fragmentation reductionism
  
• ..have driven a descent down a
  cascade
• of smaller
  smaller subsystems

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In Lifes Irreducible Structure, Michael
Polanyi thoughtfully reflects on The structure of
life, finding in the hierarchy of
living things from the sub-cellular level
to tissues, organisms,
ecosystems,and beyondthat any level being
investigated has two sets of controls one
within that level and another above that level.
---Science 1968
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Each level relies for its operations on all the
levels below it. Each reduces the scope of the
one immediately below it by imposing on it a
boundary that harnesses it to the service of the
next-higher level, and this control is
transmitted stage by stage, down to the basic
inanimate level. And as we ascend a hierarchy
of boundaries, we reach to ever higher levels of
meaning. Our understanding of the whole
hierarchic edifice keeps deepening as we move
upward from stage to stage. Michael Polanyi,
1968.
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Szent-Gyorgyi describes in 1966 his descent into
the quantum physics of muscle , losing life in
the process, and climbing back up the ladder to
discover life once againthe life that originally
attracted him to a vocation in science.In
another paper he writes will the study of
molecules ever tell us what the temple of life
is, which is our body? In order to understand the
temple, we must attempt to connect the bricks to
higher units---walls, columns, and the like---in
the hope that eventually we may even approach the
sanctuary.
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• My premise
• Disciplinary fragmentation reductionism
  
• ..have driven a descent down a
  cascade
• of smaller
  smaller subsystems

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• My premise
• Disciplinary fragmentation reductionism
  
• ..have driven a descent down a
  cascade
• of smaller
  smaller subsystems
• This has broken the connections among
• scientia, ethics praxis.

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The Situation (Pass Two)

• Disciplinary and Practical Fragmentation
• Separation of Science and Praxis from Values

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The Science-Ethics-Praxis Triad

• Scientia

• Ethics

• Praxis

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The Science-Ethics-Praxis Triad

• Scientia
• How does the
  world work?

• Ethics
• What ought to be?

• Praxis
• Then what must we do?

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Scientia The body of knowledge whose
elements we strive to make coherent
---within this body, and ---with the ways
things are in the operations of the
earth and the biosphere.
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Ethics Knowledge understanding of what
ought to be with respect to human actions
in the world. Requires ---reading of the
text of the biosphere together and coherently
with the Oral and Written Ethical Texts that
have stood the text of history.
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Huston Smith,pre-eminent scholar of world
religions

• Science cannot provide counsel concerning things
  that matter most.
• Not all contents of the great wisdom traditions
  are enduringly wise.

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Praxis The actions of people in the world
derived from a knowledge of how
things can be accomplished. incorporates both
this practice, and the body of practical
knowledge upon which it depends.
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The Situation (Pass Three)

• Disciplinary and Practical Fragmentation
• Separation of Science and Praxis from Values
• Placement (conceptually) of the Human Economy
• outside of the Economy of Creation

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William Blake
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Praxis informs science on what more we need to
know about the world. Ethics informs us on what
more we need to consider on what ought to be
before we act in the world.
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Praxis, in its most robust and rich sense,
flows from the fullest understanding of
scientia and ethics, and is controlled by the
interactions and interrelationships among
all three corners of the triad. With
these sources of knowledge, and the overarching
control of the three interacting, Praxis directs
human actions in the world toward shaping and
reshaping human behavior in the direction of
right living and restoring right living on
earth.
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The Situation (Pass Four)

• Disciplinary and Practical Fragmentation
• Separation of Science and Praxis from Values
• Placement (conceptually) of the Human Economy
• outside of the Economy of Creation
• Disruption of the Economy of Creation
• Globalization of the Degradation of Creation

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Human activity is putting such strain on the
natural functions of Earth that the ability of
the planet's ecosystems to sustain future
generations can no longer be taken for granted.
...protection of these assets can no longer be
seen as an optional extra, to be considered once
more pressing concerns such as wealth creation
or national security have been dealt with.
...healthy ecosystems are central to the
aspirations of humankind.
---Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board, 2005
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Praxis in the 21st Century The
Needed Actions

• Need for Recovery from Disciplinary Fragmentation
• Need for Recovery from Practical Fragmentation
• Need for Recovery from Secularization
• Re-Ligation of Science, Ethics, and Praxis
• Need for Placement of the Human Economy
  inside of Creations Economy
• Need for Recovery of Integrity of Creation

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