Interdisciplinarity and the unity of knowledge

training, education, teaching experiences

Abstract

The article examines the contemporary growth of interest in interdisciplinary work, assessing its different specificities and exploring the different meanings of the notion of “interdisciplinarity”. It also examines the relationship between interdisciplinary dialogue and the search for a renewed “unity of knowledge,” critically discussing whether and how this search is possible even today. As examples of interdisciplinary work relating science, philosophy and religious studies, the rationale that underpin- ned the preparation of the Interdisciplinary Dictionary of Science and Faith (2002) and the web platforms that developed its contents (disf.org and inters.org) are briefly illustrated. Among the interdisciplinary projects addressed to postgraduate and high school students, the experiences of the International School for Interdisciplinary Re- search (SISRI) and the web platform DISF Educational (disf.org/edu), promoted by the DISF Center (Documentazione Interdisciplinare di Scienza e Fede), are descri- bed. Finally, the paper suggests to move along an idea of interdisciplinarity capable of balancing the analytic-reductive approach with the synthetic-integral approach, while preserving the mediation of rigorous and not naive philosophical reflection.