Unified Science
Encyclopedia
"Unified Science" can refer to any of three related strands in contemporary thought.
- Belief in the unity of scienceUnity of scienceThe unity of science is a thesis in philosophy of science that says that all the sciences form a unified whole.Even though, for example, physics and politics are distinct disciplines, the thesis of the unity of science says that in principle they must be part of a unified intellectual endeavor,...
was a central tenet of logical positivismLogical positivismLogical positivism is a philosophy that combines empiricism—the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge—with a version of rationalism incorporating mathematical and logico-linguistic constructs and deductions of epistemology.It may be considered as a type of analytic...
. Different logical positivists construed this doctrine in several different ways, e.g. as a reductionistReductionismReductionism can mean either an approach to understanding the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things or a philosophical position that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can...
thesis, that the objects investigated by the special sciencesSpecial sciencesThe special sciences are those sciences other than physics that are sometimes thought to be reducible to physics, or to stand in some similar relation of dependence to physics as the "fundamental" science. The usual list includes chemistry, biology, neuroscience, and many others...
reduce to the objects of a common, putatively more basic domain of science, usually thought to be physics; as the thesis that all of the theories and results of the various sciences can or ought to be expressed in a common language or "universal slang"; or as the thesis that all the special sciences share a common methodScientific methodScientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
. - The writings of Edward HaskellEdward HaskellEdward Fröhlich Haskell was a synergic scientist and integral thinker who dedicated his life to the unification of human knowledge into a single discipline.-Biography:Haskell was born in Phillipopolis, now Plovdiv, Bulgaria...
and a few associates, seeking to rework science into a single discipline employing a common artificial language. This work culminated in the 1972 publication of Full Circle: The Moral Force of Unified Science. The vast part of the work of Haskell and his contemporaries remains unpublished, however. Timothy Wilken and Anthony JudgeAnthony JudgeAnthony Judge, is mainly known for his career at the Union of International Associations , where he has been Director of Communications and Research, as well as Assistant Secretary-General...
have recently revived and extended the insights of Haskell and his coworkers. - Unified Science has been a consistent thread since the 1940s in Howard T. OdumHoward T. OdumHoward Thomas Odum was an American ecologist...
's systems ecologySystems ecologySystems ecology is an interdisciplinary field of ecology, taking a holistic approach to the study of ecological systems, especially ecosystems. Systems ecology can be seen as an application of general systems theory to ecology. Central to the systems ecology approach is the idea that an ecosystem...
and the associated Emergy SynthesisEmergy synthesisEmergy synthesis is a method employing emergy algebra for combining the constituent elements of separate materials or abstract entities into a single or unified entity or system. The conception of synthesis is formally analogous to the concept used by electronic engineers Emergy synthesis is a...
, modeling the "ecosystemEcosystemAn ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
": the geochemical, biochemical, and thermodynamic processes of the lithosphereLithosphereThe lithosphere is the rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet. On Earth, it comprises the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of thousands of years or greater.- Earth's lithosphere :...
and biosphereBiosphereThe biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...
. Modeling such earthly processes in this manner requires a science uniting geology, physics, biology, and chemistry (H.T.Odum 1995). With this in mind, Odum developed a common language of scienceEnergy Systems LanguageThe Energy Systems Language , also referred to as Energese, Energy Circuit Language and Generic Systems Symbols, was developed by the ecologist Howard T. Odum and colleagues in the 1950s during studies of the tropical forests funded by the United States Atomic Energy Commission...
based on electronic schematics, with applications to ecology economic systems in mind (H.T.Odum 1994).
See also
- Co-Action Compass
- ConsilienceConsilienceConsilience, or the unity of knowledge , has its roots in the ancient Greek concept of an intrinsic orderliness that governs our cosmos, inherently comprehensible by logical process, a vision at odds with mystical views in many cultures that surrounded the Hellenes...
— the unification of knowledge, e.g. science and the humanities - Unity of scienceUnity of scienceThe unity of science is a thesis in philosophy of science that says that all the sciences form a unified whole.Even though, for example, physics and politics are distinct disciplines, the thesis of the unity of science says that in principle they must be part of a unified intellectual endeavor,...
- Tree of Knowledge SystemTree of Knowledge System]The Tree of Knowledge System is a theoretical approach to the unification of psychology developed by Gregg Henriques, associate professor and Director of the Combined-Integrated Doctoral Program in Clinical and School Psychology at James Madison University.The outline of the system was published...
External links
- Future Positive Timothy Wilken's website, including a lot of material and diagrams on Edward Haskell's Unified Science
- Cardioid Attractor Fundamental to Sustainability - 8 transactional games forming the heart of sustainable relationship Anthony Judge's further development of these ideas