Transdisciplinarity
University of Corte, France
RESEARCH PAPER
“Les sous-ensembles, dans les grands ensembles, s’assemblent.” (Mc Solaar - La Belle et le Bad Boy)
Stéphane Lique
2012-13
In the course of this research, many discoveries led me down new paths, and so on. I found myself with a wealth of fascinating and relevant information, which I have deliberately retained so that this presentation, while remaining clear and concise, best expresses what I have learned from my questioning.
Table of contents
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
- Documentation
- Conducting the interviews
- Distribution of work within the group
RESULTS
- The transdisciplinary
- The scientific creator
- The literate scholar
DISCUSSIONS
CONCLUSION
REFERENCE DOCUMENTS
INTRODUCTION
As part of my "Professional Project", I chose to work on scientific research. I had only a vague idea of the research profession before the project began. I believed that research was a means of finding solutions to problems that arise, or answers to questions that arise, and that the researcher, in addition to answering them, constantly poses new ones. As I saw it, basic research served to provide a kind of knowledge base on which applied research could develop, and on these two elements, so to speak, society rested. I was no more familiar with the profession than the other two students I worked with on the project. Drawing up a picture turned out to be difficult, so it was an opportunity for us to find out: to do research on research.
My classmates each had a favorite field, and they had to focus their research on chemistry and medical biology. Choosing isn't always easy, and for my part, I oscillated between various fields without settling on one. So, without going into too much detail, we began to gather information about the profession and, as we gathered information, I noticed that for many people, as for my fellow students and myself, scientific research mainly concerned the exact sciences, or hard sciences.
While it's hard to call literature, economics, sociology, anthropology or anything else a science, the adjective "scientific" has trouble conveying the full scope of research. From that moment on, I too began to focus on my work. Starting with the question "Why is knowledge cut into pieces?", I knew I'd have to find out when and how. My topic of reflection gradually took shape, and I became more concerned with interactions than with the separation of knowledge, asking myself what effects these interactions had on research and the researcher?
MATERIEL ET METHODS
Documentation
The documents used in the composition of my Professional Project, come from 4 types of sources:
interviews with several members of staff at the University of Corte, mainly teacher-researchers and equivalent, associated with the research ;
documents used to write the 1st-year Master's thesis of a student in Comparative Literature - Literary Studies - Forms and Expressions of Identity at the University of Corte (and I was able to follow the progress of her work - Identity and Relationship to the World - Science and Imagination in Literature);
extracts from literary and scientific works, which are either the property of the University of Corte library, or mine;
internet, for official sites, the European Charter for Researchers, online articles, virtual documents (pdf), dictionaries, etc., all last consulted on April 13, 2013.
Conducting the interviews
We interviewed professors, lecturers, teacher-researchers, PhDs and doctoral students, who are the research players closest to us, and also the most accessible. The interviews were conducted both on and off site; some were recorded, and most were the subject of a written summary, or a rough rendition of part of the interview.
Distribution of work within the group
Both documentation and writing were personal. We prepared our interviews together, and each student did at least one interview on his or her own, most of them with two or three people. The entire group participated fully in every stage of the poster's creation. All the work was carried out thanks to the cohesion of the group.
RESULTATS
The question of what makes a "good" researcher is likely to be answered very subjectively. Talking about the qualities of a "good" researcher is another way of talking about the qualifications that benefit his or her career.
In an article entitled “What makes a "good" researcher?” (in PLUME! magazine), Cédric Gaucherel sketches out an answer:
"The first idea that comes to mind is that there is no single answer: to be a good researcher is undoubtedly to exploit the qualities that are unequally distributed in each of us. What are these qualities? Without attempting to classify these qualities, we can certainly identify: general scientific culture, capacity for innovation or originality, adaptability, managerial skills, skills in management, communication, popularization and teaching, a critical, synthetic and ethical mind, motivation or passion, pride and self-confidence, writing skills, etc. Thus, there is certainly a plurality of researcher profiles, far from the label of excellence that we try to put on them at every evaluation."
In the excerpt, the author describes a "good" researcher as one who is capable of cultivating several of the skills mentioned, and who possesses a certain multi-skilling.
Most of the qualifications mentioned are in line with those set out in the European Charter for Researchers:
In the paragraph General principles and basic conditions applicable to researchers:
"All researchers should ensure, in accordance with their contractual arrangements, that the results of their research are disseminated and exploited, for example by being communicated, transferred to other research organizations or, where appropriate, commercialized. (...) Researchers should ensure that their research activities are made known to society at large in such a way that they can be understood by non-specialists, thereby improving society's understanding of science."
In this excerpt, we read that the researcher must ensure that the results of his research are passed on, both to his own scientific community and to other disciplines, and must also make scientific discoveries intelligible to a wide audience of non-specialists. This corresponds to the communication, popularization and teaching skills, as well as the writing skills mentioned in Plume's previous article! We can also see that the interest in spilling over into other disciplines is suggested by the sharing of these results with other research organizations.
In the paragraph General principles and basic conditions applicable to employers and funders :
"Employers and/or funders must recognize the value of geographic, intersectoral, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and virtual mobility 12, as well as mobility between the public and private sectors, as an important means of increasing scientific knowledge and professional development at all stages of a researcher's career. "3
cHere, transdisciplinarity clearly appears as an important means of increasing scientific knowledge, as much as geographical, intersectoral, interdisciplinary and virtual mobility, and becomes a selection criterion.
Added to the previous paragraph are the General Principles and Basic Conditions constituting the Code of Conduct:
"These evaluation procedures should take due account of all their creativity in research and their research results, e.g. publications, patents, research management, teaching and conferences, supervision, mentoring, national or international collaboration, administrative tasks, public awareness activities and mobility, and should be taken into consideration in the context of career advancement. (...) The selection process should take into account the totality of experience 15 acquired by candidates. While focusing on their overall potential as researchers, it should also take into account their creativity and degree of independence. "3
We can now see a correlation between the creativity of the European Charter and the innovation and originality of C. Gaucherel's article.
For the purposes of my presentation, I'll be focusing solely on communication skills, the ability to create, and transdisciplinarity.
The transdisciplinary
This recent term is equivocal, implying either :
a researcher capable of going beyond his field of research. Alain Muselli, senior lecturer at the University of Corte, recounts how, in his work on essential oils, he had to open plant biology textbooks to acquire notions he was missing. There's also the example of microscopy, a technique which, before it became accessible to every biologist, was practiced by the microscopist.
a researcher who favors the alliance of neighboring disciplines, capable of joining forces with other researchers on a common project, as the CNRS puts it on its website: "Archaeologists and paleontologists work with computer scientists, climatologists with hydrologists, virologists with physicists and mathematicians. It's one of the CNRS's key roles to break down the barriers between disciplines and emulate data transfer. The CNRS stimulates cooperation between the sciences and encourages the passage of knowledge across disciplinary barriers."
a researcher capable of bringing together several disciplines, whether close or distant, in a common project. He or she would be like a binder enabling a relationship to be established between disciplines, while at the same time being at ease in one or more of these fields, and pursuing knowledge that goes beyond a single perspective. This is explained in the manifesto La transdisciplinarité by Basarab Nicolescu, theoretical physicist, author and president of the Centre international de recherches et d'études transdisciplinaires: "Transdisciplinarity concerns, as the prefix 'trans' indicates, that which is at once between disciplines, across different disciplines and beyond any discipline. Its purpose is the understanding of the present world, one of the imperatives of which is the unity of knowledge."
The confusion between versatility, multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity is easy to understand. The first notion is the accumulation of skills by a researcher. The fruit of the combinations implied by the next two is the strengthening of a discipline. Transdisciplinarity is about understanding the world from a global perspective.
The scientific creator
We know that there is a direct link between research and innovation, by the very fact that a National Research and Innovation Strategy (SNRI) was drawn up by the government, in 2009, to define the priorities for research over 4 years. Consequently, there is a clear link between the researcher and the ability to create. Yet "there's a cliché about scientific creation being associated with an unshakeable logical process, where the psychological factor is present at the level of the accidental, or the picturesque", as Basarab Nicolescu puts it in his 2010 conference Science, art et imaginaire, where he argues in favor of his thesis, which he summarizes: "There are similarities in the nature of the functioning of the imaginary in artistic creation, and that of scientific creation. A remarkable fact." 6
Does the genius researcher, represented by Einstein for example, have anything to do with the genius artist, Da Vinci? This genius makes it possible to draw a parallel, and perhaps we should see if there is a correspondence to be made between genius and transdisciplinarity, both of which lie between the elements, cross them, and are at the same time beyond them, i.e. belong to no one. What is certain is that Einstein himself thought of putting the artist on an equal footing with the scientist:
"Albert Einstein insisted on the fundamental role of imagination and intuition in the discovery and development of new scientific models, and he liked to emphasize that the natural attitude of the scientist is wonder:
We could say: what is and always will be inconceivable about the world is that it is conceivable [...] The most beautiful experience we can have is that of the mystery of life. It is the original feeling from which all art and science draw their roots. When we don't know it, when we no longer know how to be astonished, to be amazed, it's as if we were dead (Einstein).
The sense of nature's unfathomable depth is experienced by the seeker in perpetual amazement."
The literate scholar
It seems obvious that the researcher has an obligation to transmit results or knowledge, both in writing and orally. However, in her article, C. Gaucherel writes:
"However, we cannot overemphasize the qualities whose absence would seem to contravene the status of "good" researcher: scientific culture, critical analysis and originality. The combination is essential here. (...) It should be noted that I have not mentioned writing skills as the indispensable asset of a good researcher. (...) While this is undeniably an asset in a research system that has made publication its dogma, it is not, and must not, in my view, be a redhibitory factor."2
Here, written communication does not appear to be indispensable. We can better understand his comments on a research system that has made publication its dogma, when we know that researchers are obliged to provide a minimum number of publications each year, and that these will serve as material for their evaluation, especially the number of citations.
The importance attached to publications has also been revised in the European Charter for Researchers:
"This means that merit should be judged both qualitatively and quantitatively, with the emphasis on outstanding results achieved in a diverse career path and not just on the number of publications. Consequently, the importance of bibliometric indicators should be properly weighted within a broader range of evaluation criteria, such as teaching, supervision, teamwork, knowledge transfer, research management, innovation and public awareness activities."3
In addition to publications aimed at the scientific community, there are lectures, essays and scholarly speeches, followed by teaching manuals written for students, and finally, popular works for non-specialists. This great diversity of knowledge media clearly shows that communication is a quality of the researcher.
DISCUSSIONS
Certainly, there must already be personnel in the laboratories with the necessary hindsight to be trans-disciplinary, endowed with a faculty of imagination creating original and effective combinations, and gifted with great eloquence. And if not, or if there are fewer of them, why not? Perhaps because the researcher who belongs to no single discipline, who mixes art and science, and who knows how to formulate his knowledge for each sensibility facing him, is difficult to categorize, because he is inclined to use poetry to explain a theory (like Lucretius, the theory of the atom), which makes his work and his purpose too imprecise. All this seems unacceptable to our modern age. That's why there are no special jobs for this type of profile. It's worth noting that this ideal researcher, perhaps even idealized, shares traits with the famous sage of antiquity, as well as with the more recent "humanities" scholar. Once again, the modern and the ancient come face to face. And by definition, the modern is opposed to the ancient. Our linear view of time means that we have a complex relationship with the past, present and future. Our one-way view corresponds to the fact that we retain from history, sometimes its mistakes in order to avoid them, sometimes its models of success in order to reproduce them - more rarely we re-actualize, we bring up to date - and similarly, it is commonly accepted that science is approached in one direction only, from the general to the particular. It's common to think that the further we go, the better we evolve, just as it's common to think that the deeper we go, the closer we get to reality, or even the truth. This way of looking at things is not exclusive, and is probably just as accurate as it is subject to prejudice and a priori, and therefore highly subjective.
The idea of a "good" researcher similar to the scientists of yesteryear is all the more unwelcome given that, in those more remote times, the roles were confused, as confirmed by history, anthropology, ethnology, the history of religions, and even literature: Simone Vierne says of Lucretius - "At the time, there was no boundary between the poet, the philosopher and the physicist: their common mission was to provide an explanation of the world."8
We also know that "In the most ancient civilizations, the priest, the magician and the physician were one and the same. Among the Assyro-Babylonians, Egyptians or Mayans, the same person sacrificed to the gods, questioned the stars and prescribed medicines." (The example of the medical field has its advantages: although incomplete, it provides an example of what, in my view, the transdisciplinary researcher brings to specialists, and vice versa - among other things, the general practitioner refers to the specialist doctor, if necessary. What's more, he's the scientist closest to most people, in any society or era. Musicians, too.)
Nowadays, it has to be admitted that the mixing of genres is sometimes held in high esteem, by sufferers for example; sometimes it is depreciated and seen as a sign of a lack of seriousness, or of charlatanism. However, it is interesting to note that, among other scientific publications, we find on the CIRET website, Médecine Quantique by Christian Daniel Assoun (it seems that quantum physics is likely to interact more spontaneously with the rest of knowledge, as seen in the previous example and in this book by Bruce H.Lipton, Ph.D. of the University of Virginia, Biology of Beliefs, mixing biology and quantum physics).
"The doctor knows how difficult it is to define a cure. There are so many illnesses, so many patients, so many ways of healing."9 If, in his day, he was both an astrologer and a former astronomer, he had to examine every possibility, including the macrophysical factor he studied in the position of the stars. Today, such influences have, to be sure, been reconsidered, devalued and elided. But Christian Daniel Assoun is not far removed from the astrologer-doctor's tactic, when in his approach he marries medicine and quantum physics, if we understand that quantum physics belongs to the microphysical realm, a realm whose transition to our macrophysical world is imperceptible. Without admitting too much, a return to the old mindset is taking place, one that aims to harmonize understanding and life, but which admittedly needs to be readapted to the present context if it is to have any raison d'être. And despite the contradictions, everyone can see what the generalist or transdisciplinary approach offers in terms of new perspectives. But to give transdisciplinarity a chance to prove itself, we need to make room for it.
University courses suffer from this absence, even if they necessarily offer an eclectic education, firstly, so that the student covers the basics of different sub-specialties within the same branch, and then makes the choice of a specialty. In other words, they look at the general aspect of a field before orienting their gaze. This choice, which may be advantageous for the student who spares himself subjects he dislikes, can be a heartbreaker for the person who aspires to global knowledge, and who, in his private life, naturally crosses the invisible boundaries that divide disciplines.
CONCLUSION
Through my research, I've discovered that research is also the relationship between the researcher and knowledge, part of his or her relationship with the world. This relationship is similar to the one each of us has with knowledge. The same can be seen in our relationship with mathematics, for example: the aversion that some feel, against the fascination that others develop, and the feeling of loneliness of those who feel lost; in the same way, learning and passing the driving test gives one person cold sweats, while another develops a passion for cars. It's these likes and dislikes, these emotions that run through us during, before and after learning, that make the relationship. We can imagine it as a road or a bridge between us and knowledge, and that research is one of these bridges. We can clearly see that the researcher's approach, thirsting for knowledge, is not that of the future driver, and it is precisely this way of approaching science that makes the difference between these paths that lead to knowledge and to doing. But like all of us, the researcher has feelings about knowledge. I've discovered that the personal relationship between man and knowledge, or researcher and discovery, can be "intimate", when it's not formal, and I've learned this from doing this project.
To illustrate this reality, in the course of the interview, Alain Muselli recounts that for him - "it's more passionate than anything else"; Alexandra Albertini, a professor of modern literature at the same university, and who is doing her doctorate in 17th-century comparative literature, admits that research gives her - "escape! It's fun! It's having an emotional intensity that goes very high and goes very low too, it's living in the moment, it's feeling, it's fixing time, it's being on a page for seven hours and not seeing time go by!"
To express the wonder I felt as I contemplated my discoveries, and the difficulty I had in figuring out how to arrange them, then the moment when comfort joined completion, I'd like to end with an extract from Boccaccio's commentary (1313-1375), where he develops the allegorical interpretations of ancient myths that made Fulgentius the Mythographer, a Latin author of the 5th or 6th century, famous.
In this text, through the nine Muses, we are given an atypical description of research, if not alchemy:
"Then the same Fulgence, in another and better-known sense, describes the effects of these Muses based on their names and what is to be understood by each in particular. Thus, the first named is Clio, by which he means the principle of the idea of learning, because clios in Greek is the same as fama (glory) in Latin: and there is no one who does not seek science if it is not because he believes he can durably secure the dignity of his own glory through it; and this is why the first Muse is called Clio, i.e. "the idea of seeking science". The second is called Euterpe in Greek, which in Latin means "to give pleasure", because first we seek science, and then we take pleasure in research. The third is called Melpomene, or melempio comene, meaning "to make meditation last", because first there must be desire, then this desire gives pleasure, and then we persevere by meditating on what we desire. The fourth is called Thalie, meaning seed (capacitas), as if we were saying tithonlia, meaning "to lay down that which will germinate". The fifth is called Polymnia or polium neemen, meaning "that which makes much memory", because we say that after capacity comes memory. The sixth is called Ératô, i.e. eurun comenon, which we translate into Latin as "that which finds the similar", because after science and after memory, it is right that one should find of oneself something similar. The seventh is called Terpsichore, meaning "the pleasure of instruction": so, after invention, we must be able to exercise critical judgment on what we have found. The eighth is called Urania, i.e. "celestial", because after exercising one's judgment, one chooses what to say and what to reject: and because choosing what is useful and rejecting what is obsolete and useless is the act of a celestial mind. The ninth is called Calliope, meaning "the most beautiful of voices".
The order, then, will be this: first, desire knowledge; then take pleasure in one's desire; then persevere in that which gives pleasure; and further, take possession of that in which one must persevere; and accordingly remember what one has appropriated; then find of oneself something similar to what one remembers; after that, pass judgment on what [one has found]; and thus choose that which has been determined by judgment; and finally, profer well that which one will have chosen."
REFERENCE DOCUMENTS :
1 La belle et le bad boy, MC Solaar, rapper-singer, album 5 e As, 2001
2 What makes a good researcher? Cedric Gaucherel, Plume vol.5, Montpellier, 2008, p. 9: http://umramap.cirad.fr/amap3/cm/uploads/Documents/Docs_Gaucherel/GC_Plume5-N%26B.pdf
Cedric Gaucherel, head of the ecology department at the Institut Français de Pondicherry: http://umramap.cirad.fr/amap3/cm/index.php?page=cv-19
3 European Charter for Researchers, official text: http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/pdf/brochure_rights/eur_21620_en-fr.pdf
4 L2i, les deux infinis - CNRS: www.cnrs.fr/fr/organisme/film.htm
5 La transdisciplinarité : manifeste, Basarab Nicolescu, éditions du Rocher, Monaco, 1996: www.basarab-nicolescu.fr/BOOKS/TDRocher.pdf (available free of charge)
Basasarb Nicolescu, theoretical physicist at CNRS, author, president of the Centre International Center for Transdisciplinary Research and Studies (CIRET)
6 Lecture Sciences, arts et imaginaire, Basarab Nicolescu, palais de la découverte, Paris, March 30 March 2010: http://jacqueshonvault.com/audio1.php
7 Black holes/hyper-space: science and myth, Catherine Mathière
8 Liaisons orageuses: la science et la littérature, article by Simone Vierne, in the book Science et Imaginaire, Simone Vierne et al, Centre de recherche sur l'imaginaire, ed. Ellug, Grenoble, 1985, p.7 Of the poet Lucretius (1st century B.C.) who composed De Natura Rerum, and especially of his description his description "as his reader would expect, and in verse, (of) the physics inherited from Democritus, and in particular the theory of atoms, with their declination", she says. "The poetic transposition is very beautiful and - as far as we know - does not betray the theory".
9 in the article Guérisseur, La médecine de A à Z vol.6, éd. Hachette, 1973, p.1523
10 Médecine Quantique, Christian Daniel Assoun: http://ciret-transdisciplinarity.org/ARTICLES/DNA_26_11_2012.pdf Pr Assoun C. D., Biophysicist, recognized specialist in Quantum Medicine Quantum Medicine: http://www.bio-sante.fr/christian-daniel-assoun.html
11 Biology of Belief, Bruce H. Lipton, ed. Ariane Publications Et Distribution, Sept. 2006: http://livre.fnac.com/a1875100/Bruce-H-Lipton-Biologie-des-croyances
Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., University of Virginia, cell biologist and author, blends biology and quantum physics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lipton
12 Interview with Alain Muselli, lecturer and teacher-researcher at the University of Corte [March 07, 2013]
13 Interview with Alexandra Albertini, professeur agrégée de lettres modernes, and doctoral student in seventeenth-century comparative literature (science and religion) at the University of Corte [March 27 2013]
14 Fulgence, Virgile dévoilé, Paris, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2009, trans. E. Wolff and F.Graziani, p.147-149
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