Varadaraja V. Raman: "Transdisciplinarity as the Search for Unity behind Diversity"

The Metanexus Institute has put a lot of videos from their various events online (they use Vimeo to hose their material, which is a great video service) - very cool. I'll be sharing some of the ones I enjoy the most, but you can follow the link above to the collection and take a look for yourself.

Varadaraja V. Raman: "Transdisciplinarity as the Search for Unity behind Diversity"

The Senior Fellow Lecture

We all belong to the same biological species, or as we say in more humanistic terms, we are all members of the same large human family; religiously speaking, children of the same cosmic creative principle. An aspect of the human condition is that we form groups and subgroups which are sometimes mutually cooperative, sometimes mutually combative. The major factors that unite and divide us are race (a no longer acceptable term, but may refer simply to superficial skin-color distinctions), religion (a mighty force that has both noble and ignoble sides) and language (which is beautiful and endearing only to those who understand it). These three factors also form the basic elements of human culture. Culture is situated in Nature.

The world of nature is characterized by a plethora of elements which range from stones and sand to living organisms and stars and galaxies. All these are situated in the Cosmos.

The variety in the world, whether in the biological and human context, or in the physical and astronomical context, may well be a necessary condition for a universe to exist as a stable complex entity. And this variety also contributes to the aesthetic splendor of the world.

But the separateness that is inevitable in variety is also cause for unpleasantness and harshness sometimes, for humans in many ways and for other animals in other ways. It tends to cover up the commonalty that unites everything, and promotes feeding on one another. A more rewarding appraisal and appreciation of the world may be gained by regarding the world not as a seamless smooth entity (which it is in a larger metaphysical and even biological sense), nor by focusing always on the differences (which are there to stay), but rather as a colorful quilt woven together to create a wondrous whole. Transdiciplinarity may then be looked upon as the understanding of unity behind the diversity, an ancient uplifting theme. It seeks to explore the binding as well as the splintering features of the complex world of culture and nature.

This paper will examine transdisciplinarity from these considerations so as to make the human experience intellectually satisfying and spiritually fulfilling also.

~ Metanexus 2009 conference was held in Phoenix, AZ, July 18-21 (2009) on the theme of "Cosmos, Nature, and Culture."

Varadaraja V. Raman: "Transdisciplinarity as the Search for Unity behind Diversity" from Metanexus Institute on Vimeo.

Tags: Metanexus Institute, Varadaraja V. Raman, Transdisciplinarity as the Search for Unity behind Diversity, Senior Fellow Lecture, Cosmos, Nature, Culture, Integral, Transdiciplinarity, Science, diversity, unity, spirituality