The Parmenides Foundation was established in 2000 as a non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering multi-disciplinary research on thinking at the interface between the natural sciences and the humanities.
The foundation is based in Germany and Italy. Its main activity is to run the Parmenides Center for the Study of Thinking, a research organisation that has been set up in cooperation with the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich.
2009 the Parmenides Center for Art and Science was founded and currently the new Parmenides Center for the Conceptual Foundations of Science is being established, both to broaden the field of activities of the foundation. ->more
The foundation also aims to translate scientific findings into applications in education and software-based methodologies to support and enhance reasoning and decision-making in the corporate and public domains. ->more
The foundation's scope displays a threefold structure. The first pillar represents research on thinking as the primary purpose. It is being complemented by two further fields of activity: education and application.
Research
Research is implemented at the Parmenides Center for the Study of Thinking (PCST), the Parmenides Center for Art and Science, and the Parmenides Center for the Conceptual Foundations of Science. The purpose of these three centers is to provide a supportive infrastructure for multi-disciplinary research on human thinking. PCST draws on modern imaging techniques as well as on behavioural studies and has its own EEG lab. The empirical work is complemented by modeling approaches and philosophical/conceptual analyses and methods.
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Education
Parmenides Education engages in designing science-based programs for teaching “the art of thinking”. The focus is on evidence based kindergarten training program that fosters cognitive abilities in pre-school children, and on providing custumized courses for post-doctoral students heading for careers in academia or industry. Furthermore we offer lectures and university courses on the topic of thinking.
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Application
The goal of Parmenides Application is to translate findings in basic research into practical applications. Progress in scientific research on thinking enables us to develop services for executives in the private and public sector, which will enhance their thinking and decision making. Representative are Parmenides EIDOS™, a software-based reasoning tool, and the Parmenides Academy, a professional training provider.
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