Scientific disciplines have “cognitive kernels”, i.e. thought-patterns by which many crucial insights are generated. Some of those thought-patterns turn out to be of great relevance to other fields, and a large part of scientific progress is due to the transfer of this kind of thought-patterns between heterogeneous disciplines.
But we hardly ever looked into this crucial transfer of thought-patterns systematically. For this reason, three years ago, Parmenides Foundation, under the umbrella of EUNICE, started to convene a series of meetings with the task of identifying and documenting the most important thought-patterns of cross-disciplinary relevance (TCRs). It turned out that the main contributors were physics and mathematics, complex systems theory, evolutionary and developmental biology, the neurosciences and cognitive psychology, and philosophy. Social sciences and humanities turned out to be more on the receiving end, although in some cases they too produced powerful thought-patterns that were of relevance to other disciplines.
Over the period of three years some three dozen TCRs could be laid bare. By familiarizing MCA students with them, the capacity to recognize and interpret complex structures and dynamics and to engage in authentic thinking, via recombining and modifying these TCRs, should be enhanced strongly.
