Bio-techno-practice. Personal and social responsibility in the academic work

The new challenges posed by biomedicine and biotechnologies ask for a deeper consideration on the relationship among science, knowledge and social responsibility. On one hand, in fact, technologies seem to shape our idea of human progress and scientific understanding of the natural world and of life in particular. On the other hand, a thoughtful consideration on the philosophical foundations of science as human enterprise is required. This also opens important questions about the new emerging paradigms of ‘excellence’ in the academic, social and market fields and on the role that universities play in training the future leaders and professionals of our society. After a short review of the contemporary philosophical reflections on the unity of knowledge, which is the origin and the goal of academic work, we argue that adherence to our current challenges through the bio-techno-practice prism is a fecund driving force of the academic activities. Moving from the experience of an international project, we also discuss the impact that such interdisciplinary activities have on what we call hidden curriculum, i.e. the embodied style of (skills that allow) people in taking care of each other in their physical, social, professional and scientific needs

The Triple Helix Perspective of Innovation Systems

Alongside the neo-institutional model of networked relations among universities, industries, and governments, the Triple Helix can be provided with a neo-evolutionary interpretation as three selection environments operating upon one another: markets, organizations, and technological opportunities. How are technological innovation systems different from national ones? The three selection environments fulfill social functions: wealth creation, organization control, and organized knowledge production. The main carriers of this system-industry, government, and academia-provide the variation both recursively and by interacting among them under the pressure of competition. Empirical case studies enable us to understand how these evolutionary mechanisms can be expected to operate in historical instance. The model is needed for distinguishing, for example, between trajectories and regimes

Complexity and Philosophy

The science of complexity is based on a new way of thinking that stands in sharp contrast to the philosophy underlying Newtonian science, which is based on reductionism, determinism, and objective knowledge. This paper reviews the historical development of this new world view, focusing on its philosophical foundations. Determinism was challenged by quantum mechanics and chaos theory. Systems theory replaced reductionism by a scientifically based holism. Cybernetics and postmodern social science showed that knowledge is intrinsically subjective. These developments are being integrated under the header of “complexity science”. Its central paradigm is the multi-agent system. Agents are intrinsically subjective and uncertain about their environment and future, but out of their local interactions, a global organization emerges. Although different philosophers, and in particular the postmodernists, have voiced similar ideas, the paradigm of complexity still needs to be fully assimilated by philosophy. This will throw a new light on old philosophical issues such as relativism, ethics and the role of the subject

A New Theory of Consciousness: The Missing Link - Organization

What is consciousness and what is the missing link between the sensory input and the cortical centre in the brain for consciousness? In the literature there are more than a million pages written about consciousness. The perspectives range from the field of metaphysics to those of quantum mechanics. However, no one today has produced a theory which is universally accepted. Consciousness is “something” which the majority of humans know that they posses, they use it when they want to understand their environment. However, no individual human knows whether other humans also posses consciousness. unless some tests such as she is looking at me, he is talking etc., are performed. We are caught in an intellectual sort of recursive carousel – we need consciousness to understand consciousness. To understand consciousness we have to understand the mechanism of its function, which is to effectively organize sensory inputs from our environment. Consciousness is the outcome of the process of organizing these sensory inputs. This implies that organization is an act which precedes consciousness. Since every activity in nature is to organize/disorganize, what is the element which compels this action? I am proposing that just like energy is the physical element that causes action, there is another physical element I have called it NASCIUM which has the capacity to cause organization. This is the missing link. Understanding the nature of organization, i.e. nascium, will enhance our capability to understand consciousness

The circulation of IPBES non-state actors between biodiversity and climate regimes

The International PIatform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (1 PB ES) has been established together with a process of non-state actors (NSAs) involvement. Studies that do recognize the diversity of NSAs use only broad categories: business NG0s, environmental NG0s, etc. Here we attempt to calibrate more finely the rich diversity of NSAs. This article conducts a network analysis of the non-state organizations involved in IPBES. It develops a typology of NSAs and identifies characteristics that potentially affect the effectiveness of these actors in influencing policymaking. We suggest that the influence of NSAs relies not only on three interlinked resources: power (organizational, material and ideational), combined with access, and centrality but also on actor's relational capacities, and particularly their capacity to circulate within the institutional complexity of global environmental governance. The resulting typology has considerable policy implications. Most importantly, some of the NSAs characteristics could affect their ability to position themselves and the extent to which they could influence global policymaking processes. (Résumé d'auteur