Trans-disciplinary Science of Society

In September 2014 MSS collaborated with WAAS and WUC to conduct a post-graduate certificate course at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik exploring the prospects for development of a comprehensive trans-disciplinary science of society. The course involved nine faculty from MSS, WAAS and Club of Rome and was broadcast live on the web for international viewing. This course is intended as a creative endeavor to look beyond the boundaries fixed by present concepts, theories and disciplines in an effort to make more explicit the linkages and interdependencies between different fields of social activity, to develop common terminology, to identify common underlying social processes applicable to all fields and levels of society, and to examine the prospects and requirements for evolving a trans-disciplinary science of society.  The course examines the common principles applicable to an integrated science of society; similarities and differences between the natural and social sciences; including the character of scientific laws, the place of consciousness and choice; the role of the individual human being as creator, catalyst and pioneer of social change; the need for an expanded concept of causality that takes into account the role of future anticipation as an attractor; and the applicability and limitations of systems, networks and complexity theory when applied to human beings. MSS co-authored an article presenting insights from the course in “Unification in Social Sciences: Search for a Science of Society” (Cadmus, Oct 2014).