“Samuel Butler once said that ‘science, after all, is only an expression of our ignorance of our ignorance’, and he was right. Yet science remains a powerful method to know ourselves and to learn about our universe. How are we to continue to kindle the Promethean fire while retaining the modesty so crucial to using it responsibly? In this wonderfully wise and humane collection of essays by scientists, humanists, educators, artists and policy-makers—ranging from discussions of the importance of curiosity and education, to the role of economics in sustainability, to the cultural dimensions of health, and all the way to the function of music and beauty in cultivating our sense of belonging—we encounter an honest, and modest, attempt to make sense of our possible futures, and the ways in which we might all contribute to making those futures more flourishing and meaningful.”
– Oren Harman, Bar Ilan University, author of Evolutions: Fifteen Myths That Explain Our World
“Accelerating global change has led to a paradoxical situation: the world for which our educational systems were built does no longer exist. The 21st century has led us out of a world in which problems were reduced to ever smaller segments into a world of complexity. The third millennium calls for learning and education systems that cultivate competencies, attitudes and values for our time, the Anthropocene. This is where Seeking Understanding comes in, offering a multitude of entry points into this new universe. The diversity of themes discussed reflects the multidimensional and transdisciplinary nature of what is implied in The Lifelong Pursuit to Build the Scientific Mind.”
– Walter R. Erdelen, author of Managing Complexity: Earth Systems and Strategies for the Future
“The contributing authors explore, each in a distinctive voice, with energy and insight a fundamental challenge of our times: how to foster scientific ways of understanding and the spirit of inquiry for all learners.”
– David Perkins, Harvard Graduate School of Education, author of Future Wise
“Congratulations to Jan Visser and his team of authors for having produced an excellent publication. Seeking Inderstanding comes at a crucial moment in which human beings, all equal in dignity, must act as free and responsible citizens of the world, expressing themselves and seeking understanding, thus forging the transition from the reason of force to the force of reason, from a culture of imposition and domination to a culture of dialogue and conciliation.”
– Federico Mayor, Former Director-General of UNESCO, President, Foundation for a Culture of Peace
“This book is a meaningful source of inspiration for anyone interested in fostering transformations in the way we, as human beings, relate to the world in which we are living. This collection of contributions—written by scientists, scholars, artists, and educators, from all over the world—provides the reader with a coherent and convincing narrative to envision what is implied by the development of a way-of-being, driven by the advancement of understanding and wisdom. Going beyond a narrow definition of the ‘scientific mind,’ the work conceives of its development as a lifelong process through which humans cultivate specific habits of thinking, dispositions, values, ethical concerns, aesthetic considerations and attitudes, alongside building mastery of a heterogeneous array of skills and mental capabilities. This volume is the product of transdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations nurtured and developed over two decades by a broad community of thinkers. As such, it demonstrates the value and the richness of any scientific, artistic or educational endeavor, with the aim to sustain dialogue through space and time, and link heterogeneous sources of knowledge, in order to critically and creatively engage with the complexity of the world we inhabit.”
– Michel Alhadeff-Jones, Teachers College, Columbia University, author of Time and the Rhythms of Emancipatory Education
“Jan and Muriel Visser have put together a remarkable series of essays on the future of the scientific mind. This book, as they point out, is a collaborative creation, and one that radically expands our view of knowledge and what it means to be educated in the 21st century. The essays in this volume challenge the limited and limiting focus on hyper-specialization and disciplinary fragmentation, and urge us to reweave knowledge in a way that acknowledges and integrates complexity, creativity, and wonder. They are radical because they go to the roots of what constitutes knowledge, what is necessary for the 21st century, what is possible, and what is desirable. They are generative because they open up a world of new insights and new directions. This volume makes for compelling reading for anyone interested in the future of science, knowledge, and the development of the transdisciplinary skills and competencies required to thrive in a networked society.”
– Alfonso Montuori, California Institute of Integral Studies, editor of Journeys in Complexity: Autobiographical Accounts by Leading Systems and Complexity Thinkers
“It would be hard to find a more diverse and cosmopolitan set of authors than the one assembled by Jan and Muriel Visser here. Listen in as they draw on a variety of disciplines to shed light on the construction of the scientific mind, building on years of group collaboration. Their humanity and optimism shines like a beacon through the political smog of our times.”
– Graham Harman, Southern California Institute of Architecture, author of Object Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything