engleski

'Science' and 'culture' in university settings: areas of overlap? areas of tension? or, areas of mutual complementarity?

On one hand, ‘interdisciplinarity’ in all its formats ranging from multi- to transdisciplinarity has become the focal point of research agendas and a high priority of many funding bodies, while on the other, universities by and large still remain discipline-oriented. This ‘tension’ is especially manifest between ‘science’ and ‘culture’ in the sense of bridging gaps between disciplines and research domains. The main roles of the Humanities and Social Sciences can be said to be the development of critical and independent thought, the identification and dissemination of important social and cultural values as well as challenging widely held assumptions and beliefs. However, these major contributions that HSS can make to university education in general are in most cases not taken into account and not implemented in concrete university programs. The fundamental question is how to enrich university settings in the sense of bringing together as close as possible ‘science’ and ‘culture’ for the benefit of scientific disciplines as well as those disciplines that we traditionally find in the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Examples will be given of “successful interventions” into university programs which achieve this aim, at least to a certain extent. One of the examples that will be discussed is the mutual complementarity of electrical engineering and computing (robotics), logopedics (speech and behavioral impediments), and neuroscience in the diagnostics and treatment of autistic children. Successful implementation of robots in treating autistic children must be, apart from the technical complexity, well grounded in language as well as basic cultural values.

science ; Humanities ; culture ; university settings

nije evidentirano