Diederik Aerts

Jan Broekaert

Nicole Note

Bart D'Hooghe

The present volume is part of the ‘Worldviews, Science and Us’ series of proceedings. It contains selected contributions on the subject of bridging knowledge and its implications for our perspectives of the world. This volume also represents the proceedings of the interdisciplinary stream of the international workshop (Part 1) Times of Entanglement, 21–22 September 2010 at the Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai, People's Republic of China in the context of the Shanghai World Expo 2010 and, related cutting-edge investigations in the quantum paradigm from discussion panels organized by the Leo Apostel Center for Interdisciplinary studies within the framework of the ‘Research on the Construction of Integrating Worldviews’ research community set up by the Flanders Fund for Scientific Research. Further information about this research community and a full list of the associated international research centers can be found at http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/res/worldviews/. Contents:Interdisciplinarity and Bridging Knowledge (Diederik Aerts, Jan Broekaert, Bart D'Hooghe and Nicole Note)What About Interdisciplinarity Within Philosophy? (Robrecht Vanderbeeken)History and Philosophy of Science: From Peaceful Coexistence to Golden Age of Interdisciplinarity? (Steffen Ducheyne)Can an Understanding of How Culture Evolves Awaken a Sense of Meaning in Life? (Liane Gabora)An Interdisciplinary Focus on the Concept of Causation: What Philosophy Can Learn from Psychology (Leen De Vreese)Refocusing Undecidability: Questioning the Use of the Notion of Formal Undecidability in Other Domains (Liesbeth De Mol)Can Economics Become a Purely Experimental Science? A Comparative Study (Erik Weber)Metaphysics and Cinema (Wim Christiaens)On the Role of Contextuality in the Integration of Worldviews (Bart D'Hooghe)Quantum Interference and Superposition in Cognition: A Theory for the Disjunction of Concepts (Diederik Aerts)Compatibility and Separability for Classical and Quantum Entanglement (Diederik Aerts, Christian de Ronde and Bart D'Hooghe)Quantum Programming (Ellie D'Hondt)On the Foundations of the Theory of Evolution (Diederik Aerts, Stan Bundervoet and Bart D'Hooghe)Quantum Structure in Economics: Risk Versus Ambiguity (Diederik Aerts, Jan Broekaert, Bart D'Hooghe and Sandro Sozzo)Measuring Meaning on the World-Wide Web (Diederik Aerts)Potentiality States: Quantum versus Classical Emergence (Diederik Aerts and Bart D'Hooghe)The Bodily Excess of a Worldview: Beyond a Theoretical Account of the World (Pieter Meurs)My Heart Will Go On: The Cybernetics of Organ Harvesting, Donor (Im)Mortality and the Politics of the Non-Self (Karen De Looze) Readership: Professionals, students and general public. Keywords:Worldviews;Interdisciplinarity;Entanglement;Quantum;CreativityKey Features:The participating scholars give an up-to-date and enlightening vision on the foundations, necessity and problems of the interdisciplinary approach to worldviewsThe book gives accessible expert accounts of the newly emerging field of quantum modeling in social sciencesAll contributions are new, especially written to fit the context of ‘Interdisciplinarity and Bridging Knowledge’

Bridging Knowledge and Its Implications for Our Perspectives of the World

Worldviews, Science and Us

The present volume is part of the ‘Worldviews, Science and Us’ series of proceedings. It contains selected contributions on the subject of bridging knowledge and its implications for our perspectives of the world. This volume also represents the proceedings of the interdisciplinary stream of the international workshop (Part 1) Times of Entanglement, 21–22 September 2010 at the Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai, People's Republic of China in the context of the Shanghai World Expo 2010 and, related cutting-edge investigations in the quantum paradigm from discussion panels organized by the Leo Apostel Center for Interdisciplinary studies within the framework of the ‘Research on the Construction of Integrating Worldviews’ research community set up by the Flanders Fund for Scientific Research. Further information about this research community and a full list of the associated international research centers can be found at http: //www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/res/worldviews/.

Bridging Knowledge and Its Implications for Our Perspectives of the World : Proceedings of the Workshop on Times of Entanglement, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, 21-22 September 2010

Sandro Sozzo

Liane Gabora

Traditional approaches to cognitive psychology correspond with a classical view of logic and probability theory. More specifically, one typically assumes that cognitive processes of human thought are founded on the Boolean structures of classical logic, while the probabilistic aspects of these processes are based on the Kolmogorovian structures of classical probability theory. However, growing experimental evidence indicates that the models founded on classical structures systematically fail when human decisions are at stake. These experimental deviations from classical behavior have been called `paradoxes’, `fallacies’, `effects’ or `contradictions’, depending on the specific situation where they appear. But, they involve a broad spectrum of cognitive and social science domains, ranging from conceptual combination to decision making under uncertainty, behavioral economics, and linguistics. This situation has constituted a serious drawback to the development of various disciplines, like cognitive science, linguistics, artificial intelligence, economic modeling and behavioral finance. A different approach to cognitive psychology, initiated two decades ago, has meanwhile matured into a new domain of research, called ‘quantum cognition’. Its main feature is the use of the mathematical formalism of quantum theory as modeling tool for these cognitive situations where traditional classically based approaches fail. Quantum cognition has recently attracted the interest of important journals and editing houses, academic and funding institutions, popular science and media. Specifically, within a quantum cognition approach, one assumes that human decisions do not necessarily obey the rules of Boolean logic and Kolmogorovian probability, and can on the contrary be modeled by the quantum-mechanical formalism. Different concrete quantum-theoretic models have meanwhile been developed that successfully represent the cognitive situations that are classically problematical, by explaining observed deviations from classicality in terms of genuine quantum effects, such as `contextuality’, `emergence’, `interference’, `superposition’, `entanglement’ and `indistinguishability’. In addition, the validity of these quantum models is convincingly confirmed by new experimental tests. We also stress that, since the use of a quantum-theoretic framework is mainly for modeling purposes, the identification of quantum structures in cognitive processes does not presuppose (without being incompatible with it) the existence of microscopic quantum processes in the human brain. In this Research Topic, we review the major achievements that have been obtained in quantum cognition, by providing an accurate picture of the state-of-the-art of this emerging discipline. Our overview does not pretend to be either complete or exhaustive. But, we aim to introduce psychologists and social scientists to this challenging new research area, encouraging them, at the same time, to consider its promising results. It is our opinion that, if continuous progress in this domain can be realized, quantum cognition can constitute an important breakthrough in cognitive psychology, and potentially open the way towards a new scientific paradigm in social science.

Quantum Structures in Cognitive and Social Science

Willy Weyns

A World in Transition, Humankind and Nature is appropriately entitled after its aim for an intrinsic property of reality: change. Of major concern, in this era of transformation, is the extensive and profound interaction of humankind with nature. The global-scale social and technological project of humankind definitely involves a myriad of changes of the ecosphere. This book develops, from the call for an interdisciplinary synthesis and respect of plurality, acknowledging the evolving scientific truth, to the need for an integrated but inevitably provisional worldview. Contributors from different parts of the world focus on four modes of change: (i) Social change and the individual condition, (ii) Complex evolution and fundamental emergent transformations, (iii) Ecological transformation and responsibility inquiries, (iv) The economic-ecological and socio-technical equilibria. Primarily concerned with the deep transformations of humankind and of the relationship between humans and nature, it is addressed to a broad and thinking public that wants to be kept informed.

Jan Broekaert

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