Seeking Understanding : : The Lifelong Pursuit to Build the Scientific Mind / / Jan Visser, Muriel Visser.

• TeilnehmendeR: Jan Visser,; Muriel Visser,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden; , Boston : : Brill | Sense, , 2020.
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (405 pages)

The quest to understand defines our humanness. Since time immemorial it has given rise to art and literature, philosophical reflection, religious practice, myths, metaphor, and allegory, as well as, in more recent history, disciplined scientific inquiry. Seeking understanding is a lifelong journey towards a goal the parameters of which change as our pursuit progresses, until, at life’s end, the goal vanishes beyond the horizon. Such is humanness. Along the way, we build, in an enduring self-transformative fashion, our mind—the scientific mind. But what is that mind? A transdisciplinary team of 21 prominent authors, from areas such as music history, psychiatry, physics, cosmology, education, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, gaming, artificial intelligence, science communication, early child development, science education, and economics, shed light on what it takes humans to build and cultivate the scientific mind along the lifespan. A decade of intercultural dialogue preceded the book. It comprised six major international Building the Scientific Mind colloquia in culturally diverse settings that spanned the entire planet. Several hundred people from different disciplines and interests—among them distinguished scientists, policy and decision makers, practitioners and thinkers—contributed to the dialogue. Building the scientific mind transforms our ‘way of being in the world.’ It is driven by the desire to understand deeply—cognitively and affectively—who we are in a world of which we are an integral part. It has great relevance for sustained human existence in the Anthropocene and profound implications for how we organize the conditions for informal and formal learning.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright page -- Advance Praise for Seeking Understanding -- Dedication -- Foreword / Walter R. Erdelen -- Acknowledgements -- Figures and Tables -- Notes on Contributors -- Introduction: The Making of This Book and Its Roots in Creative Collaboration / Jan Visser and Muriel Visser -- Intermezzi: Thoughts Inspired by the Thoughts of Others / Jan Visser -- The Quest to Know / Jan Visser -- The Missing Piece / Jan Visser -- Context Is Everything and Everything Has Meaning / Robert Greenberg -- Life Starts Long before Its Beginning / Jan Visser -- From Preconception to Preschool / Emily Vargas-Barón -- Touching the Encountered World / Jan Visser -- Saga of a Small Science Center / Arvind Gupta -- The Worthwhile Struggle to Overcome Inertia / Jan Visser -- Expanding the Dialogue / Paul E. Heckman -- When the Sky Is Not the Limit, It Could Be the Beginning / Jan Visser -- The Inspiring Universe / George Miley, Carolina Ödman and Pedro Russo -- Never Ever without Passion / Jan Visser -- Playing the Role of Facilitator / Jos van den Broek -- On Dialogue / Jan Visser -- How You Talk Is How You Think; How You Think Is How You Understand / Paul Webb -- Facing Life’s Biggest Questions / Jan Visser -- Seeking to Know and Understand the Self / Premana W. Premadi -- A Sense of Beauty / Jan Visser -- Beauty in Science, Science in Beauty / Matthew Colless -- Making the Unfamiliar Familiar / Jan Visser -- Science Popularizer Is the Most Important Job That Does Not Yet Exist / Lê Nguyên Hoang -- It’s Not Just a Right; It’s an Obligation to the Future / Jan Visser -- Fostering Inquiry, Reasoning and Critical Thinking / J. Michael Spector -- How Long Can We Still Wait and Who Takes Responsibility? / Jan Visser -- The Shifting Mind of Economics / Martinus Petrus de Wit -- Looking Back with a View to Looking Forward / Jan Visser -- Invent the Future / Federico Mayor -- Culture of Differences vs. Difference of Cultures / Jan Visser -- Seeking to Find out Why Things Happen / Ralf Syring -- Reverence for Life, Whatever Its Manifestations / Jan Visser -- Nontraditional Pathways to the Development of a Scientific Mind / Stephen P. Hinshaw -- Homo Ludens / Jan Visser -- Education in a Complex World / Carlo Fabricatore and Ximena López -- Where Science Ends / Jan Visser -- HIV, Medical Science and the Call to Greater Humanness / James Lees -- Back Matter -- Index.