This is our latest paper outworking from the Science Religion Encounters project. It explores the idea of an integrative philosophy of knowledge (IPK), a novel concept for education which tries to untangle the big intellectual question of whether we can hold together the different knowledges that different disciplines, ways of knowing and senses have revealed in an overarching scheme – the project of consilience as some have called it. It is not easy! Care must be taken for science and empirical studies not to occlude the meaning that come from the arts and humanities, and yet at the same time STEM has been such a vital force in human minds. Brilliant thinkers have struggled to bring together, in different ‘ends’ of physics, Newtonian and Quantum, for instance. What about schools? Are they in a position to present a big picture’ of how it all makes sense. As well as developing some theory, the paper identifies findings that suggest an integrative philosophy of knowledge as we call it here, is not yet developed, although I know there are schools of a religious character that, at one level, do couch all meaning within a worldview of reality. But is that felt in the experience of the curriculum.

Bob Bowie, Director of NICER and lead author.

Read the full article here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40839-024-00237-0