The Center "Leo Apostel"

The Center "Leo Apostel" (CLEA) is a recently founded transdisciplinary research department. It is situated at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), but its board of directors covers different Flemish universities. It is named after the (recently deceased) Belgian philosopher and logician Leo Apostel. Apostel donated the money of the Solvay prize, which he received for his life work, to the VUB in order to create such a center.

The center's aim is the development of world views that integrate the results of different scientific and cultural disciplines. It in particular tries to bridge the gap between the natural sciences and the social sciences and humanities. The key objectives were formulated by Apostel as:

As a first international activity, CLEA organized the very successful interdisciplinary conference 'Einstein meets Magritte', which is to be repeated in 1998. In addition, the Center is responsible for organizing interdisciplinary workshops and seminars on fundamental scientific problems and research methodologies. These are part of the interdisciplinary program for PhD. students (probably in collaboration with the PhD. program of the University of Antwerp).

News

General Information

Address
Center "Leo Apostel"
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Pleinlaan 2
B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Administrative Secretary
Tin Vanderhoeven
Phone
+32-2-629 33 74 (afternoons)
Email
einmag@vub.ac.be
World-Wide Web
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CLEA/

Mailing list
CLEA has started an electronic mailing list, clea-wg, for all people interested in collaborating with or keeping informed about CLEA activities. To join: send the one line message:
subscribe clea-wg
to Majordomo@listserv.vub.ac.be

Council

The Council is responsible for the policy decisions and the management of the Center.

Director

Diederik Aerts (Senior Research Associate NFWO): foundations of physics

Members

Collaborators

(preliminary list)

Advisory Board (in preparation)

Local

(preliminary list)

International

(preliminary list)

Collaborations

The Center "Leo Apostel" (CLEA) is associated with the following international organizations: CLEA is further seeking collaboration agreements with other local centers for transdisciplinary research, such as the Santa Fe Institute, and the Center for Theoretical Studies in Prague.

Current Research Projects:

1. Fragmentation in Science and Society: a policy-orienting research in the framework of the sciences of complexity

(submitted to the Belgian "Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs")

Supervisors: D. Aerts, S. Gutwirth, F. Heylighen

General objectives of the proposal : A rapidly evolving world is seen to produce ideological, social, political, cultural and scientific fragmentation. Many cultures, subcultures and cultural fragments state views that are incommensurable. Meanwhile, science progresses in increasingly narrowly defined areas of inquiry, widening not only the chasm between specialists and the layman, but also preventing specialists from having an overall view of their discipline. Fragmentation within the scientific realm, and the widening chasm between the scientific expert and the layman, are taken to determine the way in which science extends its impact on social processes. These coincidences implicitly define them as instruments that dismantle social cohesion, and induce processes of alienation and exclusion. Calls for proposals for social and economic research are but one of the media through which policy gives evidence of its increasing concern about these processes.

The project assesses the extent to which these concerns can be met by concepts from the 'new' sciences of complexity (non-linear dynamics, self-organisation, second order cybernetics) and empirical evidence (sociology and history of the sciences) of how science and society by necessity interact. It seeks to determine whether these perspectives can shed new light on the problem of social cohesion and the chasm between science and society, and inspire action proposals and approaches through which to better cope with complexity, increasing rapid social changes, and ongoing processes of fragmentation of science and society. When examining whether and how policy proposals can be made on this basis, the project will proceed from the assumption that science policy can effectively play a role of 'integrating partner'. Conversely, the above defined constructive endeavours will be met with on-going reflection about the ways in which policy, and - if possible- positive law, can proceed on the basis of 'scientific uncertainty' or relativism, and will consider whether scientific truths guarantee effective policy and legal norms.

2.. Change and Synthesis - CLEA at the VUB and on the international scene

(funded by the VUB Research Council)

Supervisors: all CLEA directors

Abstract: The problem of global change and synthesis that CLEA seeks to probe is truly encompassing. Seven approaches have been defined so as confront a large part of actual scientific knowledge with the root problem, without nevertheless inducing a novel, strict division over 'subdisciplines'. These include:

In the run-up to the execution of the CLEA framework project that was proposed to the Research Council in 1994, and that aimed at establishing and profiling of a unit for interdisciplinary research at VUB, CLEA has been actively involved in the organisation of the international conference 'Einstein meets Magritte'. This induced a dynamism that has contributed in a significant way to the attempts to introduce the CLEA framework project and the seven approaches that it has come to encompass on the international, transdisciplinary research scene. Such profiling will be fleshed out throughout the conference and the preparation of its proceedings and other publications to wich it will give rise. On the local scene, CLEA will continue its efforts to survey interdisciplinary research at VUB and give support to the publication of results of VUB interdisciplinary research efforts. Strategies will be developed to optimize the contribution of locally available expertise in the process of realizing the CLEA research project and report on its transdisciplinary synthesis to design perspectives on actual social problems and global change.

3. Evolutionary Construction of Knowledge Systems: a theoretical and empirical study in the framework of the Principia Cybernetica Project

(funded by the National Fund for Scientific Research, NFWO)

Supervisors: F. Heylighen, D. Aerts, J.P. Van Bendegem; collaborator: J. Bollen

Abstract: The construction of new knowledge systems is analysed through an evolutionary-systemic approach, based on the recombination and selection of existing concepts. A list of selection criteria for knowledge is being developed through the integration of existing theories. Empirical verification is done by means of psychological experiments, and through a comparison with a computer-supported process of systems construction. This process is implemented as a spontaneously evolving hypertext network on the "World-Wide Web".

This project takes place within the framework of the international Principia Cybernetica Project. It can moreover be situated as a "satellite" project of the general project of the Centre "Leo Apostel" (CLEA) concerning the problem of change, which we study from an evolutionary point of view, and synthesis, which we see as an integration of knowledge systems from different disciplines. It also connects to the second CLEA "satellite project" concerning the construction of an interactive statistics, which models the interaction between observer and observed during the development of a knowledge system.

4. Interactive Statistics

(submitted to the VUB Research Council)

Supervisor: D. Aerts; collaborator: S. Aerts

A standard procedure in doing science is the testing of a hypothesis using statistical methods. It seems that classical statistical procedures are not well suited to situations in which there exists an influence of the observer on the system under investigation. Thus, it is not possible to use orthodox statistical techniques to test hypotheses in these situations we call interactive because the interaction between the observer and the experiment is essential for the result of the experiment. Some important examples of this interactive domain include quantum mechanics, the analysis of ultra-weak signals and the study of psychological decision processes. Research activities in the interdisciplinary centre CLEA will be often confronted with these interactive situations. So there is a large demand on the construction of a statistical science that can handle these situations. An introductory study of this 'interactive statistics' was started in S. Aerts's masters thesis and the methods that where used should be extended to applications in more complex situations.

5. Women's Labour Opportunities and Casual Sex Work in Middle and East-African Cities

Supervisors: E. Rosseel in collaboration with people from ULB, LUC, Makerere University in Kampala and University of Nairobi.)

6. Models of Mediation: The mutual relevance of artificial intelligence and legal science

(funded by the National Fund for Scientific Research, NFWO, and the VUB Research Council)

Supervisors: Serge Gutwirth, Walter Van de Velde

Some Related Publications by CLEA Collaborators