Overcoming Method-Centrism

With ‘the scientific method’, Descartes laid the foundations of modern rationalist science. This book scrutinises its implementation in different sciences and shows its limitations by guiding readers through the history of key concepts developed for explorations of matter, energy, life, psyche, culture, language and society over the last 400 years. Central are concepts for studying relations and meta-relations between entities to uncover their structures, functioning and development. The book presents a transdisciplinary meta-paradigm for holistic research on individuals and their multi-reality ‘worlds’ considering phenomena from all domains of life. Its multi-framework structure integrates the perspectives of ontology, logic, epistemology, methodology and disciplinary meta-theories that together form an all-encompassing system of interrelated and more complex, non-linear and transformative ways of thinking and empirical practice. These are necessary to overcome Cartesian binary thinking, to establish unified systems of knowledge, and to reconnect the different sciences with one another and with philosophy.