Transdisciplinary Chair & Human Plasticity

Abstract: The creation of an international transdisciplinary chair is essential in a society that is losing its fundamental values and points of reference. The experience accumulated by the international center for transdisciplinary research (CIRET) over the last three decades under the impetus of B. Nicolescu and E. Morin in France is exemplary in this respect. Echoing many transdisciplinary approaches worldwide, it has initiated a reform of thinking that must be pursued and extended without interruption. Here are two examples that are fully in line with this perspective: 1/the initiative of the PSA (Plasticités Sciences Arts) experimental transdisciplinary research group, which has been working since the charter was established (1994) to set up transdisciplinary practices around the concept of plasticity; 2/ the joint proposal by French and Brazilian transdisciplinary structures to create a Transdisciplinary chair at the university (2007) and contemporary works on the plasticity of living systems in line with these pioneering initiatives (20192023). The fact that transdisciplinarity has been established in several academic institutions and that some of the major areas of research undertaken by the PSA group, such as the study of posturology in experimental medicine, highlighting essential plastic interfaces in living systems and the study of relationships between art and science, now have powerful ramifications, including institutions, shows us the extent to which plasticity of life and transdisciplinary attitude are complementary. It’s a mutation of cultures and consciousness that highlights human plasticity and encourages us to keep moving forward!