Methodology of Transdisciplinarity–Levels of Reality, Logic of the Included Middle and Complexity

Abstract

The concept of levels of Reality, formulated in 1982, is the key concept of transdisciplinarity.  The introduction of the levels of Reality induces a multidimensional and multi-referential structure of Reality, signifying the coexistence between complex plurality and open unity. Every level is characterized by its incompleteness; the laws governing this level are just a part of the totality of laws governing all levels. And even the totality of laws does not exhaust the entire Reality; we have also to consider the interaction between Subject and Object. The zone between two different levels and beyond all levels is a zone of non-resistance to our experiences, representations, descriptions, images, and mathematical formulations. The Gdelian structure of levels of Reality implies the impossibility of a self-enclosed complete theory. Knowledge is forever open. The unity of levels of Reality of the Object and its complementary zone of non-resistance defines the transdisciplinary Object. The unity of levels of Reality of the Subject and this complementary zone of non-resistance defines the transdisciplinary Subject. The zone of non-resistance plays the role of a third between the Subject and the Object, an interaction term which allows the unification of the transdisciplinary Subject and the transdisciplinary Object. This interaction term is called the Hidden Third. The ternary partition (Subject, Object, Hidden Third) is, of course, radically different from the binary partition (Subject vs. Object) of classical realism