On the Rationale of Cross-domain Education in the University From the Perspective of Basarab Nicolescu’s Thoughts on Transdisciplinarity

Modern universities organized mainly on the basis of academic disciplines face significant challenges in fostering both learners’ knowledge integration and their abilities to solve wicked problems. Carrying out Transdisciplinarity (TD) research and promoting TD education, therefore, are urgently needed. To bridge the gap, this study examines Basarab Nicolescu’s TD thoughts and discusses their significance in TD education at universities. Three findings were revealed. Firstly, Nicolescu presents his unique TD thoughts from an ontological standpoint. Secondly, being inspired by quantum physics and Stéphane Lupasco’s Logic of the Included Middle, Nicolescu proposes his ternary partition “Subject, Object, Interaction term/Hidden Third” and discusses TD complexity axiom of the interconnection and interdependence among levels of Reality. Thirdly, Nicolescu provides advices regarding TD education in the universities, including the inculcation of TD knowledge. This study ends with three suggestions: 1) the discipline-based education at modern universities should be reexamined; 2) a special light should be shed on the isomorphic relation among thought, the history of ideas and disciplines; and 3) in the light of Nicolescu’s TD thoughts, the cross-domain or TD curricula offered at universities should be critically scrutinized.