Professor Martin Willis joined CHHS members on 07/01/18 to discuss “Collaborative Practices between the Humanities and the Sciences: Rethinking Consilience.”
Willis noted that since the sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson appropriated William Whewell’s term, consilience, to articulate a vision of the “jumping together” of the sciences and the humanities, consilience has been one key strand of the intellectual debate on the relationships between the sciences, literature, and the broader humanities. Willis discussed the ways in which consilience, and especially Wilson’s construction of it as a way for the humanities to become more scientific, has been contested and celebrated. Using this as a starting point, Willis took some of the concerns emerging from consilient ideologies to develop a broader argument about the relationships between the humanities and the sciences, focussing on some of the theoretical, political and practical concerns that typify our contemporary moment.
Contact: Martin Willis– willism8@cardiff.ac.uk