Look up consilience in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Consilience, or the unity of knowledge (literally a "jumping together" of knowledge), has its roots in the ancient Greek concept of an intrinsic orderliness that governs our cosmos, inherently comprehensible by logical process, a vision at odds with mystical views in many cultures that surrounded the Hellenes. The rational view was recovered during the high Middle Ages, separated from theology during the Renaissance and found its apogee in the Age of Enlightenment. Then, with the rise of the modern sciences, the sense of unity gradually was lost in the increasing fragmentation and specialization of knowledge in the last two centuries. The converse of consilience in this way is Reductionism. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... Theology finds its scholars pursuing the understanding of and providing reasoned discourse of religion, spirituality and God or the gods. ... The Renaissance (French for rebirth, or Rinascimento in Italian), was a cultural movement in Italy (and in Europe in general) that began in the late Middle Ages, and spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. ... The Age of Enlightenment refers to the 18th century in European philosophy, and is often thought of as part of a larger period which includes the Age of Reason. ... Descartes held that non-human animals could be reductively explained as automata — De homines 1622. ...

[edit] Modern usage

The word consilience was apparently coined by William Whewell, in The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, 1840. In this synthesis Whewell explained that, "The Consilience of Inductions takes place when an Induction, obtained from one class of facts, coincides with an Induction obtained from another different class. Thus Consilience is a test of the truth of the Theory in which it occurs." The Scientific method has become almost universally accepted as the exclusive method for testing the status of any scientific hypothesis or theory. "Inductions" which arise out of applications of the scientific method are, by definition, the only accepted indicators of consilience. William Whewell In later life William Whewell (May 24, 1794 – March 6, 1866) was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. ... 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Aristotle appears first to establish the mental behaviour of induction as a category of reasoning. ... Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. ... Look up Hypothesis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The word theory has a number of distinct meanings in different fields of knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion. ...

Modern views understand that each branch of knowledge studies a subset of reality that depends on factors studied in other branches. Atomic physics underlies the workings of chemistry, which studies emergent properties that in turn are the basis of biology. Psychology can no longer be separated from the study of properties emergent from the interaction of neurons and synapses. Sociology, economics, and anthropology are each, in turn, studies of properties emergent from the interaction of countless individual humans. Their limits have constrained history. Atomic physics (or atom physics) is the field of physics that studies atoms as isolated systems comprised of electrons and an atomic nucleus. ... For other uses, see Chemistry (disambiguation). ... A termite cathedral mound produced by a termite colony: a classic example of emergence in nature. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Psychology (from Greek: ψυχή, psukhē, spirit, soul; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is both an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. ... Drawing by Santiago Ramón y Cajal of neurons in the pigeon cerebellum. ... Illustration of the major elements in a prototypical synapse. ... Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge) is an academic and applied discipline that studies society and human social interaction. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... Anthropology (from Greek: ἀνθρωπος, anthropos, human being; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is the study of humanity. ...

[edit] Edward O. Wilson

The word had remained shelved until the end of the 20th century, when it was vividly revived in Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, a 1998 book by the humanist biologist Edward Osborne Wilson, as an attempt to bridge the culture gap between the sciences and the humanities that was the subject of C. P. Snow's The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, 1959. Wilson's assertion was that the sciences, humanities, and arts have a common goal: to give a purpose to understanding the details, to lend to all inquirers "a conviction, far deeper than a mere working proposition, that the world is orderly and can be explained by a small number of natural laws." This is the essence of consilience. And in this way consilience is very similar to reductionism. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge is a 1998 book by biologist E. O. Wilson. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... E.O. Wilson with Dynastes hercules E. O. Wilson, or Edward Osborne Wilson, (born June 10, 1929) is an entomologist and biologist known for his work on ecology, evolution, and sociobiology. ... Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow, CBE (15 October 1905–1 July 1980) was a scientist and novelist. ... The Two Cultures is the title of an influential 1959 lecture by British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow. ... Descartes held that non-human animals could be reductively explained as automata — De homines 1622. ...

A parallel view lies in the term universology, which literally means "the science of the universe." Universology was first advocated for the study of the interconnecting principles and truths of all domains of knowledge by Stephen Pearl Andrews, a 19th century utopian futurist and anarchist. Universology literally means the science of the universe. ... Stephen Pearl Andrews (March 22, 1812 - May 21, 1886) was an anarchist. ...

[edit] Election Methods

The word consilience has been adapted to refer to a specific process of checks and balances in election methods that satisfy the following conditions: (1) At least two different ballot tabulation methods shall be relied upon to achieve the official election tally; (2) Each tabulation method employed shall have separate and distinct oversight; (3) Neither tabulation method, nor its oversight and personnel involved, shall communicate with one another during this checking process to prevent cheating; (4) Tallies derived from each ballot method must agree within a margin of discrepancy that would not overturn the outcome of the election; (5) There must be physical paper evidence of the ballots, i.e., at least one of the two methods employed must rely on hand-counted paper ballots or hand-counted voter verified paper trails; and (6) At least two of the tabulation methods must occur at the location where the votes are cast, e.g. the precinct, the poll site.

Commonly, consilience refers to the concordance of tallies from an optiscan-type electronic computer tabulation and a 10% tabulation of randomly selected hand-counted paper ballots; but, for example, it can also refer to two full hand count tabulation methods if they are achieved by separate and distinct oversight that do not communicate.

If consilience is not achieved upon the first exercise of the election's checks and balances process described above (i.e., the margin of discrepancy of the ballot tallies do not agree), then an investigation including more tabulation shall immediately ensue.

[edit] See also

• Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
• Holism
• Reductionism
• Syncretism
• Tree of Knowledge System

Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge is a 1998 book by biologist E. O. Wilson. ... Whole redirects here. ... Descartes held that non-human animals could be reductively explained as automata — De homines 1622. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Gregg Henriques Tree of Knowledge System The Tree of Knowledge (ToK) System is a novel, theoretical approach to the unification of psychology developed by professor Gregg Henriques of James Madison University. ...

[edit] External links

• Dieter Wolf, [1]Unity of Knowledge An Interdisciplinary Project