Transdisciplinarity: the hidden third, between the subject and the object

Abstract

In the introduction we explain why the relation between the Object and the Subject is a crucial problem of philosophy. The key point in understanding the Object-Subject relation is the vision on Reality that humans shared in different periods of the historical time. We next describe some historical as- pects concerning the transdisciplinary concept of “level of Reality”, namely in relation with the work of John of the Ladder (c. 525–606), Nicolai Hart- mann (1882-1950) and especially Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976). We final- ly analyze a unified theory of levels of Reality – the transdisciplinary ap- proach, with its three axioms: levels of Reality, logic of included middle and complexity. We describe an important consequence of the transdisciplinary approach: the existence of a zone of non-resistance, which plays the role of a third between the Subject and the Object. This Hidden Third is an interac- tion term which allows the unification of the transdisciplinary Subject and the transdisciplinary Object while preserving their difference.