Unified Foundations of Science

Making sense of experience is the heart of all human inquiry. How does knowledge arise from experience? What are both the scope and limitations of modelization and knowledge? Answering these questions is fundamental to both improving and giving meaning to human experience. They are also fundamental to improving our understanding of science itself as well as its applications.

Science, the pursuit and application of knowledge using an evidence based systematic methodology, provides an evolving framework for making sense of our ever increasing collection of experiences. The results of scientific inquiry to date are impressive. They range from fundamental insights regarding the structure of numbers, universality of computation and models of space, time and matter, evolution, cognition and complex social systems to applications like methods for producing and storing energy, computing, AI and new medical diagnostics and therapies.

There remain many questions about ideas, seemingly extending beyond our current conceptual scientific scope. Godel’s Theorems seem to imply notions of truth beyond modelizations. Non-halting theorems in symbolic computation in the need to, at least, gain a better understanding of notions of infinity. The omni presence and effectiveness of action principles in physics seems to hint at some more fundamental level of explanation in physics. Identifying the source of different corralative and causal properties in models of matter and the associated structures of space-time is required. Are these issues related? All suggest some new conception of reality is needed, in order to capture key experiences left out of the modelizations but, being an essential basis for it. Does there exist a common origin for modelizations of all experience? Improving our understanding of these questions and others like them is central to understanding the origin, scope and limitations of models and knowledge.

To answer these and other related questions Emmy Network Endownment brings together senior academics and graduate researchers at Keble College, Oxford and University of Turku as well a leading thinkers and experts globally. Through sharing research questions and results and gathering together, we seek connections between the various research areas and potential applications. We create new knowledge, unifying concepts, as well as discover new questions and applications.

The goal of these efforts is to gain a better understanding of the origins of all scientific methods, models and structures. This in turn will provide additional insights and tools to improve existing theories, uncover further structure and assist in the discovery of new theories and results. The new and improved understanding will assist in the development of broader application in all areas of scientific inquiry and improve our understanding of the scope and limitations of the scientific process on the whole.