“The human use of human beings”: Interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and all that in biophysics and beyond

•Reflections on the notion of interdisciplinarity taken from biophysics, cybernetics•Interdisciplinarity as a tool for focusing the social responsibility of scientists•Wiener's reflections for the understanding of today's technological problems•The role of biophysics and cybernetics as forerunners of cognitive science•“[To] be alive is to participate in a continuous stream of influences from the outer world and acts on the outer world” (N. Wiener)

Biophysics, just by looking at its name, indicates an interdisciplinary scientific activity, although the notion of interdisciplinarity, as such, seems to be not widely or specifically discussed by biophysicists. The same seems to have happened as well in the early stages of the development of cybernetics, notably in Norbert Wiener's writings. This situation seems to contrast with what has happened in subsequent developments of cybernetics ideas, notably in general system theory and cognitive sciences. After a few general reflections on the notion of interdisciplinarity, its sophisticated variants and the path leading to the birth of cognitive science, we shall refer to Wiener's thought to extracts aspects and indications that could be useful today, also for what concerns the social responsibility of scientists, which could be seen as stemming from a very general form of interdisciplinarity. Highlights: After a few general reflections on the notion of interdisciplinarity, its sophisticated variants and the path leading to the birth of cognitive science, we shall refer to Wiener's thought to extracts aspects and indications that could be useful today, also for what concerns the social responsibility of scientists.

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