Study and Research Program on
«Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest»

PROGRAM DIRECTORS

Gianfranco Basti, Faculty of Philosophy & IRAFS*
Piero Coda, Faculty of Theology

Program Secretary

Antonio Luigi Perrone, IRAFS*

(*IRAFS- International Research Area On Foundations of the Sciences)

1. PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The Program strengthens the existing specialization (license) curricula of:

• «Logic and Epistemology» in the Faculty of Philosophy, devoted to deepening the relationship between scientific and philosophical knowledge of reality;
• «Science of Religions» in the Faculty of Theology, devoted to developing dialogue between Religions.

This strengthening mainly consists in inviting several distinguished scholars of science, philosophy and theology to give special courses and public lectures.

The Program aims at developing and applying the new emerging discipline of Formal Ontology as a powerful means for an adequate formalization of the Humanistic Disciplines, different from but related to the mathematical formalism of Science.

By such formalization it is possible to delimit what is common to different approaches to reality, without hiding what is different. This allows a fruitful dialogue, on a transparent basis, both between Science and Religion, and among Different Religions.

The main research field of the Program will be the development of a new anthropology, open to the contributions of genetics and cognitive neuroscience, but respecting the human spiritual wealth of which Philosophy and Theology are the guardians.

Two student grants for the doctorate in Philosophy and Theology are available for this type of research.

2. ANNUAL PROGRAMS

• 2003/4: Formal Ontology and the Epistemological Basis of Philosophy and Theology
• 2004/5: Physics, Cosmology and the Ontology of Creation
• 2005/6: Biology, Neurobiology and the Ontology of Life and Intelligence
  
  

  3. INVITED PROFESSORS

  Sergio Galvan (Milan), Nino B. Cocchiarella (Bloomington), Wolfhart Pannenberg (München), Georges Cottier (Vatican), Gorge Coyne (Tucson), Bernard d’Espagnat (Paris), Philip Clayton (Boston), Roger Penrose (Oxford), John Polkinghorne (Cambridge), Walter Freeman (Berkeley), Freeman Dyson (Princeton), Stuart Kauffman (Santa Fé), Kenneth R. Miller (Providence), William Carroll (Oxford).