ABSTRACT
Cross-disciplinary thinking is one type of help. It can be defined as the use of structures and relations found within the framework of one discipline as points of departure for discovering or confirming similar structures and relations in other disciplines. Cross-disciplinary thinking is but a particular client of the more general and fundamental mode ascendent thinking, in which as many concepts as possible are seen from a higher level as specifics of more fundamental concepts. Such an aid to the creation of more of what thinking is after cannot be considered anything but a material and probably indispensable tool of the thinking process. Although no string of examples can be proof of a general concept, the illustrations of ascendent and cross-disciplinary thinking offered at least should make more plausible the proposition that such thinking has an important contribution to make. Scientific inquiry affords a special opportunity for cross-disciplinary thinking.
