ABSTRACT
Science evolves as it responds to its leading challenges as they change through history. The problems of global environmental risk, along with those of equity among peoples, present the greatest collective task now facing humanity. In response, new styles of scientific activity are already under development. Traditional oppositions, such as those among natural-science disciplines and between the so-called “hard” and “soft” sciences, are being overcome. The reductionist, analytical world view that divides systems into ever-smaller elements, studied by ever-more esoteric specialties, is giving way to a systemic, synthetic, and humanistic approach. The recognition of real natural systems as complex and dy namic entails moving to a science based on unpredictability, incomplete control, and plural legitimate perspectives.
