| The Philosophy of Narrative Synthesis presented in this dissertation is devoted to promoting meaningful integration of discourse across the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The philosophy follows a basic logical sequence of conclusions. To begin with, breakthroughs in neuroscience, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and psychology, among many other fields, have established that narrative is a basic building bock of human cognition. Therefore, if humans think and express ideas in narratives, the best way to unify fragmented narratives is to synthesize them. To promote such synthesis, the philosophy draws from interpretive and narrative tools from a broad base of transdisciplinary research to help scholars from across the major branches of knowledge transcend the subvernaculars of their specializations to narrate their explorations in ways that contribute to clearer and more empathetic understandings of the human experience and the natural world.;Engaging the synthesizing and cognitive nature of narrative raises new philosophical questions and opportunities. Evolutionary psychologists, game theorists, neurologists, philosophers, economists, and other leaders in their fields have established that the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Enlightenment view that emotion and reason are separate aspects of human cognition, or binaries rather than a yin-yang continuum, is incorrect. A major overhaul is underway with reevaluations of intersubjectivity, rational and irrational agency, competition and cooperation, and new theories about the origins and evolution of language. Examinations of research in this new cognitive paradigm will include, but not be limited to: E.O. Wilson's notions of consilience, George Lakoff's narrative-infused approaches to understanding human behavior, the theory of mind mechanisms developed by clinical psychologists Alan Leslie and Simon Baron-Cohen, and Paul Zak's biochemical evidence that the neuropeptide oxytocin facilitates trusting and prosocial human behavior. |
