Vision
The Foundation for the Study of Science and Thought (BILDEV) pursues scholarship in a context where thinkers and researchers from various backgrounds are able to present and share their views on an equal footing. It aims to create an intellectual environment in order to produce new questions and assist in solving big questions and intensive topics.
Such a vision ultimately requires support to highlight, discuss, and question historical and contemporary views. However, thinking in terms of new theories and concept building, although deeply rooted in previous debates and cumulated knowledge, intellectual efforts must not remain only as a subject of historical analysis and discussion. Advanced research, at the same time, needs to fully engage in contemporary debates, deep inquiries and creative suggestions with a serious and critical approach.
This vision of openness and commitment opens new doors to intellectual activity and scholarly production by connecting various pasts to a shared future.
The world’s civilizational heritage is rich and has produced abundant streams of intellectual thought produced by great thinkers from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. However, such a broad intercultural approach has been generally neglected in research strategies as a result of the paradigm of the 'West and the Rest', which has been the dominant outlook since the nineteenth century. The Foundation aims to revise this one-sided and short-sighted research methodology to create a more inclusive and richer scholarly atmosphere. Its research community consists of a number of established scholars and junior fellows and its doors are open to contributing specialists from around the world. While its main research areas are intellectual history, philosophy, and theoretical science, it also supports exploring interdisciplinary focuses.
A Series of global projects on primary themes are planned to be conducted by designated research teams to examine selected topics of pre-modern, modern and contemporary thought in connection with all geographies and traditions.
