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Welcome to Clément Vidal's home page !

 

"Providing people a meaning of life,
in harmony with cosmic evolution."

 

 
 

Research interests

 

Summary: In the last few decades, science and cosmology provided us great insights about our place in the universe. However, the scientific worldview strives to be value-free; we thus need to extend it to give a meaning to our lives. A broader philosophical worldview answering our existential questions is such an extension. This worldview provides people a meaning of life, in harmony with past and future cosmic evolution.


The main focus of my research is the origin of the Universe and its natural laws. I am thus interested in the philosophy of evolutionary cosmology and its wide-ranging implications. I specifically explore the developmental aspect of our Universe. To this end, I co-founded a research community with John Smart exploring the idea of an Evolutionary Developmental (Evo Devo) Universe. I use the worldview concept as a framework for integrating insights from different disciplines (Vidal 2008b).

During my research for my Master degree in Philosophy I studied the concept of infinity, approaching the subject using the philosophy of mathematics (Vidal 2003). When reflecting upon the origin of the Universe, the idea of infinity is unavoidable. We need at a certain stage to hypothesize that "something" has "always" existed.

In my current research, I aim to:

  • Propose a methodology to revive the spirit of natural philosophy, by way of systematic philosophy. To this end, I developed a philosophical method centred on worldview construction (Vidal 2007b). Ideally, information science tools such as open commentary (Vidal 2005a) will help to build such a revisable philosophy.
  • Construct an initial version of a worldview, providing tools for us to further understand and act meaningfully in our world (Aerts et al. 1994). This conceptual framework should aim to:
    • link the beginning, the development and future of our Universe in a meaningful way
    • integrate the cosmos, life, intelligence, and society in a single conceptual framework.


    One fundamental worldview component is a praxeology, a theory answering the question: "how should we act?". Thinking about action is traditionally neglected by western philosophy. To fill this gap, the "Getting Things Done" method developed by David Allen provides an excellent starting point. I have explored the theoretical foundations of this action management method in a paper written with Francis Heylighen (Heylighen & Vidal 2007).
  • My areas of interest include (but are not limited to):
    • Philosophy of cosmology
    • Philosophical methodologies
    • Big History and the future
    • Speculative philosophy and worldview construction
    • Evolutionary developmental biology
    • Science-and-religion dialogue
    • Artificial Life
    • Artificial Cosmogenesis
    • Management and theory of action (praxeology).
    • Open commentary on academic publications
    • Philosophy of logic and mathematics
References:

Aerts D., Apostel L., De Moor B., Hellemans S., Maex E., Van Belle H., Van der Veken J. (1994) World views. From fragmentation to integration. VUB Press. http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/pub/books/worldviews.pdf

Heylighen F. & Vidal C. (2007c) Getting Things Done: the Science behind Stress-Free Productivity. Working paper 2007-08 , submitted for publication. http://cogprints.org/5904/

Vidal, C. (2003) Georg Cantor et la découverte des infinis. Master Thesis in Philosophy, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. (abstract in English)

Vidal, C. (2005a) Le Commentaire Ouvert. Initially a work for a Ph. D. Project for DOCSI. (abstract in English)

Vidal, C. (2008b) Wat is een wereldbeeld? (What is a worldview?), in Van Belle, H. & Van der Veken, J., Editors, Nieuwheid denken. De wetenschappen en het creatieve aspect van de werkelijkheid, in press. Acco, Leuven.