Abstract:
Serendipity is the art to give one’s attention to what is surprising and of devising a relevant interpretation. Undisciplinarity means taking investigations beyond disciplinary boundaries to overcome their ossifying effects. Serendipity lies at the heart of all discoveries, while undisciplinarity directly confronts the paradox of disciplines, which are at once necessary and harmful. Serendipity is the origin of undisciplinarity, or its ultimate cause. “Undisciplinarity” could, with “serendipity”, become the essential concept underlying the dynamics of research, just as “interdisciplinarity” became in its time.
Keywords:
Serendipity; Undisciplinarity; Scientific discovery; Imagination; Inquiry