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Another project was particularly productive, carried out in communication with the legal sciences: “Concepts of law in the natural sciences, legal studies, and theology.” As is to be expected in interdisciplinary projects, the initial engagement among the various disciplines
was also extremely difficult here. Only the strategy of multiyear meetings brought success. In general, the first international and interdisciplinary meetings were characterized by an inviting, but later deceptive,
enthusiasm. Intelligent and interesting colleagues from other disciplines and other countries were of course initially attractive. However,
the second meeting could generally be described as “The Babylonian
tower-building meeting.” This was because it became clear just how
starkly different the disciplines’ ways of thinking and knowledge interests were, and how difficult it was to reconcile them.
Some participants in the debate made counterproductive, simplistic offers of integration. Here it was necessary to hold one’s nerve and
identify relative, partial commonalities and distinguish between differences that were difficult to work through and those that were fruitful. The third meeting saw the first convergences in basic theoretical
questions, and the fourth meeting finally recognized different developmental possibilities and fruitfulness in the various areas of application.
Enthusiasm returned and – after the fifth meeting at the latest – publication began.
Michael Welker, Gregor Etzelmüller (Eds.),
Concepts of Law in the Sciences, Legal Studies, and Theology
(Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013).
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