consilience

Noun

consilience (countable and uncountable, plural consiliences)

1. The concurrence of multiple inductions drawn from different data sets.
   • Indeed in all cases in which from propositions of considerable generality, propositions of a still higher degree are obtained, there is a convergence of inductions; and if in one of the lines which thus converge, the steps be rapidly and suddenly made in order to meet the other line, we may...1840, William Whewell, “Of the Logic of Induction”, in The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon Their History. […], volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […]; Cambridge...
   • CONSILIENCE of INDUCTIONS takes place when an induction obtained from one class of facts coincides with an induction obtained from a different class. This consilience is the test of the truth of the theory in which it occurs.1858, William Fleming, “CONSILIENCE of INDUCTIONS”, in The Vocabulary of Philosophy, Mental, Moral, and Metaphysical; […], 2nd revised and enlarged edition, London; Glasgow: Richard Griffin and...

   Synonyms:

   coincidence

2. The agreement, co-operation, or overlap of academic disciplines.
   • The common pursuit of Truth is of itself a brotherhood. [...] Surely, were each of us to give utterance to all he feels, we should hear the Chemist, the Astronomer, the Physiologist, the Electrician, the Botanist, the Geologist, all with one accord, and each in the language of his own science...1845 June, W[illiam] Herschel, “Inaugural Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Held at Cambridge, June 1845”, in The Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal, Scientific...
   • For centuries consilience has been the mother's milk of the natural sciences. Now it is wholly accepted by the brain sciences and evolutionary biology, the disciplines best poised to serve in turn as bridges to the social sciences and humanities. […] The central idea of the consilience world view...1998, Edward O[sborne] Wilson, “To What End?”, in Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, →ISBN; 1st Vintage Books edition, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, April 1999, →ISBN