The MSc is a full-time one-year programme, normally starting in September. The student group is small, with less than 20 students.
The MSc is made up of a total of 180 credits which includes 3 core modules (20 credits each) in the first term, 2 elected short courses (20 credits each) in the second term and an 80 credit final dissertation.
Course Module One: 20 credits
This module explores the philosophy and methodologies of an expanded science that values qualities as much as quantities. This new approach cultivates intuition, sensory experience and ethics as well as rational thought as a way of understanding and interacting with the natural world.
In this module, students explore basic philosophical questions central to science such as: ‘How do we acquire reliable knowledge?’ and ‘How do we investigate natural processes?’ Principles and concepts from phenomenology, cognitive science and the history of ideas are applied to the understanding of relationships between parts, wholes and emergent phenomena. Students will review the fundamental principles of Western science and explore both the usefulness and drawbacks of the reductionist approach using examples from the history of science and biology. Alternative methodologies will be offered, including Goethe’s scientific approach to the study of colour, morphology and landscape. The use of Free Choice Profiling which involves the qualitative evaluation of phenomena in various domains will also be explored.
Assessment: Students are required to produce an essay of 3,000 – 3,500 words, or a creative project of equivalent standing, for handing in at the start of the second term.
Course Module Two: 20 credits
In this module, using a combination of rational analysis, computer modelling and careful observation of nature, students work with concepts of wholeness and self-organisation to develop an understanding of emergence within the physical world, within individual organisms and within human organisations. Chaos and complexity theories are used to explore how complex order emerges within a wide range of phenomena, including the chaotic pendulum, the development of form in plants and animals and the pulsing of the human heart. Through these investigations, students will see how complex systems tune themselves towards the ‘edge of chaos’, a domain of rich possibilities for creativity and meaningful expression of innate wholeness.
Assessment: Students are required to produce an essay of 3,000 – 3,500 words, or a creative project of equivalent standing, for handing in at the start of the second term.
Course Module Three: 20 credits
In this module students develop a deeply participatory understanding of the living dynamics of the Earth by combining rigorous scientific analysis with intuitive experiential work outdoors on Dartmoor, on the Dartington estate and on the South Devon coast. Students engage in a detailed exploration of James Lovelock’s Gaia theory, which suggests that tightly coupled feedbacks between living beings and their nonliving environment give rise to emergent self-regulation at the level of the Earth. We use Gaia theory to understand climate change and the connections between healthy ecosystems and a healthy planet. Throughout the module, we explore the ethical implications of the theory through the lens of the deep ecology approach.
Assessment: Students are required to produce an essay of 3,000 – 3,500 words, or a creative project of equivalent standing, for handing in towards the end of the second term.
MSc in Holistic Science students take two short courses from the diverse Schumacher College short course programme. As these courses are available to professionals and interested and active individuals, this is an excellent opportunity for students to engage with these specialist areas in a holistic way.
80 credits
In the dissertation module, students have the chance to apply their knowledge of holistic science and its methodologies to a real research problem. In the past, students have chosen to explore the applications of holistic science to a wide range of disciplines including education, agriculture, economics, design, biology, medicine, and landscape assessment.
As a new type of masters degree which encourages novel approaches to scientific investigation, students’ holistic investigations for the dissertation often result in different outcomes to traditional styles of research and reporting. The dissertation can involve the use of alternative creative formats such as personal narrative, artwork and experiential material alongside those normally used in scientific writing in order to integrate intuitive insights and feelings that arise during the course of the work. Students are encouraged to blend the analytic-synthetic and the narrative-experiential as extensions and complements of each other in a coherent, holistic manner.
