---
title: "Tree of knowledge system"
chunk: 5/5
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_knowledge_system"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:37:35.269263+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Toward the integration of human knowledge ==
As stated above, the ToK System proposes a new epistemology with the goal of moving academic knowledge toward what E.O. Wilson termed consilience. Consilience is the interlocking of fact and theory into a coherent, holistic view of knowledge. Henriques argues that the ToK affords new perspectives on how knowledge is obtained because it depicts how science emerges from culture and that the four dimensions of complexity correspond to four broad classes of science: the physical, biological, psychological and social sciences.
Henriques further argues that developing such a system for integrating knowledge is not just an academic enterprise. He suggests that in an increasingly complex world, the fragmented state of knowledge can be seen as one of the most pressing social problems of our time. Henriques also believes that history seems to attest that the absence of a collective worldview ostensibly condemns humanity to an endless series of conflicts that inevitably stem from incompatible, partially correct, locally situated justification systems. Thus, from Henriques' perspective, there are good reasons for believing that if there was a shared, general background of explanation, humanity might be able to achieve much greater levels of harmonious relations.
In a 2008 article on the ToK, Henriques cites Oliver Reiser's 1958 call for unifying scientific knowledge that Henriques implies is similar in theme to the ToK:

In this time of divisive tendencies within and between the nations, races, religions, sciences and humanities, synthesis must become the great magnet which orients us all…[Yet] scientists have not done what is possible toward integrating bodies of knowledge created by science into a unified interpretation of man, his place in nature, and his potentialities for creating the good society. Instead, they are entombing us in dark and meaningless catacombs of learning.
With its depiction of the dimensions of complexity and interlocking theoretical joint points, Henriques' believes that his  ToK System offers new avenues that might allow scholars to meet Reiser’s call for academic synthesis. Henriques, like Reiser, believes that with a shared sense of purpose and a common background of explanation, people might yet be able to integrate bodies of knowledge into a unified interpretation of humanity, with humanity's place in nature and its potentialities for creating the good society.

== See also ==
Tree of knowledge (philosophy) by René Descartes
Tinbergen's four questions
Behavioral repertoire
Consilience
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge – 1998 book by E.O. Wilson
Descriptive psychology
General System Theory
Psychological behaviorism
Social meaning-making
The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution – 1959 book by C. P. Snow
Unified theory of cognition
Unity of science
Metasystem transition

== References ==

== Bibliography ==

== External links ==
The Official Tree of Knowledge Website Archived 6 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Tree of Knowledge System/Expert article by Gregg Henriques at the Psychology Wiki
This page uses content from the English-language version of Psychology Wiki. The original article was at Tree of Knowledge System/Expert article by Gregg Henriques. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of both The Psychology Wiki and Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.