Many of our modern Western achievements build upon Second Order Thinking – a theoretical attitude that involves the ability to reflect on reflection, to think about thinking, to criticize and transcend the given, and to anticipate new realms by thinking ‘outside the box’. Until now, the state of the art has mainly argued for that this type of thinking started in ancient Greece, making ancient Greek philosophy the fountainhead of nowadays scientific thinking. The present project, however, aims to establish a novel network (THINK2-net) with new research partnerships to explore the potential of tracing the cultural origins of our modern mode of critical and scientific thinking even further back to the ancient Near Eastern “high cultures” of Israel, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The network is funded by the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation.
