The pointer finger and the pilgrim shell: Ethics of listening, resistance to change and interdisciplinarity

One of the risks to the study of interdisciplinary dynamics is to limit the analysis to a description of the visible structures through which it is in action. Indeed, there are a number of factors which, although invisible, may con- tribute to the success or failure of an interdisciplinary enterprise. Through the examination of two case studies, I examine these implicit factors, which underlie the development of interdisciplinarity. In particular, the role of habits, identity factors and the very inadequacy of rational arguments are examined. In a dialectic between invisible and visible emerges the picture of a complex phenomenon to which Caravaggio’s Seven Works of Mercy alludes in the final part of the essay.