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Speaking at the Royal Society in London during his historic state visit to the UK this week, Michael D. Higgins ¨C who was elected in 2011 ¨C also called for more integration between science and philosophy.

He said ¡°leaping through the boundaries¡± that separate academic disciplines will help create better dialogue about the ¡°complex challenges of the future¡±.

Mr Higgins, a former social science academic, said that Ireland¡¯s contribution to the understanding of the natural world may have been ¡°overshadowed¡± by its work in arts and literature. ¡°That is not how it should be, we need to better understand the role of scientific knowledge in shaping our relationships with the world,¡± he added at the event on 9 April.

He said it would be a ¡°mistake¡± to view science in Ireland as separate from the nation¡¯s culture.

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Mr Higgins, who became Ireland¡¯s first minister for the arts in 1993, said this was the century of neuroscience with advances in this area giving cause for ¡°optimism and excitement¡±.

¡°But the humanities have something essentially too to contribute to our comprehension of the nature of human consciousness or what it means to be human,¡± he added.

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The rapid pace of scientific development is not yet matched by the ¡°cultivation of critical and informed dialogue¡± within the ¡°wider society¡± about the impact of these achievements, he said. This is all the more pressing because the ethical issues arising from ¡°contemporary scientific and technological application have reached unprecedented levels of acuteness¡±.

He gave the example of the questions raised by climate change and said that the ¡°total destruction of the planet was not a concern of enlightenment scholars¡±. It is essential to ¡°instigate far reaching dialogue not only between the disciplines but also¡­ in its application between Britain and Ireland¡±, he added.

¡°It requires the crafting of a wide range of ethical discourse in which a wide range of citizens, not just the most expert or scientifically literate, are invited to take part,¡± he said.?

Before entering public life Mr Higgins lectured in political science and sociology at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and in the US.

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holly.else@tsleducation.com