General principles of the Chair of Transitions Today, the word "transition" is widely used by scientists and ordinary people alike. It's no coincidence, since it's a fact that humanity is facing unprecedented challenges that both global science and the collective conscience need to address. But what do we mean when we talk about transition? In fact, there isn't just one transition, but many.
We immediately think of the ecological transition, which has become vital for the future of the human species, sustainable development and the circular economy. But a transition is also a change of perspective: how the South and Africa in particular, once considered problems, can become solutions, how global crises can also benefit from local experiences.

Finally, transitions are the great scientific mystery of our time. Knowledge of the different states of reality has progressed exponentially, but we still don't clearly understand why there are different states of reality, and why and how we move from one state to another.
How do we move from the undulatory (indeterministic) to the corpuscular (deterministic) world, from the inert to the living world, from one animal species to another, from the liquid to the gaseous state (phase transition), from a neural network to thought, from global connections to a possible planetary consciousness, from a group of individuals to a common, collective, political identity? We can describe these transitions statistically, but we don't understand the nature and meaning of these reversals. What is the nature of this strange property of matter to transcend itself? Generating new hypotheses based on empirical research and conceptual analysis is the raison d'être of the Chair of Transitions.