consilience

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   agreement between conclusions reached independently from different kinds of evidence

   The consilience of genetic, fossil, and geological evidence strongly supports the theory.

2. 2
   noun

   the linking or unification of principles and knowledge across academic disciplines

   The project sought consilience between neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy.

Coined by William Whewell in 1840 from Latin con-, 'together,' and salire, 'to leap,' plus -ence. Whewell used it for independent lines of induction that 'jump together' in support of one conclusion; later writers extended it to unity across disciplines.

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