Interdisciplinary
Gh. Darzi
Abstract
Interdiaciplinarity is one of the most significant phenomena of our time, but it is not an easy task to come up with a coherent and precise definition. Evidently,the reason is the wide variety of opinion among the experts in this field. A historical approach toward the most practical definitions of interdisciplinarity ...
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Interdiaciplinarity is one of the most significant phenomena of our time, but it is not an easy task to come up with a coherent and precise definition. Evidently,the reason is the wide variety of opinion among the experts in this field. A historical approach toward the most practical definitions of interdisciplinarity and its different types can be very advantageous in this regard. The present research has aimed to show that that , in its early stage, interdiscipllinarity was merely an idealistic concept which was related to the development of 'unified science'. However, the more we move to the present time, the more tangible problems from the world outside we can deal with. Three main insights into the concept of interdisciplinary are based on "Epistemic breaches", "degree of integration", and "the purpose of interdisciplinary research" and illustrate the afore-said conceptual transition. In the latter type, interdisciplinary researches are observed on the basis of their applicability. In the first two types, however, epistemological and knowledge-related issues are at stake. The most recent concept of "Transdisciplinarity" is also entirely based on the degree of applicability and locality of the issues in question. In the first type, we will face "crossing the boundaries of knowledge" and in the second one, we will "cross the field of knowledge". Among these terms, "multidisciplinary" has been far less controversial and there is a relatively good agreement on it. In this way, the co-operation of the disciplines is minimal.
