Document Type : Original Research Paper

Author

• Morteza Bahrani

Institute for Social and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

As a term either in education or in research, Interdisciplinarity throughout the world is known as a new way of knowing. However, the why-ness of its appearance and development is surely worth of exploration. Right now, one can find many explanations, mostly unsatisfying; and therefore, it is needed to use a pathological and phenomenological approach to go the core reason of its existence. As this study shows, “responsibility” could be assumed as the right core reason here. Paying attention to the changes in the interaction between individuals and society, it is just Interdisciplinarity which can make them responsible before the other. In this definition, Interdisciplinarity means to approach the borders of knowledge to find satisfying answers to the questions which could not be answered in a unique, isolated discipline. However, this is a planar blade: the interdisciplinaer might use it as an accuse to veil his/her weakness in his/her academic discipline, while, on the other hand, Interdisciplinarity could be seen as a normative ethics whose goal is to educate people to responsibly find answer to their questions in the area of interdisciplinary knowledge.

Keywords

• Interdisciplinarity
• Responsibility
• Normative way of Knowing
• Individual
• society
• Pathology