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THE EMERGENCE of INTERDISCIPLINARITY from EPISTEMOLOGICAL THOUGHT By

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THE EMERGENCE of INTERDISCIPLINARITY from EPISTEMOLOGICAL THOUGHT By ISSUES IN INTEGRATIVE STUDIES No. 29, pp. 1-39 (2011) THE EMERGENCE OF INTERDISCIPLINARITY FROM EPISTEMOLOGICAL THOUGHT by James Welch IV University of Texas Arlington Abstract: Interdisciplinary studies has positioned itself as an innovative approach to compre- hending, navigating, and transforming knowledge. The emphasis in recent scholarship upon complex systems and integration of insights from disciplinary perspectives mark decisive prog- ress toward the development of a cohesive theory of interdisciplinarity. Such a theory would entail establishing an epistemology of complexity through epistemological negotiation. I argue that the interdisciplinary approach to knowledge is a logical evolution of the history of Western thought and an innovative answer to the epistemological project. This project was surveyed in Welch (2009) who described how the Western canonical lineage from Plato to Hegel devel- oped epistemological strategies founded on the principles of duality, determinism, and abso- lute truth. The present essay carries that historical examination forward by examining the way these strategies were problematized by the more recent approaches to epistemology taken by phenomenology, post-structuralism, pluralism, and pragmatism. These schools of thought are pertinent to understanding the contrasting origins and outlooks of the critical and instrumental modes of interdisciplinarity. This essay concludes that these epistemological schools of thought are not mutually exclusive; they entwine inextricably together into interdisciplinary theory and practice. Indeed, their synthetic relationship is essential for developing interdisciplinary theory as an emergent epistemological innovation. The deep historical context provided here grounds interdisciplinary theory, and gives it a voice in ongoing debates over knowledge itself. 2 James Welch IV The Emergence of Interdisciplinarity 3 The Emergence of Interdisciplinarity from Epistemological terminism, duality, and absolute truth. Interdisciplinarity, from its inception, Thought emerged as a critique of these strategies as forms of reductionism. Interdis- ciplinary approaches to knowledge emphasize the irreducible complexity Interdisciplinarity, conceived as an approach to complexity through the of phenomena, often embedded in systems characterized by multiple nexus integration of insights from different disciplinary perspectives, endeavors to points of interaction. The dynamics of complex systems cannot simply be position itself as an effective strategy for comprehending, navigating, and ERLOHGGRZQWRDGHWHUPLQLVWLFDQDO\VLVLQZKLFKDOOYDULDEOHVDUHGH¿QHG transforming knowledge. As such, interdisciplinarity strives to be a philo- and their interactions formulated to zero-sum. Thus, interdisciplinary no- sophical innovation, a new way of knowing and deciding, which paradoxi- tions of complexity acknowledge degrees of unpredictability. Furthermore, cally attempts to transcend tradition while emerging embryonically from it. the structure of dualism inadequately reduces phenomenal interaction to a 7KLVWUDQVLWLRQWKHGLI¿FXOWEULGJHIURPDGROHVFHQFHWRLQWHOOHFWXDOPDWXULW\ simple binary, rather than the polyvalence of interdisciplinary approaches. requires a reckoning between the aspiration for a progressive transformation Lastly, the ideal of absolute truth—some eternal, immutable epistemological RINQRZOHGJHZKLOHDFNQRZOHGJLQJLWVYDOXHGURRWV5HÀHFWLQJRQWKHKLV- standard—runs counter to the very idea of interdisciplinarity, which instead WRU\RILGHDVKHOSVLQWHUGLVFLSOLQDULW\UH¿QHLWVDFDGHPLFSRVLWLRQSURYLGLQJ embraces the relativity1 of epistemological negotiation among the diversity a context for its identity and a strong presence in scholarly discourse. This of contending truth claims. The interdisciplinary suspicion of disciplinary identity, however, occupies a diffuse and contested space. Pluralism is inher- epistemic hegemony is embedded in the problematic canonical structures of ent in the idea of interdisciplinarity, and thus it should come as no shock that knowledge upon which they are founded; the interdisciplinarian simultane- interdisciplinary studies should manifest itself in myriad ways. Nonetheless, ously utilizes, disrupts, and transcends epistemological structures in order to in order to establish interdisciplinarity as an important philosophical inno- progressively form new holistic understandings of complex problems. vation, it is necessary to understand the ways in which the interdisciplinary Interdisciplinary thought posits that truth is not the act of ultimately estab- idea emerges from the history of Western Thought. lishing knowledge, but rather the activity of its provisional progress: In rejecting the absolutist tendencies of the Western philosophical tradi- tion, interdisciplinarity crosses paths with the crucial issues of epistemology The complexity of knowledge is suggested by the current rhetoric that the giants of Western philosophy have debated for over two millen- of description. Once described as a foundation or linear structure, nia. Exploring this debate provides a contextual foundation for developing knowledge today is depicted as a network or a web with multiple interdisciplinary theory. Interdisciplinary studies, as a way of achieving a nodes of connection, and a dynamic system. The metaphor of unity, synthetic understanding of complexity, is thus intimately involved in truth with its accompanying values of universality and certainty, has been claims. The integration of insights calls for a kind of epistemological ne- replaced by metaphors of plurality [and] relationality in a complex gotiation wherein the interdisciplinarian not only examines the content of world. Images of boundary crossing and cross-fertilization are super- FRQÀLFWLQJGLVFLSOLQDU\SHUVSHFWLYHVEXWDOVRWKHZD\LQZKLFKWKHGLVFL- seding images of disciplinary depth and compartmentalization. Iso- plines actually “see” and evaluate phenomena. Such an approach to knowl- lated modes of work are being supplanted by DI¿OLDWLRQVFRDOLWLRQV, edge requires a metacognitive awareness of the way truth itself is formed. and alliances. And, older values of FRQWUROPDVWHU\, and expertise are This awareness of truth-making is a particular concern for Western philoso- being reformulated as GLDORJXHLQWHUDFWLRQand negotiation. (Klein, phy, especially in its more recent developments. Interdisciplinarity is one 2004, p. 3) of those developments. Therefore, this work focuses on the ways in which 1 the interdisciplinary idea arises from and responds to epistemological issues Although the concept of relativity has a notorious reputation in some academic circles, perhaps because it is erroneously confused with nihilism, I contend that it is over the course of the Western philosophical tradition. one of the most powerful developments in epistemology. Furthermore, as this work Welch (2009) traced Western epistemological thought through a lineage argues, relativity is essential to interdisciplinary practice and the development of of canonical thinkers from Plato to Hegel. These thinkers developed a perva- interdisciplinary theory. Therefore, the term and its variations will be used freely sive epistemological framework resting upon three essential principles—de- throughout this paper. 4 James Welch IV The Emergence of Interdisciplinarity 5 This description connotes a conceptual transformation of epistemology from lightenment, a revolution of political, economic, cultural and technological its roots in absolutism and reductionism toward relativism and complex- V\VWHPVZKLFKUHÀHFWHGWKHGRPLQDWLRQRIUHDVRQRYHURWKHUPRGDOLWLHVRI ity. Interdisciplinarity thus arises from a profound turn in Western thought, thought. Through the 1700s, these ideas became thoroughly institutional- described in this study, which examines and responds to the breakdown of ized, characterizing the Western mindset and leading to sweeping innova- traditional epistemological structures. WLRQVDWHYHU\OHYHORIFLYLOL]DWLRQ5HDVRQUHL¿HGLWVHOI¿UPO\DV6FLHQFH 7KLV DUWLFOH WUDFHV WZR WKUHDGV RI HSLVWHPRORJLFDO WKRXJKW7KH ¿UVW RI creating a pervasive method of acquiring knowledge through logic and these is a lineage beginning with Nietzsche, continuing with the develop- mathematics, and an epistemological standard tested through empiricism. ment of phenomenology, and culminating in post-structuralism. The sec- This transformation was validated through the acceleration of knowledge ond thread describes 19th and 20th century Anglo-American thought as it accumulation and technological innovation beginning in the 18th century developed the ideas of pluralism and pragmatism. These particular threads and continuing to this day. Although a remarkable evolution in human are chosen, for the purposes of this essay, to explore the development of thought, the Enlightenment came at a cost. The dominion of reason brought interdisciplinary theory upon a strictly epistemological basis, and further, ZLWKLWDOLHQDWLRQIURPWKHRUJDQLFHEEDQGÀRZRI1DWXUH9RLFHVRIGLV- in order to argue that these thinkers form a philosophical context for the sent questioned the utter reliance on reason as a way to know truth. These emergence of the interdisciplinary idea.2 As such, this work attempts to lay YRLFHVFRQVWLWXWHGDGHFLVLYHWXUQLQ:HVWHUQWKRXJKWZKLFKEHJDQWRUHÀHFW the groundwork for a comprehensive genealogy for interdisciplinarity by upon itself and question its own epistemological foundations. This school of demonstrating that the interdisciplinary idea is deeply rooted in Western thought was founded upon a critique
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