Thursday, October 21, 2010

Artificial ... and ... Unfortunate


Here is an interesting argument about the downside of "artificial" and "unfortunate" division among disciplines. This is what I learn from the book "Happiness Quantified: A Satisfaction Calculus Approach". Although they talk about traditional disciplines like economics, psychology, etc., the lessons can be applied to more recently established disciplines like information systems and computer sciences.

Why artificial? -- "Because it is hard to argue that economics has nothing to do with sociology or psychology, or the other way around." (p.1)

Why unfortunate? -- "Because these artificial scientific boundaries make it difficult to make a complete study of phenomena that have economic, sociological, and psychological aspects." (p.1)


Perhaps, this strikes at the core of what "interdisciplinary" program needs to do:
  • Break down the invisible walls between disciplines
  • Respect different approaches, theories, and methods to examine a phenomenon

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