Union des Associations Internationales
1. Comment
Since the intention is only to present the results of a preliminary compilation of material with a view to more detailed evaluation, only the following points are noted:
(a) Range: The entries included cover a very wide range of approaches, as was the original intention. It is to be expected that the inclusion of some of the concepts should be queried as well as the exclusion or omission of other concepts.
This section provides commentaries related to comments in the Integrative Knowledge area of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential
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1. Presentation
(a) The design of any text concerning method immediately raises the question as to whether that design will facilitate or hinder implementation of any insights embodied in the text. The form of the text is not a trivial matter and should ideally be isomorphic with the pattern of operations to which it gives rise. Texts that fail to take this constraint into account tend to give rise to methods which are poorly understood and rarely used, whatever their merits.
1. Premature and immature agreement
Clearly there is a communication problem in arguing for new levels of unity, if this is comprehended as equivalent to arguing for separation of mother and child, for example. Any such argument can then only be perceived as "bad" or "evil" under present circumstances. But, at the same time as the Rg Veda case illustrates, there is a certain level of disagreement inherent in any pattern of organization.
In interrelating highly diverse focal concepts, it would be naive to ignore the fact that those identifying with such different concepts tend to disagree and to oppose each other. Such dynamics need to be taken into account if the resulting integration is to be of more than academic significance. The difficulty is that the ability of conventional methodologies to encompass essentially incommensurable concepts is poorly developed - methodologies themselves tend to be mutually "hostile".
1. Definition
There is no satisfactory general definition for the concepts which it is intended that this section should include. The title envisaged for this section has at various times been "interdisciplinary concepts", "integrative concepts", "integrative, unitary, and transdisciplinary concepts", etc.
(a) Inclusion: By the above terms is meant concepts such as the following:
(b) Concepts of interdisciplinarity
This section provides commentaries related to the methods used in the Integrative Knowledge area of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential
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Use the links in the Table of Contents to navigate through the content.
The following initiatives have been noted since the first edition of the Encyclopedia in 1976 endeavoured to profile integrative concepts.
1. Interdisciplinary team research
1. Complexity
Georges Gusdorf, in an exceptional survey of interdisciplinarity for the French-language Encyclopaedia Universalis France (1972) notes that interdisciplinary knowledge is à la mode and that everybody now calls for "pluridisciplinarity" or "multidisciplinarity". He even suggests that there is an element of snobbism in doing so. However, on closer examination, it is possible to discover that this requirement, far from constituting any form of progress, is only the symptom of the pathological state of knowledge at this time.
