"Trans-disciplinarity"
by Hideaki Koizumi
Keywords:
trans-disciplinarity
Introduction:
Over
the past two centuries, human culture has been split into
two categories, science and technology, and the humanities
and arts. Furthermore, science and technology have been minutely
divided into clearly specified disciplines. Thus, it has become
hard to understand other disciplines at a professional level
because of the intellectual walls between disciplines. The
maturity of science and technology, however, has made it increasingly
difficult to obtain new findings and breakthroughs only within
one’s specialized discipline. New findings and technical
breakthroughs are often accomplished only by bridging the
gap between completely different disciplines, and this has
been true for many years. For example, Newton’s system
of classic dynamics was created by combining the concepts
explaining the motion of astronomical objects and the falling
of an object, traditionally said to be an apple, to the ground.
Darwin’s theory of natural selection was an analogy of
the competition in a free market described by Adam Smith.
Atomism and reductionism originally came from the projection
of the hierarchical structure of human language to nature
by Democritos.
Although
many scientists and scholars have recognized the importance
of a multidisciplinary approach, it is still very difficult
to transcend the borders of disciplines in practice. Such
conceptual transitions have generally been made by people
now considered geniuses. Current inter- or multi-disciplinary
research organizations are not powerful enough to overcome
the walls between disciplines, and inter- or multi-disciplinary
research organizations often have not functioned as well as
expected because they have been based upon only a bundle of
closely, or sometimes not so closely, related disciplines.
The author believes that rather than a static concept, a dynamic
concept is needed to overcome this difficulty, and to bridge
and fuse disciplines to enable the evolution of new comprehensive
fields, e.g., mind-brain science, environmental science and
educational science.
Reprinted
from:
H. Koizumi, ed., "Search for Foundations of Science &
Technology in the 21st Century; The Trans-disciplinary Symposium
on the Frontier of Mind-Brain Science and Its Practical Applications
(II), Hitachi, Ltd, Tokyo (2000).
