Philosophy of Interdisciplinarity

We need much more material here. We could have more links like the following:

Interdisciplinarity and Postmodernism

Jacqueline Y. Russell; “A Philosophical Framework for an Open and Critical Transdisciplinary Inquiry” in Valerie Brown, John Harris, Russell eds. Tackling Wicked Problems makes several suggestions:

· Urges realism but recognizes we can’t fully comprehend reality; thus knowledge partial and plural (especially in a contemporary world of rapid change);

· Thus need to pursue Habermas-like conversation [there ia a brief discussion of Habermas in the section on Interdisciplinary Communication], with broader conversations among diverse elements better

· Need also to appreciate different ethical perspectives (that is, we can’t totally separate ethics from science). [There is a discussion of ethics below]

She summarizes this approach as openness on ontological, epistemological, and ethical fronts

Veronica Boix Mansilla, "Learning to synthesize: The development of interdisciplinary understanding," The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity (2010), 288-306, discusses the possibility of a pragmatic constructionist epistemology.

William H. Newell, Ch. 13 “Decision Making in Interdisciplinary Studies” in Göktug Morçöl (ed.) Handbook of Decision Making (New York: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, 2007), 245-264, advocates a constructivist-realist approach.

Several articles in recent issues of Issues in Integrative Studies (renamed Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies in 2013) address the philosophical basis of interdisciplinarity: Rick Szostak "Modernism, Postmodern, and Interdisciplinarity" (2007); James Welch explored epistemology in 2009 and 2011, and ontology in 2012.

Wendell Kisner, Interdisciplinary Models and Dialectical Integration: A Proposed Model of Integrated Interdisciplinarity, in Raphael Foshay, ed., Valences of interdisciplinarity: Theory, Practice, Pedagogy (Athabasca University Press, 2011) explores both a Heidegerrian and Hegelian approach to interdisciplinarity. Other chapters in that volume also explore the philosophical underpinnings of interdisciplinarity. In particular, Diana Brydon's Globalization and Higher Education explores the concept of cognitive justice, while Lorraine Code's Ecological Thinking as Interdisciplinary Practice investigates epistemic justice.

P. Sven Arvidson “Between Phenomenology and Psychology: The Interdisciplinarity of Aron Gurwitsch,”Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 2014, 45 (2), provides a useful example of how interdisciplinary analysis can inform philosophy.

Jan Schmidt has questioned the meaning of the word "problem" in problem-oriented interdisciplinarity. He has also distinguished interdisciplinarity focused on objects that lie on the boundary of disciplines from the search for interdisciplinary theories or methods. See, for example, his What is a problem? On problem-oriented interdisciplinarity, Poiesis Prax (2011) 7:249–274 and his Prospects for a Philosophy of Interdisciplinarity, Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity.

The Philosophy of/in Interdisciplinarity website is at http://pin-net.gatech.edu/

There was an interesting conversation on the I2S website at: https://i2insights.org/2017/05/02/philosophy-for-interdisciplinarity/