Interdisciplinary Synthesis
In: Policy sciences: integrating knowledge and practice to advance human dignity ; the journal of the Society of Policy Scientists, Band 3, Heft 3, S. 299-323
ISSN: 0032-2687
One of the most striking aspects of scientific progress has been the gradual concrescence of previously distinct theories, methods, disciplines, & cognitive modes. Proponents of the conception that the policy sciences should comprise a rationally structured supradiscipline rightly emphasize the desirability of accelerating this slow process of intellectual unification. However, this enterprise continues to be obstructed by failure to realize that interdisciplinary principles sufficient to generate a legitimate unification of scientific & humane concerns of the policy sciences can issue only from philosophical reconstruction. A normative (value sensitive) mode of general systems analysis adequate to the demands of adaptive social-institutional systems must constitute an epochal modification of the conventional perspective of scientific inquiry. Modern systems research has resulted in an innovation in the conceptual format of science because it has the ability to provide a unifying field for the presently fractured universe of scientific discourse. 2 specific projects for further contemplation & research are recommended: (1) selection of primitive concepts & commitments of a system-theoretic mode of rational inquiry, & (2) institution of an attending set of rational canons for normative systems analysis. 11 Figures. Modified HA.
