Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies by Repko Allen F

Author:Repko Allen F. [F., Repko Allen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2016-10-12T04:00:00+00:00

Importantly, other cognitive theorists describe a similar progression but use different labels and make some gender distinctions.

Assess Your Tolerance for Multiplicity

Multiplicity refers to when you experience several plausible yet contradictory explanations of the same phenomenon as opposed to one simple, clear-cut, unambiguous explanation (Perry, 1981, pp. 81–82). Such multiplicity is a key feature of interdisciplinary studies when working with conflicting insights coming out of different disciplinary perspectives.

The dualist and relativist positions are simplistic epistemic positions because they rest on the assumption you already “know what is true” about a given subject. If you have already taken a simplistic epistemic position concerning what is true about the interdisciplinary subject you are studying, you will be unable to work effectively with the multiple and conflicting disciplinary perspectives and insights concerning it. Even worse, you will misunderstand the aims and expectations of interdisciplinary learning. When faced with a range of plausible expert insights from different disciplinary perspectives where none seem to be simply “right” or “wrong,” says Clinton Golding (2009), you will likely react in one of these possible ways: You will experience “intellectual vertigo” and be unable to figure out what is going on, you will stubbornly cling dogmatically to your opinion come what may, or you will retreat to an equally problematic relativist position and think that it’s just “all a matter of opinion” (p. 18).

The tragic result of these attitudes will be twofold: (1) You will not understand why there is so much disagreement when the experts should just be able to get the “right answer” and move on, and (2) you will see little value in continuing in interdisciplinary studies.

But if you take a sophisticated epistemic position, that of critical pluralism, you will see the multiple and conflicting perspectives as partial understandings of the subject under study. You will also realize that what is needed is not another partial understanding or uninformed opinion but an understanding that takes into account the subject’s complexity and that respects the scholarship of disciplinary experts.

This last point should be stressed: The reward for grappling with multiplicity is the ability to integrate across differing insights in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding. Though you should be willing to move away from clinging stubbornly to one “right” answer, you need not and should not abandon the hope that we can achieve “better” answers by evaluating and integrating multiple insights.

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