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issue4 "No field of study can advance significantly unless outsiders bring their knowledge and experience to that field of study."
With the explosion of knowledge, the interrelationship among disciplines looms so large that calls everyone’s attention. This practice is partly reflected by the fact that the definite boundaries among subjects are vanishing, and partly by the fact that more and more advances in specific field are promoted eternally. Thereafter some people believe, that any field of study can only developed via outsiders’ bringing knowledge and experience. As far as I concern, the inter-discipline is a trend in academic world and even punctuated in accordance with the pace of knowledge explosion.
The knowledge and experience from one discipline provide either a brand new explanation or an important supplement for old ones to another. We have a lot of examples to support this point. First is sociology and economics. Owning to the hundreds of years of development, economics theory undergoes logical models and quantitative approaches, which gives people an abstruse impression. Sociology, on the contrary, fixes its aim at solving problems that are familiar to us, despite lacks an adequate mathematical base. But via inter-discipline, the results could be different. Wise economists manage to explain social phenomenon in the aspect of economics, such as how to evaluate the effectiveness of government, and how to calculate opportunity cost of changing current job. Whereas wise sociologists derive statistical methods from economics to put social study even logical and sophisticated. Another persuasive example could be biochemistry. When two seemingly separated disciplines---biology and chemistry--met in response to anxiety of practical use, there a new discipline came into being.
Moreover, as the unique knowledge background outsiders possess, chances are that they are likely to posit breakthroughs in that field. Outsider, within the differentiation in ideas and without doctrinal confines, they are most prone to shed light on the studies of field, bring vibrancy when disciplines’ limitation is to meet. Many experts in specific field have learned other subjects. 2003 Nobel prize winner in economics, Engle, who have once studied physics, admitted that physics gives him subtle thought and clear logic so that to triumph in econometrics. Another is Sorotes. The early study of philosophy yields his provident inspiration in financial market, overwhelming whole nation’s economic system. These people are the beneficiaries of inter-disciplines.
Admittedly, inter-disciplines are by no means inevitability to enhance research significantly. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the problem lies in its difficulty. It is quite impossible for an individual to have penetrating understanding in both disciplines, then even skillful enough to apply them properly. Secondly, it is an intrinsic one. Integration or implant expertise from other disciplines is not the only solution. Besides, the understanding in itself can be crucial, in other words, exerting morrow from discipline itself is also a key to summit
In sum, outsiders indeed bring a lot of discoveries, therefore being aware of its importance for academic world, not overlooking the importance of internal progress as well, may it thrive. |
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