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The Unification of Disciplines

As students slowly make their way through the precisely delineated educational system, various requirements have been established to guide them towards particular areas of study. An interdisciplinary approach is revered as an exceptional opportunity to amalgamate several subjects, which emits the false notion that each discipline is a separate entity and that it requires a significant leap to branch several. In this post, I'll explain the flaw in this logic with some examples I've recently discovered.

This summer, I've invested more of my time towards the study of international relations and investing, with less concentration on purely literary endeavors and philosophy... or so I thought. What becomes clear as you study new disciplines is that, on a fundamental level, many of them are inextricably linked and inseparable. It would be impossible to study Global Affairs without running into economics, sociology, psychology, and philosophy, despite the fact that all of these subjects are often separated in a list of majors for an educational institution. Certain programs of study or more specialized majors offer titles that mesh multiple of these subjects together, with rare opportunities like "Mathematics and Philosophy" or "Ethics, Politics, and Economics."

This system of classification is not inherently wrong in any sort of way; rather, it can be misleading for students when they frame their pre-college studies. The first three requirements for an individual who wants to major in Global Affairs at Yale, for instance, are in the Economics department, which makes perfect sense when you consider the fact that economics encompasses all human decisions, not just financial ones (a discipline rooted in behavior would thus correspond effectively with one that explores interactions with organizations and institutions across the world). Once you start to analyze major schools of thought in Political Science, another major which is curiously separated from Global Affairs, you realize that many parts of realism, liberalism, and constructivism are rooted in philosophical and psychological assumptions.

As Americans gradually increase their interest in investing and delve into the field of economics to manage their savings, a connection to sociology becomes apparent. As explained by this fascinating video, the Matthew Effect, which can be used to trace widening literacy gaps between children with unequal starts when it comes to reading books, can also be applied to the concept of wealthy companies. The largest corporations which entered the market earlier than their competitors like Amazon and Apple maintain dominance despite occasional product defaults because their advantage multiplied as time passed. Such connections can be found in almost every discipline, and at the highest level, the separation between mathematics and philosophy dissolves when we ascertain their common purpose: seeking explanations for the events which transpire on Earth, whether in a qualitative or a quantitative sense.

So that's my pitch for an interdisciplinary education which shouldn't be heralded as exogenous to the current educational system. Connecting various disciplines is an inherent part of studying various majors and we should embrace this as we pursue our studies.


6/14/21

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