Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies Volume 09 (1991)
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Item Introduction(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie ThompsonItem The End-of-History vs. All- is-History(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie ThompsonItem Being Interdisciplinary is So Very Hard to Do(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie ThompsonItem Trading Tunes with Stanley Fish: Grand Unification Theories and the Practice of Literature and Science(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie ThompsonStanley Fish has charged that literary critics who begin from epistemological relativism cannot escape the constraints of their discipline by appealing to such assumptions and then go on to interdisciplinary inquiries and claim for them the authority and importance that disciplinary claims usually get. Literature and science, especially as it draws on physicists working toward grand unification theories, offers an example of how crossing disciplinary boundaries can pursue transcendent questions without losing the authority that disciplines offer or suppressing the important perspectives that epistemological relativism has to offer. David Bohm's Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1980) suggests how a unified theory can include within itself the flexibility to take into account the discontinuities that Fish sees as the major obstacles to interdisciplinarity.Item What Do We Know About Knowledge?(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie ThompsonItem Readings: An Invitation(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie ThompsonItem Consciousness and Linguistic Competency: Making Interdisciplinary Choices(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie ThompsonA difficult problem for interdisciplinary study is deciding what constructs from other fields will comport well with the concerns of one's own academic area. Consciousness is a crucial concept for any discipline concerned with human behavior, but is particularly problematic for human communication scholars since it is not a primitive concept for speech communication. This essay advocates choosing a conception of consciousness that reflects the active role of language in shaping human consciousness and is presented in the theories of Vygotsky and Luria. The author suggests that such a perspective would be more practical and heuristic for communication studies than others currently being advanced since assessments of linguistic competency could then be used to investigate human consciousness.Item Honoring the World-Soul(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie ThompsonJames Hillman speaks of the need for "a psychology that returns psychic reality to the world," that restores the Renaissance cosmology of an anima mundi. In this essay, I present an argument for an imaginal epistemology which takes as its central claim that the anima mundi is biologically and psychologically enacted as image, pattern, metaphor, and narrative. I offer a revisioning of selected findings within empirical psychology and biology as first steps toward legitimating such an epistemology, and I try to suggest that dangers for self-deception implicit in an imaginal epistemology may be met through the tools provided by poststructural critique.Item Integration without Confusion(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie ThompsonItem Higher Education Leadership: Where and Who are the Interdisciplinarians? An Introductory Story(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie ThompsonItem On Pushing Back the Boundaries of Economics: The Case of Business Ethics(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1991) Bailis, Stanley; Gottlieb, Stephen; Klein, Julie ThompsonThis paper attempts to go beyond the traditional boundaries of economics to examine an important area too long neglected in modern economics -- ethics. In this paper, orthodox economic methodology is turned on its head; that is, instead of employing a ceteris paribus environment, the analysis proposes a model in which the environment is a key variable of interest. Particular attention is given to environmental dynamics -- how changes in the environment can cause a change in the level of business ethics employed by the business firm. The image of causation used in the proposed model relies heavily upon important concepts from disciplines outside economics, primarily sociology and psychology. Particularly prominent is the use of Maslow's hierarchy of needs to help explain possible linkages between ethical behavior by the business firm and benefits derived from such behavior, as well as the costs of exploitative behavior to the firm. The model is intended to help us better understand the conditions under which business firms are likely to behave ethically and when not. Also, the model yields insights into effectiveness of public policy aimed at increasing business ethics when firms fail to meet society's expectations. Finally, an assessment of the model is made -- strengths, shortcomings, and future research needs are indicated.