(Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, 1987) Klein, Julie Thompson; Bailis, Stanley; Miller, Raymond C.
Benson and his critics seem to make three troubling assumptions: 1) There
is only one valid theoretical approach to interdisciplinary studies. 2) Unanimous
agreement is a possible and desirable goal. 3) When a consensus on general
principles and methods is achieved, a new legitimacy will follow. These
assumptions are all wrong because they are based in the modern Cartesian
school of foundationalist epistemology rather than postmodern epistemology.
Knowledge and justification are better understood as social phenomena rather
than as grounded in nature, reason, language or historical laws. Interdisciplinarians
should be open to a variety of approaches, picking what works the
best for the time being.