Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

General problems of interdisciplinary research and common mechanisms 469
the order indicated above. Consequently interdisciplinary trends receive a
continual impetus.
This certainly does not mean that everyone is of the same opinion or that any
problem of reduction actually leads to three possible solutions. But these very
possibilities result in a closer investigation of the problems so that all three lead
to interdisciplinary discussions. These solutions are : I) reduction from the
‘higher’ to the ‘lower’; 2) irreducibility of the phenomenon of the ‘higher’ level;
and 3) reciprocal assimilation by partial reduction of the ‘higher’, but also by
enrichment of the ‘lower’ by the ‘higher’.
Many examples of these three kinds of solution are to be found. For instance,
Auguste Comte is known to have considered chemistry as necessarily separate
from physics because the phenomenon of ‘affinity’ did not seem to him to be
reducible to the known mechanisms. History has shown, on the contrary, that
reduction was possible, and even necessary. On questions on which the current
state of knowledge remains ‘open’, such as the relations between life and physico-chemistry,
biologists are divided between the three trends. Some are of
the opinion that there can only be reduction to the physico-chemical phenomena
known at present, and the new links discovered between unorganized and living
bodies confirm them in this way of thinking. Others are of the opinion that the
vital phenomenon remains irreducible, but in order to defend this vitalism
against the former tendency they are of course obliged to study possible connexions
with chemical or physical facts just as closely. Others again quote
opinions such as that expressed by the physicist Ch. E. Guye in his Frontibres
entre la biologie et la physico-chimie. According to this profound author, reductions
on the physical terrain itself consist almost always in the subordination of
the simple to the complex, as well as the converse, in a finally reciprocal co-ordination,
so that if a physico-chemical explanation of life can be expected, our
present physico-chemistry wil gain new properties thereby, thus becoming
more ‘general’ instead of being applied exclusively to more and more special
fields.
Analysis of such thought-processes in the development of explanations - those
which have already proved acceptable and also those which are anticipated - is
very instructive for our purposes. On the one hand, it shows the reasons for
interdisciplinary collaboration in branches where it has become current prac-
tice and where its usefulness needs no further proof. But on the other hand, it
overcomes at the outset any prejudices we might have and it dispels the belief
that any connexion going beyond the frontiers of our own discipline is likely
to lead to exaggerated reductions and to a weakening of the specific character
of the phenomena under study. In particular, when we realize that ‘it is the scale
which gives rise to the phenomenon’ - a fact fully brought home by the same
physicist cited above - relationships established between processes on different
scales both explain very well and respect the specific aspects. The first half of
this centurydwitnessed a series of partly sterile arguments between the two human
sciences best fitted to co-ordinate their findings - psychology and sociology.
We shall see, in section I 6 and elsewhere, how in this particular matter, the method
of establishing mutual relationships has made it possible to dismiss a number