In the field of human sciences, interdisciplinary research can result from two separate but interrelated needs. First is the 'need for information' and more data, and the second is the need for more common structures or for analytical integration. At the first level, an interdisciplinary collaboration poses little or no problems. It involves exchange of information among related disciplines in the belief that such exchange enriches a discipline’s understanding of the phenomena under study. A discipline’s boundaries and autonomy in explanatory terms are not eroded by interdisciplinary contacts at the level of information or data. It may sometimes lead to adoption of common methods by related disciplines, which in turn, may pave the way for a possible integration at the level of analysis or perspectives or interpretative scheme. The fulfillment of this second need for common structures, or what we have termed as analytical integration, is beset with several difficulties. Unlike in the natural sciences, in the social sciences there is no linear order of sciences ranged between 'decreasing generality' and 'increasing complexity' : On the contrary, in some of the social sciences, there is a marked tendency to reduce explanations of diverse social phenomena to a single perspective peculiar to that science. Sociologists are often accused of reducing everything to sociology and their reductionism is often pejoratively dubbed as ‘sociological imperialism’ Similar tendencies are noticeable, with differences in degree, among some economists, political scientists, linguists, psychologists, and soon.
Answer the following questions based on the facts/information described in the above passage :
Inter-disciplinary research in human sciences results from
Correct Answer: (d) Two separate but inter-related needs.
Solution:Inter-disciplinary research in human sciences derives from two separate and inter-related needs. First is the need for information and data and secondly, there is a need for analytical integration.