User:Agnese marino basc/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge (LG seminar)/Group 8/History

Explore the history of a discipline of your choice:

ECONOMICS

How and when did it emerge? The first instance of economic thought can be traced back to Ancient Greece and the works of Hesiod, around 750-650 BC. In the ancient world, economic tasks, developing rules for business, trade, household management and agriculture generally fell on either royal advisors and philosophers. Scottish philosopher Adam Smith is widely heralded as the father of modern economics, and his publication ‘The wealth of nations’ in 1776 is regarded as the birth of economics as an academic discipline. This was Smith’s critical reaction to the system of mercantilism that European nations adhered to from the 16th to 18th century, whereby they maximised exports, erected tariffs and engaged their military powers to protect local markets.

How is it studied? In the 25 years following WWII the nature of economics changes, mathematics came to permeate almost every branch of the field. When, originally, there was a limited use of differential and integral calculus, there became more use of matrix algebra and input-output analysis and development of linear programming too. Integration of econometrics at this time as well, a study of economic theory, mathematical model building, and statistical testing of economic predictions.

How has it changed? Since the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent failure of most economic institutions to predict it, the study of economics has greatly shifted away from its original dry, theoretical nature and towards a more real-world approach, where economics can be better applied to complex economic and financial issues in present day. In our ever-changing society, economic outcomes are based on a multitude of factors way beyond the rigid theories of supply and demand, such as theories in behavioural economics which delves into the emotional, cognitive and psychological aspects of economic decisions. Therefore, the way economics is taught is becoming increasing pluralist, to incorporate these new social perspectives that perhaps was overlooked in the initial founding of the discipline.

Examples and non-examples For example, Royal Holloway, University of London, modified their first-year economics module to cover more non-market voices in economics; historical perspectives and the increasingly popular study of behavioural economics. University College London (UCL) and the University of Bristol have created an open-source curriculum programme, the CORE project (Curriculum Open-Access Resources in Economics), that entails as restructured version of the traditional economics degree.

Claims on truth in Economics

1. Positive economics concern facts, cause-and-effect behavioural relationships and economic theories. It tends to be free from value judgements, often known as the economics of "what is”.

2. Normative economics concern value judgments about economic fairness, often referred to as the economics of "what ought to be", especially with regards to the outcome of the economy public policy.

Typically, positive and normative economics share a complementary relationship as pure economic facts are needed to calculate outcomes and decide on economic policy.

By: Katarina, Maddy and Millie

PSYCHOLOGY

How and when did it emerge? -Antonia

Psychology It is the study of mental development and how biological, social-cultural and psychological influence the mental development. It is an academic and applied disciplines, there are different fields : research, clinical, advisor.

The early root of psychology starts with Greek philosophers. How human reacts, how its environment influence his action, why people are sad, angry or happy ? All these questions have always been in the mind of people and Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle tried to explore these themes throughout their philosophical work. Lacking of some good methodology, some to produce a proper psychology work, it was simply included in philosophy. The problem is that psychology is a very wild field, that widened through the year. It explains why psychology became a self conscious discipline in 1879 when the German scientist Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research. It became a discipline, which mean that it was recognize as a science and that research was undertaken.

Before that, psychology was mostly studied by philosophers (Descartes, Hobbes and Locke), even though they didn’t call it like that. They didn’t consider psychology as an independent discipline, but as a implicit mean to philosopher’s.

Psychology was considered as a discipline when researchers claim themselves as psychologist, when an institution was created and dedicated exclusively to this field, when money was spend in the project.

How is Psychology studied? -Irina

Psychology is a broad and diverse field therefore you can study many branches of it.Some of them are:

-Biological psychology (which studies how biological processes influence the mind)

-Personality psychology (studies how personalities develop and how different thoughts and behaviors make someone unique)

-Abnormal psychology (focuses on research and treatment of mental disorders)

Case studies,surveys,naturalistic and laboratory observation are some examples of descriptive or correlational research methods.

How has psychology changed over time? - Nikki

17th C

Rene Descartes - dualism

Dualism is the idea that body and mind were two entities that interact to form human experience.

Mid 1800s

Wilhelm Wundt

Psychology is a study of human consciousness (reaction time experiment) and seek to use scientific methods to measure it.

- introspection

Structuralism - Edward Titchener

Consciousness is formed by a sum of different basic components (perceptions and sensations).

- introspection

late 1800s

Functionalism - William James

Consciousness is 'learnt' to help people live in their environment. It is a continuously changing process.

- direct observation

Psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud

Human mind contains consciousness and unconscious with the unconscious part taking up the most space. People act to resolve their internal conflicts.

Behaviorism - Ivan Pavlov

People react in response to the environment and their past experience (conditioning).

Humanistic - Carl Rogers

Psychology is based on people's power of free will to seek self-transcendence.

Cognitive Psychology

Human behaviours are controlled by perception, memory, and other cognitive processes together.

Claim of Truth

Psychology starts on a positivist ground since William Wundt, the founding father of psychology as a scientific subject, based his study of this discipline on scientific methods and analysing measurements.

Then the discipline starts focusing on the interaction between the mind and the society, which ventures into constructionism since the psychologists have realized that the symptoms of a mental disorder is likely to be a result from the interaction between the society and the person's brain.

However, the methods used in study of psychology is never far from interpretive perspective since the psychologist is constantly inquiring the subjects on their vision of the world and their condition.

Examples and non-examples -Irina

Example:Psychology uses different methods and schools of thought to overcome symptoms of mental distress.

Non-example:Psychology does not try to comprehend the existence of human life

Film studies(Ines, Camilla, Ameer, Nina)

What are Film studies?

Film studies are considered as an academic discipline concerning the theory behind filmmaking, viewing it as a specific form of art. The concept behind the discipline is defined as a theoretical, historical and critical approach to filmmaking contrary to the technical and practical side of it. Various political, cultural and artistic aspects of films are analysed and considered. Films are viewed and treated as a reflection of cultural and artistic developments or movements.It creates an interconnection between the aesthetics of films and the issues that are being reviewed.

How and when did it emerge?

It emerged in the twentieth century with the existence of film theory and film historiography. Even though the film industry appeared decades before, it progressively emerged as the interest to critically approach film as an art and analyze it academically grew, rather than focusing on the production and subjectiveness of the films. The engagement with cinema increased between the 1920's and the 1930's when discussions about the theoretical nature, the aesthetic function and the social and cultural role of cinema became popular and seemed essentially complimentary to the actual making of the films.

How has it changed:

Film schools switched their focus from production and actual film making to the theory and critical thinking behind making movies. Film studies became a lot less practical and activity based and instead taught students reflection and analysis of films. As the film industry started to grow, the media started to pay more attention to films and journalist began to cover the topic from different perspectives (analysis, critics, artistic point of view, rankings). Today, film studies is a discipline in most schools and is also used as a tool to teach other disciplines. Furthermore, with the rise of new social medias like Youtube and Instagram films are now easily spread around the world and are subject to being studied. This made film studies a way of learning about different cultures as well.

• Subjectivism: A scene is subjective usually when the shot is what is best known as the First-person Point of View. This shot makes the audience see what the principal character sees. The director's aim is to share one point of view.

• Objectivism: On the contrary, when the director chooses to show various characters and actions at one single place and time in a scene, he is using an objective method of film-making, therefore of film-studies.

International Relations : (by Pei Yen and Louise)

How and when did it emerge? : 'International relation' (IR) is today a famous academic discipline taught in almost every university. However, the study of international relations is quite recent. Scholars started studying IR following the two world wars. After the destructions caused by these two conflicts, it became urgent for the global community to understand relations between countries in order to maintain peace and avoid another war.

International Relations became an official discipline in 1919 when the University of Wale created for the first time a department of 'International Politics’. Shortly after, the London School of Economics started offering a large range of degrees in International relations. Gradually, IR became a discipline in more and more universities from England with Oxford, to the United States with Harvard. -Louise-

• How is it studied - Pei Yen -
  • Employs a variety of methods including discourse analysis, statistics and comparative and historical analysis
  • Focuses on established theories
    • 1. Realism: all nations are working to increase their own power.
    • 2. Liberalism: the current global system is capable of engendering a peaceful world order.
    • 3. Constructivism: rather than the outright pursuit of material interests, it is a nation’s belief systems—historical, cultural and social —that explain its foreign policy efforts and behavior
    • 4. Marxism: societies can escape the self-destructive nature of capitalist socioeconomic systems by implementing socialist theory into their policies, both locally and abroad
    • 5. Feminism: regulate the power derived from an individual’s gender

• Examples and non-example - Pei Yen -
  • Examples
    • The relation of states with one another
      • Eg: origins of war and the maintenance of peace
    • The nature and exercise of power within the global system
    • The changing character of state and non-state actors who participate in international decision-making
    • The promotion of successful trade policies within nations
  • Non-examples
    • Exploring the complexities of the states themselves

How has it changed? : The study of international relations has changed over the years due to the evolution of global politics, international orders and the world’s economy.

For example, before the XXth century, International relation was mainly divided between diplomatic history and international law. However, after the two world wars, it seems that IR became more focused on concepts and theories such as realism or liberalism. International relations also saw the appearance of new topics of discussions such as climate change or ethics. Today, the study of international relations is mainly divided between foreign policy perspective and the international system analysis.

The History of disciplines (Louise)

It seems that the categorization of knowledge into disciplines has always existed. Indeed, already in Ancient Greece, Aristotle prioritized knowledge into three categories: theoretical, practical and productive knowledge. Theoretical knowledge was the highest form, regrouping more scientific topics such as maths or physics. Practical knowledge was more literary including subjects such as ethics or politics. Finally, the least prestigious form was productive knowledge which designated topics such as arts or literature. However, Aristotle believed that one discipline united all of them: Philosophy.

The categorization of knowledge into disciplines continued for centuries and became over the years more and more important in society. For example, in the late middle age, many European universities such as Oxford or Bocconi started changing their curriculum for a more classified and organised one. Moreover, during the European enlightenment, the creation of the Encyclopedia by Diderot accelerated knowledge's classification. However, the belief that Philosophy was a subject that could link every discipline together maintained until the 19th century. Even today, philosophy is sometimes seen as an undisciplined subject with the highest degree a student can receive being the PhD: doctor of philosophy.

The categorization of knowledge is now well rooted in our modern society and is even evolving with the emergence of new disciplines. Today, new disciplines often appear because of the division of a subject into several ones. For example, from Physics has developed Astrophysics and Cosmology. Other disciplines have also arised to fill a gap between two already existing subjects. For example, to fill the gap between Chemistry and Biology has appeared Biochemistry.

However, the strict classification of knowledge into disciplines is now more and more criticized. Some scholars argue that it is important for an individual to have interdisciplinary knowledge. Indeed, this predominance for centuries of knowledge’s categorization has led today to a society were being a specialist in a field in seen as a norm but also as a success. However, this mode of thinking is now more and more challenged: it is now argued that to solve 21st century’s main challenges, having a broad vision is essential. For example, in his book “The Polymath”, Waqas Ahmed shows the importance for one to have a broad knowledge and not to focus on one specific subject. He shows how some of the most influential people in History were not specialists in a discipline but rather Polymaths: people talented in several fields. For example, Goethe was not only a great author but also an excellent physicist whose work inspired Newton. Churchill was also not only a great politician but also an incredible author who won a noble price in Literature.

Therefore, in reaction to these studies, some universities such as ‘The University of California, Irvine’ have tried to create interdisciplinary degrees creating new links between different disciplines. For example UCI have conceived a master of “Mathematical, Computational and Systems Biology". However, these types of degrees are often hardly recognized by society as they require to rethink the way we perceive knowledge's categorization.

Therefore, since Ancient Greece, knowledge has been categorized into disciplines. Even today we can continue to see this process with the emergence of new disciplines such as Biochemistry. However, the division of knowledge into disciplines is today more and more criticized and who knows, me might see a "declassification" of knowledge in a few years!

Rhetoric

Rhetoric, or the oratorical art, aims to persuade. Created during the ancient greece, being one of the main pillar of the noble education for the ancient greeks and romans, and still used nowadays by many politicians, commercials, CEO, etc… It follows strict rules to build up the best speech as possible.

The main principles are the ones from Artistotles : to convince, every speech has to be based on three domains : - Logos, which represents all the logical and scientific arguments - Ethos, which represents the credibility and confidence of the speaker or persons he/she mentions - Pathos, which represents the emotional part of the speech

Then, the speaker should use figure of speech, follow the given order to construct the speech, memorize it and practise it a lot using given gestures (as an example, Hitler used exactly the same gestures to convince as it is prescribed in famous antical rhetoric books by Cicero or Quintilien).

It approaches to the truth is biaised : there is no objective truth but only the one the speaker wants his/her audience to believe. It plays with the psychology of the audience, using very specific techniques to convince them. A very dangerous art when it is – as often nowadays – used by people of power employing fallacious types of arguments.

Exemple of the ones used a lot to convince nowadays:

- Syllogisms (A is B, but C is B, so C is A – All cats are grey, but this pigeon is grey, so the pigeon is a cat) - Slippery slope (a type of argument inflating a statment to a chain of related events ending (usually) in a very negative effect. If we legalize cannabis, then cannabis smokers would take heroin and would require it to be legalize as well)

Protagoras, categorized by Plato as a sophist, specialized teachers of the art of speaking and orators of the ancient Greece, said «the man is the measure of all things ». He assumed the truth is not absolute and we are creating it depending on what we want or need. Many critics of the sophists, such as Socrat or Plato, claimed that neither truth or ethics mattered to them.

Approaching knowledge and truth, it is important to be able to recognize evidences of such widely spread techniques to determine if we are being manipulated or not.

Rhetoric has been learnt throughout centuries, and is still part of the curriculum of many schools or universities. It is a discipline per se but is used as a tool by many different disciplines (politics, marketing, literature, any paper of sciences that needed to convince and many more).

Biogeography and ecology: towards the integration of two disciplines   

•  Although ecology and biogeography had a common origin in nineteenth-century natural history, these disciplines grew apart with their formalization and the search for mechanisms to explain patterns early in the 20^th century
  • experimental tools of genetics and population biology were useful for studying the adaptations of organisms and the regulation of populations, but did not readily apply to global patterns of distribution and diversity
  • shows that the different methodologies was what led to the divergence of the 2 fields, one of the points that was mentioned by the lecturer that marks a distinction between the 2 disciplines

• Although the 2 disciplines have split, there is now again a current trend towards their unification
• They were initially distinguished because of
  • 1. Language and tradition
    • each discipline uses diff vocab for its unique phenomena and processes
    • but diff disciplines also use the same words in different ways
    • eg distribution, community, dispersal and niche have diff meanings when applied by biogeographers and ecologists
  • 2. data and experimental analytical tools
  • 3. scale and perspective (from the standpoint of both time and space)

• Modern ecology addresses mechanisms responsible for pattern and relies heavily on experimental approaches, which limit the spatial and temporal scale of processes that can be investigated. Bio geography has been concerned with large scale, indeed global, patterns in the distributions of populations and in the diversity of natural system

Taken from: Biogeography and ecology: towards the integration of two disciplines by Robert E. Ricklefs and David G. Jenkins, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, Vol. 366, No. 1576, Biogeography and ecology: two views of one world (27 August 2011), pp. 2438-2448

Horology-(Terence)

Horology is defined in the oxford English dictionary as "the study and measurement of time" and "the art of making clocks and watches".

Etymology

Created in 1752, this word coins together the Greek word hōra (hour) and logy (the study of).

When and how did it emerge?

It is of course very difficult to trace back when human first measured time. However its importance is undisputable and mankind has innovated to improve its timekeeping technology. Ancient Egyptians used sundials to keep track time using the sun's movement relative to Earth, with the earliest examples dating back to 13th centuries BC, discovered in the Valley of Kings. Chinese and Japanese used wicks as a timekeeper (can be two feet in length). They usually have knots tied up at a regular distance interval to keep the whole wick from burning out. Though the origin of hourglass not not clear, it can be dated backe to at least 8th century's Europe, invented by a monk named Liutprand.

When Europeans start sailing the seas, navigation became one of the most important art to master, as failure to do so meant stranded at sea. To aid the navigation process, accurate timepieces are required to know the distance the ship has travelled. These large timekeeping devices are called choronometers, and this word is used to describe very accurate mechanical timepieces.

How is it studied?

Before the wide spread usage of quartz in timekeeping devices in 1973 (after the price of quartz watches drop to more affordable prices) . Mechanical timepieces are the most accurate and precise timepieces available, and due to its large number of parts and their size, mechanical horology was the frontline of mechanical engineering and innovation. The study of it mostly involves extensive planning (nowadays computer aided design-CAD- has made the process much easier) , experiment, and execution. The two main branches of pursuit are accuracy and complications. Very accurate watches are called chronometers (within the +6/-4 seconds per day parameter of Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres qualification). Complications are additoinal functions other than hour, minute, and second a watch has.

How has it changed

Accuracy and other non-complication progressions:

The first leap through that allows the miniaturisation of timekeeping devices is the use of a spiral mainspring as power source. By using a spiral spring, one can store power within the timekeeping device, meaning it would not need power input like a water clock. With the mainspring comes escapement, which is a regulator that makes sure the spring does not unwind all at once. The aforementioned knots on wicks, or the neck that limits the amount of sand passing through it in an hourglass, can also be seen as a form of escapement.

The next leap-through is the balance wheel, which allows the miniaturisation and thus easy transport of timepieces. Before the appearance of balance wheels, clocks use a pendulum to regulate the passage of time by using conservation of momentum. Balance wheel is also an escapement. It also operates by using conservation of momentum, a spiral spring inside the balance wheel oscillates back and forth, at a regular interval, allowing the power source to push the indicator forward at the correct time.

In 1795, Abraham-Louis Breguet developed the “tourbillon”. It’s patent was submitted by A-L Breguet on 23rd December, 1800, and approved on 26th June, 1801 (or 7 Messidor, year IX in Republican Calendar). Meaning “the whirlwind”, it is a balance wheel within a constantly rotating cage which improves its accuracy.

PLAN

how has it changed:

major leapthrough: mechanical timekeeping devices(with escapement and spiral mainspring), tourbillon, quartz, atomic clock

Bibliography/citation