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Disciplinary boundaries*
The unconscious barrier to a true understanding of what
transdisciplinarity means by the
words beyond all discipline comes from the inability of certain
researchers to think the
discontinuity1. For them, the boundaries between disciplines are
like boundaries between
countries, continents and oceans on the surface of the Earth.
These boundaries are fluctuating
in time but a fact remains unchanged the continuity between
territories.
!e ha"e a different approach of the boundaries between
disciplines. For us, they are
like the separation between gala#ies, solar systems, stars and
planets. $t is the mo"ement itself
which generates the fluctuation of boundaries. This does not
mean that a gala#y intersects
another gala#y. !hen we cross the boundaries we meet the
interplanetary and intergalactic
"acuum. This "acuum is far from being empty it is full of
in"isible substance and energy. $t
introduces a clear discontinuity between territories of
gala#ies, solar systems, stars and
planets. !ithout the interplanetary and intergalactic "acuum
there is no uni"erse.
%owe"er, the abo"e considerations are simply metaphors.
The astonishing fact is that no rigorous definition of
disciplinary boundaries exists till
now in literature. &ased upon the transdisciplinary
approach', we are able to gi"e such a
rigorous definition.
!e define disciplinary boundaryas the totality of the results
past, present and future
obtained by the laws, norms, rules and practices of a given
discipline . (f course, there is a
direct relation between the e#tent to which a gi"en discipline
has been mathematically
formulated and the e#tent to which this discipline has assumed a
boundary. $n other words, the
*http://basarab.nicolescu.perso.sfr.fr/ciret/ARTICLES/liste_articles.html
1Julie Thompson Klein,Interdisciplinarity History, Theory
Practice, Wayne State University Press, Detroit,
1990.'
&asarab )icolescu, La transdisciplinarit, manifeste, onaco,
+ocher, Transdisciplinarit- eries, /001.English
translationManifesto of Transdisciplinarity. )ew 2ork 3)2 4ress,
'55', translation from the Frenchby 6aren78laire 9oss.
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more mathematically formali:ed a gi"en discipline is, the
morethis respecti"e discipline has a
precise boundary.
ost of the disciplines are not mathematically formali:ed and
therefore their boundaries
are fluctuating in time. $n spite of this fluctuation, there is
a boundary defined as the limitof
the totality of fluctuating boundaries of the respecti"e
discipline. For e#ample, it must be clear
for e"erybody that the economy will ne"er gi"e information on
;od, that religion will ne"er
gi"e information on the fundamental laws of elementary particle
physics, that agriculture will
ne"er gi"e information about the neurophysiology, or that poetry
will ne"er gi"e information
on nanotechnologies.
There is a real discontinuity between disciplinary boundaries
there is nothing, strictly
nothing between two disciplinary boundaries, if we insist to
e#plore this space between
disciplines by old laws, norms, rules and practices. +adically
new laws, norms, rules and
practices are necessary.
The abo"e definition remains "alid for multidisciplinarity and
interdisciplinarity, which
are
