Academic Specialization

Spiritual Humor Presents - Academic Specialization

[Show Introduction]

Addison: Greetings, and welcome to the Inner Illumination Show. With me on this show today are Lindsey and Catharsis.

The topic that we have chosen for this segment is academic specialization. We are going to discuss what specialization means and how it may affect your life, especially if you are a student.

Lindsey, can you give us a basic definition of what specialization means?

Lindsey: Specialization when it comes to knowledge means that knowledge progresses as a result of distinct and independent spheres or disciplines. Usually this means that knowledge in one discipline has little connection with the knowledge in another discipline.

In other words, the specialists of one discipline usually work in isolation from other disciplines rather than as an integrated whole.

Catharsis: I suppose that would be a good example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. That might even be the answer to the Zen question of what the sound of one hand clapping may be like.

Lindsey: <laughs> That was a good one Catharsis. That may be truer than most people may realize.

Addison: And that is why we are covering this topic. In ancient times, knowledge concerned how to gather food, wear your loincloth, make a good fire, avoid being eaten by animals, and so forth.

On a basic level, things that needed to be done were broken down into two separate areas - things that the women did and things that the men did. For instance, the women may have gathered roots, berries, herbs, and washed the loincloths while the men went hunting and goofed off.

Lindsey: Apparently, things have not changed that much since then as far as men goofing off is concerned - present company excluded of course!

Catharsis: I do my share of goofing off, I mean relaxing. Everyone can use some downtime occasionally. Just think how much relaxing I could do if I only had to hunt and help protect the tribe.

Addison: Yes, that kind of life may appeal to many people today. Eventually, humans learned how to raise crops and animals. This cut down on the amount of traveling they had to do for survival. Instead of following the food from location to location, they could now permanently stay in one area.

As new knowledge was gathered from watching the animals do things, such as learning to build a dam by observing the beavers; and learning through trial and error; and, through ideas intuitively received on how to do something novel or different than before, the community's knowledgebase grew.

Over the centuries as the community knowledgebase grew, certain occupations started to come into existence. Each member of the tribe might have had a certain job to do.

While passing on life skills was already part of an informal apprenticeship program, eventually people learned skills under a master through formal apprenticeship programs so that they could excel in certain occupations such as being a baker, carpenter, blacksmith, and so on. People were often named after their occupations with names such as Baker, Smith, and Cartwright.

Catharsis: I don't think it would sound very good if my last name was Psychotherapist; or if Lindsey's last name was Grad Student. It seems that the days of naming people after their occupations are long gone and probably for good reason. Now we can just name ourselves whatever we choose - such freedom!

Lindsey: That is probably a good thing too, given some of the names parents have chosen for their children. I heard that a child was named Adolf Hitler by his parents. The court stepped in and disallowed it.

Addison: That was probably wise of the court to do so given that the child would have had quite a problem growing up with such a name. Now back to my little history lesson. Eventually, the Romans initiated an educational system for its citizens so that each citizen could have a solid foundation from which to build their careers upon.

Now there were two ways to learn a skill, through an apprenticeship program and through the educational system.

The educational system really got a boost when printing technology was developed. Now books could be mass-produced and anyone who could afford it was able to get one. Eventually, books were used in the educational system to pass on much of the then current knowledgebase to the students.

As technology developed to help explore the world, more and more disciplines were added to the educational system. Previously, the subjects studied may have been mathematics, agriculture, astronomy, medicine and natural philosophy.

Today, there is an abundance of subjects to study. You can study anything from computer sciences to economics to sociology and the list goes on. Each topic often has several disciplines underneath it that one can specialize in. That leads us up to the point where we can discuss how academic specialization may affect you.

Lindsey: It seems then that as knowledge accumulated with advances in technology, more and more areas of the larger picture were broken down for further study. For example, my field of study, Psychology, has numerous disciplines within it such as abnormal, applied, cognitive, developmental, and neuropsychology.

Unfortunately, as I have observed, many people when they specialize within a certain discipline, may not bother to see what other people are doing in other disciplines even within the same field.

For instance, those studying cognitive psychology may not bother to familiarize themselves with what is going on in developmental psychology. They may even hold tenaciously to the idea that their version of psychology is the only valid one.

Catharsis: As a psychotherapist myself, it seems that many of those working in the field of psychology may be in need of my services. <laughs> That, audience, would be what we call an oxymoron.

I can see how those specializing in the study of knowledge can develop blinders to keep them from seeing anything else. It would seem that that may be part of what Addison intends to express today.

Addison: With respect to knowledge, it is highly impractical for each person to know everything there is to be known, so one usually chooses a field of study to become proficient in. The more advanced you become in your field, especially if it is an academic one, the more of a tendency there is for you to specialize in one area of it.

It is possible that one will see another aspect of the field one has chosen and then pursue it. Who knows, it may become another discipline within which others can then specialize.

Lindsey: What if we see the problem of what we are discussing today and then create a new field that puts all the rest of the disciplines together as an integrated whole?

Catharsis: Now, that would be something I could get into! Wait a moment…I already am into it. That is what the Inner Illumination team strives to do - to put it all together. We help to make sense of it all for our audience.

Addison: Off the top of my head, I think the type of research that currently exists that comes closest to what Lindsey suggested is known as Dialectical research. This type of research aims at discovering truth through examining and interrogating competing arguments, ideas and perspectives.

Catharsis: Ah, bring on the inquisition. Let's interrogate those specialists!

Lindsey: That would be an interesting idea but I do not think there are enough interrogators for all of them. What happens to a student who is "forced" to pick a discipline within which to specialize just so she can get her degree?

Addison: Sometimes you have to play the game in order to achieve your long-term objective. Once this person receives her PhD she can then use it to help make changes for the better. She can now teach things in a way that gives new perspectives for her students to think about.

Catharsis: She can help keep them from becoming specialist zombies.

Lindsey: What is that?

Catharsis: A specialist zombie is a conditioned person who lacks conscious self-awareness, yet is able to respond to surrounding stimuli. It may be a positive response especially when it agrees with what is within the discipline she specializes in. If the zombie encounters something that seems not to fit within the specialty, she becomes a flesh-eating monster!

Lindsey: That's cute Catharsis. I think you just mentioned an important point, which is conditioning. Although people are conditioned by society in general, a student is often conditioned even more when specializing within a given discipline. That is very interesting.

Are there any other potential problems when someone specializes?

Addison: There is always the problem that one will ignore or avoid looking at facts from other disciplines in order to help make one's own specialized work viable or usable within the society at large.

Lindsey: That leads me to another question. Who puts together the specialized information so that it is usable by society?

Addison: That would most likely be the government, university system itself, and businesses, especially when it comes to technology. Anything that is not of economical interest is usually ignored or appears only in literature. It often takes someone who does look at the larger picture to make good use of these bits and pieces so that they are beneficial to society.

As with many things in society, the way the education system works is imperfect. Whatever discipline you choose to specialize in, I suggest that you seek to broaden your basic knowledge about other areas concerning the larger picture of life.

Granted, the school system should have given, or is currently giving you, an education that teaches you about many aspects of life. However, this too often falls short these days due to budget cuts, school systems not wanting you to learn certain things, and so forth.

You might decide to continue learning for the rest of your life. That helps to keep you informed as to what is going on and tends to help you maintain vitality for living life.

Catharsis: It seems to me that the one specialization you should do in life is to strive to live life well. That means knowing what it takes to stay healthy and to live an optimum life.