User:JREverest/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/2020-21/Seminar group 6/History

History of Environmental Sciences as a discipline

To try and understand the history of environmental sciences as a discipline, we must first explore its place as one.

Traditionally, a discipline is an academic area of study, typically studied in higher education.

Many universities across the world now offer an environmental sciences degree, however, to name these studies as a discipline can be tricky given the fact that environmental sciences combine a wide range of different disciplines such as biophysical (biology, geology, chemistry) and societal (anthropology, ethics, economics) studies. Environmental sciences can be understood as the study of the relationship between humans and the environment. This understanding is not obtained through a simple combination of the disciplines listed above but through an integration of the knowledge that exists between them. Thus, environmental studies - not just a discipline but an interdisciplinary matter. We can, in this case, define environmental studies as a meta discipline.

Indeed, we can date environmental awareness to about 5000 years ago in indigenous rituals. For example, Taoists always praised a more eco-friendly way of life, where humans would live in a way that respects nature. For instance, the Taoists always perceived nature and the Earth as something conscious, something that needs to be taken care of. Humans were never put at the centre of the universe. Finally, Taoists believed that nature was a gift from Heaven and that humans are not above it. This can be perceived as the first environmentalism. However, environmental studies as a discipline fully emerged only throughout the 1960s due to a combination of different factors: post-war and pacific movements, civil rights movement and the rise of feminism. Feminism and environmental awareness went hand in hand with the hazardous nuclear waste dumps and water pollution that increased in the 60s. It was a way for women to stand up and defy the patriarchal political structures which were held responsible for these environmental problems with ecological and human consequences. Similarly, the civil rights movement helped environmental awareness to make a change in social inequalities, as these inequalities were especially reenforced in a disproportionate manner in which minority communities were more affected by the rising environmental problems. Moreover, pacific movements found a new reason for ending the war through environmental justice. In fact, the use of various chemicals in the Vietnam war not only destroyed human lives but also the natural surroundings. Therefore, the three movements all found through environmental awareness, new ways to defy the government's political decisions and structure in general.

However, the movements previously mentioned were not the only support to impose environmental awareness and thus its establishment as a discipline. Indeed, many professionals from various scientific and non-scientific fields engaged and supported the environmental cause. An example - the creation of the Union of Concerned Scientists in 1968, which established a real academic investment for studying the Environmental Sciences.

We could also mention Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), as a turning point in the emergence of this interdisciplinary study: the focus was not only about natural resources and their uses but also on the effects of pollution on all life. In consequence, the 70s saw the start of environmental studies programs in universities due to a major demand from students, for a degree which suited the current social needs and a better understanding of environment.

Psychology's Transition to a Scientific Discipline

The current definition of psychology according to the Oxford dictionary is “the scientific study of the mind and how it influences behaviour”. Even in other dictionaries, like on dictionary.com, and in the Cambridge dictionary, psychology is always defined as “science” or “scientific study”.

Despite the general acceptance of modern psychology as a science, the roots of the discipline can be traced back to Ancient Greece, around 500 BC, where psychology and philosophy were intrinsically entwined. . In fact, many of what are regarded as significant contributions to the development of understanding psychology were made by known philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, and Renee Descartes. Prior to the late 1800s, despite documented theories which later led to definitive concepts and groundbreaking research in the field, psychology was inherently as philosophical and physiological as psychological.

During the 19th century, psychology began transitioning from a largely speculative subject to being approached in an empirical fashion. Wilhelm Wundt’s founding of the first laboratory dedicated specifically to experimental psychology in 1879 is often seen as the founding of modern psychology. The British Psychological Society, a network for psychologists and a source of subject-related news, was founded in 1901 , the same year psychology was first recorded being taught at the University of Bristol (at the time University College, Bristol) . Oxford University, England’s oldest school, first incorporated the subject of psychology in 1898 with the establishment of a Readership of “Mental Philosophy”. Their transition to experimental psychology occurred in 1906, and a diploma course was established in 1936 . Arguably the most respected scientific society, the Royal Society currently includes psychology related publications on their website, and several psychologists hold fellowships at the society (the oldest current member was elected in 1993).

As mentioned above, the formation of the British Psychological Society in October 1901 was a fundamental building block for making psychology into an academic discipline. The society was formed at University College, London, by a small company of 10 people, amid whom were such noblemen as William McDougall (a British psychologist who developed various unorthodox theories ), and W.H.R. Rivers. In later years, one of the societies honorary fellow members was also the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. The formation of the British Psychological Society was pivotal for shaping psychology as a discipline, because before its existence, psychology was perceived more as a quiet hobby rather than a serious study. By creating such a society with an un-precedent success in doing so, the founders made sure that psychology as a discipline follows certain rules of psychological research which can be employed by all members of the society.

To note, although psychology is now generally regarded as a wholly scientific discipline, there are still arguments as to whether psychology meets the same standards as other sciences given the difficulty in defining terms, quantifying subjective data, and hindered replicability of experimentation in the field.

Neuroscience as an Academic Discipline

Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system and the brain. However, its purpose is to understand not only the physiology and anatomy of the central nervous system, but also to look into the disorders of the brain, the development of the nervous system, behavior, cognition and language, et al. Around the 1980s, neuroscience and psychology came together to shed some light onto the less empirical manifestations of the brain as well: consciousness.

By looking into the history of neuroscience as an academic discipline and as an enquiry, it is apparent that humanity has had an interest in the brain and its function from as early as the 17^th century BC. However, notable contributions to the science of the brain only began during Renaissance when people like Andreas Vesalius, René Descartes and Thomas Willis studied the physiology of the brain in depth.

The more technology progressed, the easier it became for scientists to study the brain. Camillo Golgi’s method of silver staining alongside the invention of the microscope led to the discovery of neurons and later he shared the Nobel Prize with Santiago Ramón y Cajal in 1906 for coming up with the neuron doctrine. As in the case of Golgi and his discoveries, developments in technology have been essential to many scientific discoveries. For example, x-ray diffraction (which was discovered in the early 1900s) was a technique key later used to understand the structure of DNA, a discovery that revolutionised the way genetic diseases are discovered and treated, how they are inherited, and informed the processes of using DNA for individual identification.

In spite of the interest people held for neuroscience and the importance of its practice, it wasn’t recognized as a discipline in itself until later in the 20^th century. The first use of the word “Neuroscience” was by Francis O Schmitt in 1962 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he founded a neuroscience research program. However, there was no official department assigned to neuroscience. This happened for the first time at the University of California in 1964 but was initially named “Psychobiology”. Stephen Kuffler, known as the “Father of Modern Neuroscience”, founded the Department of Neurobiology in 1966 at Harvard Medical School. Today, neuroscience keeps its name and can be studied as a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in most universities.

Creation of Modern Nutritional Science as a Discipline

Nutrition is the science that interprets the nutrients and other substances in food in relation to maintenance, growth, reproduction, health and disease of an organism. It includes ingestion, absorption, assimilation, biosynthesis, catabolism and excretion . Because of its vital importance, nutrition goes back as far as prehistory . and it evolved through time with empirical farming, then genetic engineering.

The Discipline of Modern nutritional science was recognized in 1926 with the first chemical synthetization of Vitamin B. However, modern nutritional science as we know it today is very Eurocentric . Evidence of creation of a scientific method is found in non-European cultures like south Asian “Qi, yin/yang theory” and “Dosha theory”, however they are not referred to when talking about nutrition science. Lavoisier also contributed greatly to the chemical side of nutritional science in the mid 1900s notably with his creation of a calorrimeter that initiated the way we calculate calories in food today. He measured the heat expired by a guinea pig over a 10‐hr period that melted 13 ounces of ice. This expermient showed the link between cellular respiration (using energy intake) and a simple combustion.

Nutritional science is most likely going to evolve according to societal needs and 21st century issues. It can help resolve issue such as famine with calculations that can establish the optimal dietary balance. It is also at the heart of the fight against the “global epidemic of diabetes” Today, nutrition can commonly be studied at university at the bachelor and master level and is usually within the department of biomedical studies. In essence, nutritional science has evolved through time alongside societal needs and scientific knowledge to better human health with an increasing respect to the environment.

Nutrition Science, today, can englobe a large number of disciplines included in the Biological Field as well as the Social Sciences. It encompasses for example biomedical sciences with the relation of the human body to food; sociology with the rising cases of nutritional diseases in western societies such as diabetes; environmental sciences with the issue of intensive farming among other disciplines (economy, religion, ethics etc…). Hence Nutrition is an interdisciplinary discipline at its core.

Emergence of Advertising as a Discipline

A lot of influential brands in the world – i.e., Microsoft, MasterCard, YouTube, or Samsung – use the power of advertising and known advertising agencies to popularise their product. Advertising stays in people’s minds with creative ad rolls made from carefully-knitted marketing and strategy schemes. In the late 1960s, one could have found himself at a position in an advertising agency by accident, but as of now, to endure the competition for securing a workplace in an agency of such sort, a degree in advertising certainly helps.

The noun “advertising” mostly is associated with its first definition which introduces it as a business activity conducted for persuading one to purchase certain items or services. It is portrayed as a singular, linear process, however, it is more complex.

The second definition gives the word a meaning that includes a whole industry consisting of many diverse structures with one main task – to publicise and market the items, and do so in a manner that would inevitably influence the potential buyer. Here, advertising is described as a type of business, a multi-level enterprise whose main purpose is to draw attention to products rather than just the former one-dimensional activity.

To call something a discipline (“a branch of knowledge studied at a university level”), this study has to fulfil some criteria. A. Krishnan in his research (2009) named six specific characteristics that denote an academic discipline – an object which can be researched ("research-object"), a body of knowledge created by specialists working with the research object, theories developed which "put" the produced knowledge in shelves, terminology, methods for research which have been developed over time, and, most importantly, the institutionalisation of the discipline in the form of a degree taught in universities (and the last requirement can only be fulfilled if all of the other 5 have been completed). Also, first examples of advertisements should not be considered as starting indicators of advertising, since their existence (without specialists’ analysis and the new knowledge’s organisation) did and does not shape advertising as an academic discipline, rather, their existence marks them as research objects of this discipline. Here, the year of the discipline’s institutionalisation into an academic degree is to be considered as the emergence year due to this characteristic’s ability to fulfil the previous criteria.

Whilst journalism students at the University of Pennsylvania were taught about advertising in various courses starting from 1893 and undergraduates at the Harvard School of Business Administration (1909) were offered a module named “Commercial Organisation and Methods” as part of their business studies, the first-ever degree that could be pursued purely in advertising was set up in 1915, at the New York University when the department of Advertising & Marketing was established.Also, in the previous and following years, the people whose ideas shaped the discipline of advertising, all were from the United States, making it the country that initiated the discipline and determined its start date.

Such a degree in advertising (Bachelor of Arts) usually included (and still includes) the study of strategic planning, sales, management, creative design and product image development. However, since advertising aims to create convincing perceptions of products, the discipline’s theories and research object is very much dependant to the changes in sociological happenings. Earlier (in the 1920s), the discipline of advertising was taught by analysing and drawing on the ideas, successes of F. Wayland Ayer (the owner of the first advertising agency), Phineas Taylor Barnum (a man who knew how to persuade people with fake news), and Helen Lansdowne Resor (a woman that introduced the use of sexual appeal in advertisements). Yet, later, the academic discipline gained a lot from such persons as William Bernbach and David Ogilvy, both of whom directed advertising into the creative ensemble of catchy engaging texts and visual escapade that it is today.

Women's Studies as a Discipline

An academic discipline is a field of knowledge, including research and teaching, thought generally in higher education as part of a Department of Study.

Several academic fields cover the role of women and their contribution of knowledge in specific subjects, but never has Women's Studies been a full proper academic field. As very little consideration was given to the status of women in History, there were no academic degrees studying their contribution to the society nor their condition. However, since the second half of the 20th century, the beginning of women’s emancipation, and the empowerment through feminist movements such as the suffragette movement, the study of women has gained interest among scholars. As a result, the first university course about Women’s History appeared in the early 1950s at Sydney University, led by the work of the feminist Madge Dawson, who was also the teacher in her “Women in a changing world” course, which was in the first place only experimental. But the first official Women’s Studies program was established in the United States in 1970, in the San Diego State College.

The popularity of the course due to its large number of female students starting to get access to university, contributed to its spreading all around the world. It has then been officialized as a multidisciplinary degree in the department of Arts and Humanities, and gather the historic of women’s work in all the major academic disciplines. It is likely that with the 21st century and the expansion of women’s empowerment and feminists movements such as the Movement #MeToo, the Women’s Studies field will only grow and enrich itself.

Anthropology: A Protean Discipline

Anthropology comes from the Greek words ánthrōpos “human" and lógos "study": the study of mankind. Considered as a scientific but also humanistic discipline, it may be more difficult to grasp, although it is a critically essential part in the academia. Under the anthropological umbrella there are several types of studies: social anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and biological anthropology. In the United States and Canada, archaeology is also considered part of anthropology, but in Europe, it is seen as a discipline of its own, or as a part of the discipline of history. So, anthropology can be defined as the scientific study of humanity: of human behaviour and biology, as well as the societies constructed in the past and present.

Regarding the start of the study of mankind, anthropologists often consider Herodotus, a Greek historian from 400s BC, as the first to write on concepts that would later become key to anthropology. Early writings continued reflecting on questions of human origins and cultural development throughout the centuries, up to the Age of Enlightenment during the 17th century, as the rise of scientific and philosophical thought developed. Humanist thinkers, such as John Locke and Rousseau, wrote some works on the nature of humankind. Following this, the rise of imperialism commenced in the 18th-19th centuries, as well as industrialisation, leading to the discovery of foreign new cultures and societies for Europeans. This propelled the start of anthropological societies where people studied these different cultures, and it eventually became a profession. At the end of the century, anthropology began to institutionalise itself by taking academic positions in colleges and universities: modern anthropology finally took shape in the 1860s.

From then on, many anthropologists came along with new thoughts and ideas, discoveries and observations. From Darwin, to Boas, to Geertz, anthropological thought has continued to expand as an ever changing discipline as it grows with the societies that continue to form. Today, ethnographic fieldwork is practiced by many modern anthropologists as they expand their knowledge on past and today’s societies.

The emergence of law as a discipline

The legal profession was born in Ancient Greece and Rome. Indeed, Ancient Rome and ancient Greece had schools of rhetoric, which was the beginning of what was to become schools of law. These schools provided the skills to become an advocate. However, law was not always taught.

Proper legal classes came later on, during the 3rd BCE when Tiberius Caroncanius , consul of the roman republic, performed the first public legal instruction. . After this class, a student, who’s identity remains unknown, got very interested and learnt the law by attending consultations and by discussing with Caroncaniu, who became the first law teacher. After Coruncanius’ death, law became more and more formalized. Later on, wealthy citizens developed a group of specialists who learned the law: the jurisconsults. They advised advocates, who were only trained for rhetoric, and ordinary citizens. As the time went on, the new genre of legal literature has emerged, and some jurisconsults became regular law teachers. Hence, the Romans were the first to have a group of people who spent time thinking about legal problems. However, it was still unregulated.

The actual profession of lawyer appeared later in ancient Athens and Rome, where people would get help pleading their case by an advocate. The advocate would say that he is pleading for a “friend” because, at this time, individuals were supposed to plead their own case or get help from a friend only. Furthermore, the advocate could not get paid for their service.

Nevertheless, advocacy as a profession was made legal by Emperor Claudius, and thus, Roman advocates could get paid and practice openly. And, they became the first of what we know today: lawyers. The first European university to teach law was a Bologna University in Italy. Bologna law school has been established by legal scholars from glossator school in Bologna in 12th century. During Middle Ages most of European universities has taught Roman Law, and introduced the study of national law in the beginning of 18th century.

Artificial Intelligence - Future Discipline

Artificial intelligence are computers performing tasks which are usually performed by humans using theory and development. Artificial intelligence can be argued to have been explored through different disciplines such as biology, economics, maths and logic even before AI was given its own name. Philosophy is just one of these disciplines, from Descartes mind-body theory of dualism to Leibnitz later materialists’ perspectives, philosophy has had an underlying role in the development of AI. AI is also viewed in more artistic disciplines such as film and literature. Mary Shelley´s 1823 Frankenstein can be considered to include some parallels to our current artificial intelligence, showing how AI emerged within individual disciplines before it was even appreciated as a concept with its own name.

There are various moments in history which could be argued to have been the turning points for the development of AI, one of these is when robots started to develop intelligent connections rather solely focusing on the classical concepts of mechanical engineering. Some may argue that the main turning point for the acknowledgement of AI was Turing’s investigation of whether machines were capable of thinking, also known as The Turin Test and his theories of machine intelligence. However, it is also argued that it was John McCarthy who founded the idea of artificial intelligence as he was the one to name AI and form the first artificial intelligence conference, the Dartmouth Conference

AI is thought to be changing the job market and certain perspectives such as Yuval Noah Harari’s in his book 21 lessons for the 21st century believe a wave of unemployment due to the rise of AI is on its way, as well as believing moral and philosophical questions will arise from the further development of AI. The abuse of data by large corporations or people in power is also a concern raised by many. However, it is also viewed that AI is helping sectors such as Health care and that AI could possibly perform tasks more accurately than humans. Although there are different views on the current and further development of AI, it is clear our present and future is going to be affected by it.

Therefore, it may be argued that rather than AI just being a niche sector of the computer science discipline it will be developed into its own. It is argued that it will not only immensely affect our future, but that computer science is not enough to fully understand the complexity of AI and that subjects such as psychology, philosophy and sociology are essential to understand this phenomena, highlighting on its Interdisciplinarity, and therefore requiring IA to develop into its own individual discipline.

Emergence of Chemistry and Biology as Scientific Disciplines

Before the emergence of modern scientific disciplines, those who observed and studied the natural world were natural philosophers, who used philosophical thinking to understand their observations of the world. Pre-Socratic philosophers, such as Anaximenes of Miletus and Democritus, claimed that there were natural causes to the phenomena they observed, rather than attributing these phenomena to the action of gods.In the 16^th and 17^th century, a number of changes led to a shift in medieval natural philosophy, from the inventions of the microscope and the telescope, to the Protestant Reformation. This reformation not only challenged the Catholic Church, but also disagreed with Aristotelian thought, which was prevalent as the main school of thought during this time. Aristotle’s idea of the universe was challenged by Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the universe and Galileo’s use of the telescope could provide “visual evidence” unlike before. These events can be seen as having played a part in the Scientific Revolution, as well as the development of experimental science and the use of scientific method, leading to the emergence of natural sciences.

The establishment of scientific societies and journals further set apart this modern era of science from that of the Middle Ages. Scientific societies were established and aimed to produce new scientific knowledge instead of preserving previous knowledge. The first of these societies was the Academy of the Lynxes (Accademia dei Lincei) in Italy, where the members had scheduled meetings to share their work and ideas. This was followed by the Royal Society of London, which was established in 1660. In 1665, the secretary of the Royal Society of London, Henry Oldenburg, published what is described as the “first recognisable” scientific journal, the Philosophical Transactions.

Now, natural sciences can be divided into two main branches: life sciences (biology) and physical sciences (to include physics, chemistry, astronomy and Earth science). Chemistry, although one of the physical sciences, can be seen to bridge the gap between the biological and the physical, as a "central science".

In terms of modern scientific disciplines, biology and chemistry have become distinct branches of science, each encompassing a number of sub-disciplines, despite their common ancestry in the natural sciences.

In the 17th century, Robert Boyle is credited to have made a distinction between chemistry and its protoscience, alchemy in his book The Sceptical Chymist, in that chemists made use of the scientific method. The word chemistry, is derived from alchemy, which has been traced to have both Greek and Arabic origins, to mean “cast together” and “Egyptian art” or "black art", respectively. The definition of chemistry has continued to evolve with the discipline, and modern chemistry can now be defined as the study of the “composition, structure, and properties of substances and with the transformations that they undergo."

Before the development of biology as a separate field, the study of animals and plants came under natural history and natural philosophy. Similarly, early ideas that are still prevalent in modern chemistry came from natural philosophers such as Aristotle. In the 19th century, biology became a separate entity following vast advancements in the study of the subject such as the development of the microscope and cell theory. Biology as a modern scientific discipline is described as the study of “life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution.”

The Evolution of a Liberal Arts Education

Liberal Arts, from the Latin liberalis meaning ‘’free’’ and ars meaning ‘’principled practice of’’, is considered by some to be the oldest curriculum in history . Originally comprised of the medieval quadrivium: astronomy, mathematics, geometry, music, the trivium consisting of grammar, rhetoric, dialectic (logic) was added later, during a period in Athens when public speaking was considered of greatest importance . The seven arts were thus considered essential teachings in becoming a 'free person' during the period of classical antiquity .

From these origins, a Liberal Arts or humanistic teaching methodology spread throughout Europe and became the foundation of sixteenth century education for the European elites . It was during the next 300 years however, that would see the gradual dissipation of such a teaching philosophy and a growing movement towards specialisms . By the mid 19th to mid 20th centuries, despite a number of small Liberal Arts colleges in the United States, Europe would see a rise in single-honours degree programmes . It wouldn’t be until the late 1960s in wider Europe and the 1990s in the UK that ‘US-style’ Liberal Arts programmes would be re-introduced, with a further 20 years before they began to proliferate .

Liberal Arts programmes have since gained recognition in England as a course best fit for vastly changing epistemological, socio-cultural and econo-political landscapes ; with the conception of the Liberal Arts BA at the University of Winchester in 2010 , the Arts and Sciences BASc at University College London and the Liberal Arts programme at King’s College London both in 2012. As disciplines are increasingly understood to be inextricably linked and social issues invariably multifaceted, a more comprehensive knowledge of subjects is increasingly desirable .

The definition of Liberal Arts as a discipline poses a unique question therefore, as it is both a degree programme offered in universities, but also a pedagogical philosophy rooted in ideas of individual freedom and society. Its current reincarnation as a degree programme worldwide maintains much of the same philosophy, however within practical constraints. It is such constraints which arguably make it a discipline over a philosophy in contemporary society.

History of Political Science as a discipline

Introduction and origins

Political Science, called also politology, is a social science focused on analysing political power, its allocation and transfer in decision making, the roles and systems of governance. Although it heavenly draws on different social sciences, political science is distinguished from them due to its focus on power. The contemporary discipline is broad, and it is interested in all the societal, cultural and psychological factors influencing actions of government and power bodies. Politology has some overlaps with the field of political philosophy, and historically they weren't always distinguished. Subfields of political science include international relations, public policy, public administration, comparative politics, political methodology and political economy. Like all sciences, political science includes empirical investigation drawing from methods originating in psychology, social research and cognitive neuroscience.

Interest in the subject matter of political science traces back to ancient times. One of the first recorded analysis of political power is by Aristotle (384–322 BC). Due to his attempt to introduce empirical observation in the study of politics, by many he is perceived as the founder of political science. Some of the other ancient influences include Confucius (551–479 BC) in China, and Kautilya (flourished 300 BC) in India and historic writing by Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406) in North Africa.

Emergence of the discipline

Term “political science” has existed and been noted throughout 1800, however it didn’t describe a specific discipline. Johnson has put it "politics was not viewed as a distinctive mode of action or even as a clearly defined structural feature of social life: it was continuous with moral conduct and social regulation". It is in 19th century when the creation of university departments and specialised chairs marked the beginning of political science as university discipline. Rapid growth of natural sciences during that time contributed to creation a new social science. In 1903 and 1906 respectively American Political Science Association and the American Political Science Review were founded. In 1872 in France the first school of political science has been established - the École Libre des Sciences Politiques (now the Institut d’Études Politiques). In 1895 London School of Economics and Political Science has formed and the first chair of politics was created at the University of Oxford in 1912. Political science has been a part of curricula in law, economics or philosophy in American universities, but became a distinct taught discipline in 1880 with established a school of political science at Columbia University, New York City. By 1920 most of major universities had departamentu named either politics, government or political science.

History and politics

Political science has been often taught alongside different academic disciplines and single honours politics degrees are less common. For many years history and political science were united disciplines in American colleges and universities. History and politics are still frequently taught together. Joint Honours degree can be found at multiple universities, such as Oxford University or Cambridge University. Existing critique for such practises is that history is an Important but no longer exclusive analytical technique within political science and politology itself cannot be successfully subsumed by the discipline of history.