Intellectual synthesis
Encyclopedia
Intellectual Synthesis is a broad term describing scholarly endeavors meant to unify and fuse a large amount of information into a single integrated body of knowledge. Commonly, intellectual synthesis occurs as an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary academic effort by one or more scholars.
, which is an effort to reexamine human history within the context of the wider history of the universe, applying diverse fields of knowledge to paint a picture which is wider in scope, and relies on much information generally outside of the discipline of history (anthropology, systems theory, geology, biology, sociology, cosmology). Intellectual synthesis is most apparent in fields which blur the lines of existing disciplines (for example, history has been regarded as a social science, but is dependent upon anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, military theory, climatology, etc, and some such as Jared Diamond have proposed establishing human history as one of the historical sciences).
World History
is another example—as typically historians specialize on particular periods or regions or nations—with a new synthesis occurring of the histories of the world's diverse societies being brought together to tell a unified picture of the course of world history.
The goal of intellectual synthesis is to bring together all of the related transdisciplinary knowledge into a single, cohesive whole to provide for a more complete and comprehensive understanding and potentially lead to new theories, perspectives, and interpretations.
Many new and emerging fields involve intellectual synthesis:
Examples of Intellectual Synthesis
A good example would be Big historyBig History
Big History is a field of historical study that examines history on large scales across long time frames through a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on both the history of the non-human world and on major adaptations and alterations in the human experience...
, which is an effort to reexamine human history within the context of the wider history of the universe, applying diverse fields of knowledge to paint a picture which is wider in scope, and relies on much information generally outside of the discipline of history (anthropology, systems theory, geology, biology, sociology, cosmology). Intellectual synthesis is most apparent in fields which blur the lines of existing disciplines (for example, history has been regarded as a social science, but is dependent upon anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, military theory, climatology, etc, and some such as Jared Diamond have proposed establishing human history as one of the historical sciences).
World History
World History
World History, Global History or Transnational history is a field of historical study that emerged as a distinct academic field in the 1980s. It examines history from a global perspective...
is another example—as typically historians specialize on particular periods or regions or nations—with a new synthesis occurring of the histories of the world's diverse societies being brought together to tell a unified picture of the course of world history.
The goal of intellectual synthesis is to bring together all of the related transdisciplinary knowledge into a single, cohesive whole to provide for a more complete and comprehensive understanding and potentially lead to new theories, perspectives, and interpretations.
Many new and emerging fields involve intellectual synthesis:
- Big historyBig HistoryBig History is a field of historical study that examines history on large scales across long time frames through a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on both the history of the non-human world and on major adaptations and alterations in the human experience...
- World HistoryWorld HistoryWorld History, Global History or Transnational history is a field of historical study that emerged as a distinct academic field in the 1980s. It examines history from a global perspective...
- SociobiologySociobiologySociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behavior has resulted from evolution and attempts to explain and examine social behavior within that context. Often considered a branch of biology and sociology, it also draws from ethology, anthropology,...
- Geographical determinism
- Environmental DeterminismEnvironmental determinismEnvironmental determinism, also known as climatic determinism or geographical determinism, is the view that the physical environment, rather than social conditions, determines culture...
- Technological DeterminismTechnological determinismTechnological determinism is a reductionist theory that presumes that a society's technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values. The term is believed to have been coined by Thorstein Veblen , an American sociologist...
Related Books
The topic of intellectual synthesis is the subject of many books, as often proponents of the need for such a scholarly endeavor will use a written work to voice their call to the intellectual community:- Guns, Germs, and SteelGuns, Germs, and SteelGuns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is a 1997 book by Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles . In 1998 it won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and the Aventis Prize for Best Science Book...
by Jared DiamondJared DiamondJared Mason Diamond is an American scientist and author whose work draws from a variety of fields. He is currently Professor of Geography and Physiology at UCLA... - Maps of Time: an Introduction to Big History by
- The Human Web by the McNeills
- Consilience: The Unity of KnowledgeConsilience: The Unity of KnowledgeConsilience: The Unity of Knowledge is a 1998 book by biologist E. O. Wilson. In this book, Wilson discusses methods that have been used to unite the sciences and might in the future unite them with the humanities...
by Edward O. Wilson
Related Terms
- Multidisciplinarianism
- Interdisciplinary Studies
- Intellectual montage
- ConsilienceConsilienceConsilience, or the unity of knowledge , has its roots in the ancient Greek concept of an intrinsic orderliness that governs our cosmos, inherently comprehensible by logical process, a vision at odds with mystical views in many cultures that surrounded the Hellenes...
- Integral thoughtIntegral thoughtIntegral is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in philosophy, psychology, spirituality, and many other areas regarding a comprehensive synthesizing transdisciplinary framework or multidimensional perspective to a given field...