Transdisciplinary is an approach for understanding complexity, its methodology is constructed on three axioms:
- The Ontological axiom
- The Logical axiom
- The Epistemological axiom
The epistemological axiom concerns about reality, complexity and interdependence and in transdisciplinary this axiom purpose is to describe the principal of universal interdependence (Nicolescu 2012).
To have an understanding about complexity and reality consider the human body. The human body consists of organs which is constructed of molecules which is constructed of atoms, let our observation stop at this point in order not to confuse the general idea of the concept with the details. Let this observation, from body to organ to molecules to atoms, be named as the micro level reality. The human body is also a being with consciousness and perspectives and human being socialize with each other to form a group, a nation and a country or state and let this observation be named as the default level reality. The final observation is that countries exist in a planet, a planet exist in planetary system, a planetary system exist in a galaxy and named this observation as macro level reality. All the observation is based on scale and based on the scale we have three levels of reality namely macro level reality, default level reality and micro level reality.
At a given time those three level of realities exist simultaneously. The human or group or country or the default level reality cannot exist without the existence of the micro level reality, the default level reality cannot exist without the macro level reality so a multilevel reality will always exist at a given time creating a vertical reality called multilevel reality. At a given time in each level of reality there will be an infinite number of multiple realities such as reality arising from the interaction between humans, between groups and so forth creating a horizontal reality called multiple reality. Multilevel reality and multiple reality will create a vertical and horizontal reality which will construct a totality reality.
The general idea is a totality reality is constructed of multilevel reality and an infinite number of possible multiple reality which interact horizontally and vertically and give rise to interdependency and thus give rise to complexity. Complexity arise because of multilevel reality (in the different scale) and multiple reality (in the same scale) exist at the same time in any given time and it interacts with each other. It is very hard to deny, for example, while reading this article (in the natural level reality), at the micro level reality there are no activities such as neurons in the brain are firing to imprint in the brain a memory of what is being read, also while you are reading this article the perception that you are stationary is an illusion because you are actually in a planet that is revolving while circling the sun while the sun together with all it’s planet is circling the center of the milky way galaxy (in the macro level reality). So, while your reading (reality at the default reality level) there are realities happening at the micro level reality and macro level reality simultaneously in the same time. We are not able to directly observe the micro level and macro level reality without some tools, but it does not mean it does not exist or happens.
Interdependence is defined as the state of being dependent upon one another and in the concept of totality reality the realities in the vertical and horizontal reality will interact with each other creating an interdependency. At the default reality level with an infinite number of possible realities in it, it is a relatively straight forward exercise to identify interdependency although it is not without some degree of difficulty. The second possibility of interdependence is interdependency in the micro level reality and macro level reality level as analogous in the default reality level. It can be identified with some tools and some degree of difficulty that may exceed the difficulties at the default reality level. The third interdependency is across the level whether between the default reality level and macro reality level or the default reality level and micro reality level.
Interdependence is defined as the state of being dependent upon one another and in the concept of totality reality the realities in the vertical and horizontal reality will interact with each other creating an interdependency. At the default reality level with an infinite number of possible realities in it, it is a relatively straight forward exercise to identify interdependency although it is not without some degree of difficulty. The second possibility of interdependence is interdependency in the micro level reality and macro level reality level as analogous in the default reality level. It can be identified with some tools and some degree of difficulty that may exceed the difficulties at the default reality level. The third interdependency is across the level whether between the default reality level and macro reality level or the default reality level and micro reality level.
Hence interdependency at the same level is horizontal interdependency within a horizontal complexity and interdependency at different level is a vertical interdependency within a vertical complexity. The possible combination between horizontal complexity and vertical complexity will compound the complexity and interdependency itself and the question arises will be how to formulate the interdependency properly.
Since the multilevel reality and multiple reality existence essentially is independent of human intervention i.e. it is not created by human but can be influenced by human, then interdependency means humans must agree to be at a certain point of vertical and horizontal complexity collectively through a participatory approach. The complexity cannot be reduced nor eliminated but human can be at certain point of interdependency collectively through a participatory approach at the same time to have the same understanding of the interdependency being questioned. This should be the guiding universal principle of interdependency.
Essentially interdependency in universal way of understanding will be defined as the collective agreement of a state on interdependency among the infinite number of possible interdependency and this agreement must be reached through a participatory approach. To reach that collective agreement is the essence of the science and art of transdisciplinary approach or of transdisciplinarity.
Reference:
Nicolescu B. 2012. Methodology of Transdisciplinarity. International Center for Transdisciplinary Research (CIRET), Paris, France
