Fragmentalism
{{Short description|Philosophical concept}}
Fragmentalism is a view that holds that the world consists of individual and independent objects.{{cite journal|author=Kukla A|title=Antirealist Explanations of the Success of Science|journal=Philosophy of Science|volume=63|issue=1|pages=S298–S305|year=1996|doi=10.1086/289964|jstor=188539|s2cid=171074337}} The term contends that the world is indeed composed of separable parts, and that it is chiefly knowable through the study of these component parts, rather than through wholes. It therefore stands opposed to holistic interpretations of phenomena.
"The Fragmentalists carved the universe up into smaller and smaller pieces until they reached such a fine level of subdivision that they could no longer observe the pieces directly." (Stewart & Cohen, p.198) "As the tale of the Fragmentalists demonstrates, reductionist science usually looks for a mathematical equation, formula, or process that describes general features of the universe." (Stewart & Cohen, p.200)
Fragmentalism has also been defined as the notion that knowledge is a growing collection of substantiated facts or "nuggets of truth."{{cite journal|author=Pope ML|title=Personal construction of formal knowledge|journal=Interchange|volume=13|issue=4|pages=3–14|year=1982|doi=10.1007/BF01191417|s2cid=198195182}} Anti-realists use the term fragmentalism in arguments that the world does not exist of separable entities, instead consisting of wholes. For example, advocates of this position declare that:
The linear deterministic approach to nature and technology promoted a fragmented perception of reality, and a loss of the ability to foresee, to adequately evaluate, in all their complexity, global crises in ecology, civilization and education.Anatoly P. Liferov, Global Education as a Trend Reflecting the Problems of Today and Meeting the Requirements of Tomorrow http://www.indiana.edu/~isre/NEWSLETTER/vol6no2/global.htm
This term is usually applied to reductionist modes of thought, frequently with the related pejorative term of scientism. This usage is popular amongst some ecological activists:
There is a need now to move away from scientism and the ideology of cause-and-effect determinism toward a radical empiricism, such as William James proposed, as an epistemology of science.Yunkaporta on Kakkib and Oneness, Tyson Yunkaporta, Friday, January 05, 2007 http://bioregionalanimism.blogspot.com/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080522025157/http://bioregionalanimism.blogspot.com/ |date=2008-05-22 }}These perspectives are not new and in the early twentieth century, William James noted that rationalist science emphasized what he termed fragmentation and disconnection.
Such anti-realist rhetoric also underpins many criticisms of the scientific method:
The scientific method only acknowledges monophasic consciousness. The method is a specialized system that focuses on studying small and distinctive parts in isolation, which results in fragmented knowledge.Tara W. Lumpkin, Perceptual Diversity: Is Polyphasic Consciousness Necessary for Global Survival? December 28, 2006, http://bioregionalanimism.blogspot.com {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080522025157/http://bioregionalanimism.blogspot.com/ |date=2008-05-22 }}
An alternative usage of this term is in cognitive psychology. Here, George Kelly developed "constructive alternativism" as a form of personal construct psychology, this provided an alternative to what he saw as "accumulative fragmentalism". In this theory, knowledge is seen as the construction of successful mental models of the exterior world, rather than the accumulation of independent "nuggets of truth".{{cite journal|author=Pope ML and Watts M|title=Constructivist Goggles: Implications for Process in Teaching and Learning Physics|journal=Eur. J. Phys.|url=http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0143-0807/9/2/004|volume=9|pages=101–109|year=1988|doi=10.1088/0143-0807/9/2/004|issue=2|bibcode=1988EJPh....9..101P|s2cid=250876891 |url-access=subscription}}
The term also has ancillary uses in education,[http://construct.haifa.ac.il/~ilangz/oxford/gur-zeev.pdf Gur-Ze'ev, Ilan, Toward a New Critical Language in Education, in Gur-Ze'ev, Ilan, (Ed.), Critical Theory and Critical Pedagogy Today: Toward a New Critical Language in Education, Haifa: University of Haifa Press, 2005]{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} in design theory,{{Cite web |url=http://www.designtrain-ldv.com/activitie7/63-ssalbacak.pdf |title=Salih Salbacak, Starting Design Education: Basic Design Course, Designtrain 2008, Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 05–07, 2008 |access-date=2013-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121029002414/http://www.designtrain-ldv.com/activitie7/63-ssalbacak.pdf |archive-date=2012-10-29 |url-status=dead }}
and environmentalism,[http://www3.telus.net/public/a6a47567/MAJORPAPER.doc Valerie Green, An Exploration of School Gardening and Its Relationship to Holistic Education, unpublished MSc thesis, University of Guelph, 2004] as well as in healthcare[http://imsear.hellis.org/bitstream/123456789/34623/2/608.pdf Subarn Panvisavas, Poverty and Malaria: A Study in a Thai-Myanmar Border Area, Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health, 2001 Sep;32(3):608-14] and business management.Harrison, R.T. & Leitch, C.M. (1996). Discipline Emergence in Entrepreneurship: Accumulative Fragmentalism or Paradigmatic Science? Entrepreneurship, Innovation, & Change, 5(2), pp.65-83[http://www.simmons.edu/som/faculty/docs/entrepreneurship_in_emergence.pdf Lowell W. Busenitz, G. Page West III, Dean Shepherd, Teresa Nelson, Gaylen N. Chandler & Andrew Zacharakis, Entrepreneurship Research in Emergence: Past Trends and Future Directions, Joumal of Management 2003 29(3) 285-308]
The term has been used in politics,[http://rajeshkochhar.com/data/publications/globalisation.pdf Rajesh Kochhar, Is globalisation encouraging flat-earth mentality? Architecture of an Inclusive Society, proceedings of Eighth Indira Gandhi conference, 20-21 November 2001, New Delhi: Mudrit Publishers, pp.362-370)] in anthropology,[http://www.ram-wan.net/restrepo/antropologias/HusseinHelmerIndigAnthrop.pdf Hussain Fahim & Katherine Helmer, Indigenous Anthropology in Non-Western Countries: a Further Elaboration, Current Anthropology, 21.5, Oct 1980, pp.644-662] in international development[http://www.transnational.deusto.es/IP2011/docs/unctad%20history.pdf UNCTAD, UNCTAD: A Brief Historical Overview, 2006, pp.2-3] and in ecological economics.Kirkpatrick Sale, Dwellers in the Land: the Bioregional Vision, University of Georgia Press, 2000, pp.153-4 The term has also been used in Cultural StudiesJeff Lewis, Cultural Studies: the Basics, Sage Publications, 2008, p.106 and in history{{cite book |last1=Bose |first1=Sugata |author1-link=Sugata Bose |last2=Jalal |first2=Ayesha |author2-link=Ayesha Jalal |year=2004 |orig-year=First published 1997 |title=Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy |url=https://archive.org/details/modernsouthasiah00bose/page/164/mode/1up |edition=2nd |publisher=Routledge |pages=164, 220 |isbn=978-0-415-30786-4}}
Notes
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External links
- Maureen L Pope, Personal construction of formal knowledge, Humanities Social Science and Law, 13.4, December, 1982, pp. 3–14
- Tara W. Lumpkin, Perceptual Diversity: Is Polyphasic Consciousness Necessary for Global Survival? December 28, 2006, https://web.archive.org/web/20080522025157/http://bioregionalanimism.blogspot.com/
- Vandana Shiva, 1995, Monocultures, Monopolies and the Masculinisation of Knowledge. International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Reports: Gender Equity. 23: 15–17. https://web.archive.org/web/20051015164356/http://idrinfo.idrc.ca/archive/ReportsINTRA/pdfs/v23n2e/109174.htm
- Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997
- [http://www.loyno.edu/~folse/Kukla.html The Anti-Realist Side of the Debate: A Theory's Predictive Success does not Warrant Belief in the Unobservable Entities it Postulates] Andre Kukla and Joel Walmsley.