What are academic disciplines, and how is interdisciplinarity conceivable?

Abstract

The article deals with the premises which allow the idea of interdisciplinarity. It analyzes three contemporary theories which define disciplines. Two of them, inspired by sociology and anthropology of science, take a non-essentialist point of view and define disciplinarity using the external – social and political – characteristics. The third approach provides the essentialist definition of an academic discipline based on the discipline inner methodological coherence. The article argues that the interdisciplinarity is conceivable only if the non-essentialist attitude towards the disciplines is assumed.