{"id":199,"date":"2021-03-30T16:25:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T16:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomp2\/?post_type=chapter&p=199"},"modified":"2022-07-25T19:30:57","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T19:30:57","slug":"different-lenses","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomp2\/chapter\/different-lenses\/","title":{"raw":"Different Lenses","rendered":"Different Lenses"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\nDifferentiate between various academic disciplines\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

What is an Academic Discipline?<\/h2>\r\nAn\u00a0academic discipline<\/em>\u00a0or academic field is a subdivision of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level.\r\n

Different Lenses<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_995\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"Four Photographers use different lenses for different situations.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nPhotographers use different lenses for different subjects and conditions. If you're taking a picture of a soccer player at the other end of a stadium, you'd need a telephoto lens that can also shoot at high speeds. If you're shooting at night, you'll need a low-light lens. Underwater photography requires a waterproof setup. And so on.\r\n\r\nWhen you're thinking about different academic fields or disciplines, it can be useful to imagine them as different camera lenses. Each one offers a different way to capture the world in front of you. Some might zoom in for a closeup (like a close reading of a media object), while others offer a wide-angle view (like demographic data in social science).\r\n

Disciplines and Categories<\/h2>\r\nSpecific academic disciplines are generally grouped into broader categories that are themselves considered disciplines at a higher level of abstraction. When you lay them out in a table like the one below, you can clearly see what you may have already begun to notice: that at most colleges and universities, major programs of study and the names and structures of academic departments are founded on the divisions among academic disciplines.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Common divisions of academic disciplines<\/caption>\r\n
Category<\/th>\r\nSample disciplines<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Applied sciences<\/td>\r\nBusiness (accounting, finance, management, marketing), engineering, medicine and health<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Formal sciences<\/td>\r\nComputer science, mathematics<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Humanities<\/td>\r\nHistory, languages and literature, music, performing arts, philosophy, religion, visual arts<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Natural sciences<\/td>\r\nBiology, chemistry, earth science, geology, physics<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Social sciences<\/td>\r\nAnthropology, economics, geography, political science, psychology, sociology<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

Note<\/strong>: none of the categories have clear-cut borders or definitions, and you'll see some more than others. Your school might have a business school or a department of engineering, for instance, but it probably doesn't have a department of applied sciences. Also, the placement of disciplines and sub-disciplines will sometimes change depending in the circumstances. Law, for instance, is sometimes included in the social sciences, sometimes in the humanities.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/3b56411b-2ca5-4fe0-b211-fe7c0043c132\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Academic Disciplines and the Questions They Ask<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3277\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"400\"]\"An Different disciplines will focus on different aspects of a given problem or situation. Even if they have the same topic, they will ask different questions and prioritize different information.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s take a big problem like global climate change and focus on Alaska. An environmental scientist, a pathologist, an economist, and an anthropologist would raise different kinds of questions about the same problem. The environmental scientist would ask questions like: how much has the water risen since we last checked? How have the increasing temperatures and rising water levels affected the vegetation and animal life? A pathologist would take a different approach: what new diseases have emerged in correlation with global climate change? Economists would ask how global climate change is affecting the economic situation in Alaska. How has the lumber or the fishing industry been affected by global climate change? How has global climate change affected tourism? An anthropologist might ask how global climate change is affecting the ways of life of certain indigenous groups.\r\n\r\nThe table below illustrates the point about disciplines being founded on questions. It probably goes without saying that this list is hardly exhaustive, as there are hundreds of academic disciplines. The list of questions for each discipline is likewise representative; most disciplines involve a cluster of questions rather than just a single overriding one. For instance, sociologist Andrew Abbott has observed that his own discipline \u201cis organized around an archipelago of empirical questions: race and ethnicity, work and occupations, stratification, population, urban studies, organizations, and so on\u201d (297).\u00a0The following list can help you begin to understand what it means to say that academic disciplines are organized around fundamental questions.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Examples of core questions from selected academic disciplines<\/caption>\r\n
Academic Discipline<\/th>\r\n<\/th>\r\nDescription<\/th>\r\nCore Questions<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n
Anthropology<\/td>\r\n\"Bright<\/td>\r\nThe study of human culture, societies, and biology<\/td>\r\n\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • What makes us human?<\/li>\r\n \t
  • How do people in different societies dress, eat, communicate, and so on?<\/li>\r\n \t
  • How can the material remains of past and present cultures help us understand human beings?<\/li>\r\n \t
  • What biological and social factors have impacted the evolution of humans (and other primates)?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Economics<\/td>\r\n\"New<\/td>\r\nStudy of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services<\/td>\r\n\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • How do nations, governments, businesses, and individuals allocate resources?<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Are there enduring laws or principles that govern the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
History<\/td>\r\n\"Wagon<\/td>\r\nStudy and interpretation of the past<\/td>\r\n\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • What happened in the past?<\/li>\r\n \t
  • What\u2019s the meaning of past events? How should we interpret them? What can we learn from them?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Musicology<\/td>\r\n\"A<\/td>\r\nStudy of music<\/td>\r\n\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • How has music evolved throughout history?<\/li>\r\n \t
  • What role does music play in human societies?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Physics<\/td>\r\n\"A<\/td>\r\nStudy of the nature, properties, and interactions of matter and energy<\/td>\r\n\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • How and why does the universe work the way it does?<\/li>\r\n \t
  • Is there a unified set of laws that governs matter, motion, and energy at different levels of scale?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
Sociology<\/td>\r\n\"A<\/td>\r\nThe study of the structures and functioning of human society<\/td>\r\n\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • How is the individual shaped by society?<\/li>\r\n \t
  • How do social class, race, gender, and ethnicity affect our experience and worldview?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

    Using Your Own Questions to Choose a Major<\/h2>\r\nYou can make this matter of academic disciplines more personal by realizing that when you select your college major, you\u2019re choosing a specific academic discipline as the focus for the next few years of your life. If you still haven\u2019t chosen a major, you might consider \u201cmatching\u201d yourself with one by paying attention to the kinds of questions you\u2019re interested in asking.\r\n\r\nDo you find yourself wondering about why people do what they do, and whether it has always been this way? Maybe anthropology or psychology would be a good fit. Are you interested in figuring out how computers work (computer science)? Do you wonder how the government affects the economy (economics)? Do you want to know the best ways to sell things and connect people with the goods and services they want (marketing)? Are you constantly trying to find out how to improve your own health and that of other people (medicine)?\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019ll recognize the questions you\u2019re interested in asking and choose your major accordingly, then you\u2019ll discover that your college experience not only helps you to answer your questions but to ask them better.\r\n

    A Note on the Word \u201cDiscipline\u201d and What It Means for You<\/h2>\r\nAs a final consideration, notice how the word \u201cdiscipline\u201d carries multiple shades of meaning. In addition to referring to an academic subject area, the word also refers to training, order, and control, as when we talk about disciplining our children, or when we use terms such as \u201cmilitary discipline\u201d and \u201cself-discipline.\u201d It also shares an etymological link to the word \u201cdisciple,\u201d defined as someone who becomes a student of someone else by taking that person as a model and mentor. You can see all of these meanings in the word\u2019s Latin origin: \u201cDiscipline\u201d comes from disciplina<\/em>, meaning instruction, teaching, or training. (Disciplina<\/em> is in turn derived from the verb discere<\/em>, \u201cto learn.\u201d)\r\n\r\nAn academic discipline, therefore, is not just a category name or university department title such as biology, mathematics, sociology, business, or religious studies, but a training ground for the mind. When you commit to learning a specific academic discipline, you are committing to being disciplined by it. In learning to ask its questions and adopt its approach to understanding its focal area, you become its \u201cdisciple.\u201d Your mind is shaped in a certain way not just by the knowledge that you gain but by the discipline\u2019s specific way of framing and interrogating the world.\r\n\r\n[reveal-answer q=\"113715\"]Works Cited[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"113715\"]\r\n\r\nAbbott, Andrew. \"Reflections on the Future of Sociology.\"\u00a0Contemporary Sociology<\/i>\u00a029.2 (2000): 296-300.\r\n\r\n[\/hidden-answer]","rendered":"
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    Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n

    Differentiate between various academic disciplines<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    What is an Academic Discipline?<\/h2>\n

    An\u00a0academic discipline<\/em>\u00a0or academic field is a subdivision of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level.<\/p>\n

    Different Lenses<\/h2>\n
    \"Four<\/p>\n

    Photographers use different lenses for different situations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Photographers use different lenses for different subjects and conditions. If you’re taking a picture of a soccer player at the other end of a stadium, you’d need a telephoto lens that can also shoot at high speeds. If you’re shooting at night, you’ll need a low-light lens. Underwater photography requires a waterproof setup. And so on.<\/p>\n

    When you’re thinking about different academic fields or disciplines, it can be useful to imagine them as different camera lenses. Each one offers a different way to capture the world in front of you. Some might zoom in for a closeup (like a close reading of a media object), while others offer a wide-angle view (like demographic data in social science).<\/p>\n

    Disciplines and Categories<\/h2>\n

    Specific academic disciplines are generally grouped into broader categories that are themselves considered disciplines at a higher level of abstraction. When you lay them out in a table like the one below, you can clearly see what you may have already begun to notice: that at most colleges and universities, major programs of study and the names and structures of academic departments are founded on the divisions among academic disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Common divisions of academic disciplines<\/caption>\n
    Category<\/th>\nSample disciplines<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    Applied sciences<\/td>\nBusiness (accounting, finance, management, marketing), engineering, medicine and health<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Formal sciences<\/td>\nComputer science, mathematics<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Humanities<\/td>\nHistory, languages and literature, music, performing arts, philosophy, religion, visual arts<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Natural sciences<\/td>\nBiology, chemistry, earth science, geology, physics<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Social sciences<\/td>\nAnthropology, economics, geography, political science, psychology, sociology<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Note<\/strong>: none of the categories have clear-cut borders or definitions, and you’ll see some more than others. Your school might have a business school or a department of engineering, for instance, but it probably doesn’t have a department of applied sciences. Also, the placement of disciplines and sub-disciplines will sometimes change depending in the circumstances. Law, for instance, is sometimes included in the social sciences, sometimes in the humanities.<\/p>\n

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    Try It<\/h3>\n

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