ABSTRACT
Knowledge is a unity. Total understanding of any aspect of existence is impossible without total understanding of all other aspects. So man cannot achieve more than partial understanding of anything, though this partial understanding may often be sufficient for all practical purposes of behaviour, decision and action. But even this partial understanding may be achieved only by breaking the universe of knowledge into pieces the size of which the human mind is able to comprehend and manipulate. The further the range of mankind’s knowledge is extended, the more difficult it becomes for a single mind to be master of more than a diminishing segment of it. Hence the increasing fragmentation of knowledge in past decades, the emergence of ever more, and ever narrower, specialisms. Yet the expansion of knowledge has brought with it heightened awareness of the interrelatedness of the segments into which it is artificially divided. It is thus widely recognized that narrowing specialisms cause loss of opportunities for greater understanding.
