Discipline

1. Disciplinarity is the specialized scientific exploration of a given homogenous subject matter producing new knowledge and making obsolete old knowledge. Disciplinary activity results incessantly in formulations and reformulations of the present body of knowledge about that subject matter. Disciplines may be distinguished from one another, and characterized, at the following levels: the material field comprising the objects with which the discipline is concerned from a commonsense point of view; the subject matter of the discipline determining the manner in which it selects out a certain sector of all possible observables offered by the material field; the level of theoretical integration of the discipline, ranging from description and taxonomic emphasis to elaboration of a single theoretical system; the methods of a discipline, both to get at the observables of its subject matter, or to transform observables into data specific to the problem under investigation; the analytical tools of a discipline based on logical strategies, mathematical reasoning and model construction; the applications of a discipline in fields of practice; and the historical contingencies of a discipline.

2. A set comprising three types of elements: observable and/or formalized objects, both manipulated by means of methods and procedures; phenomena that are the materialization of the interaction between these objects; and laws (whose terms and/or formulation depend on a set of axioms) which account for the phenomena and make it possible to predict how they operate. The items in this set, which have internal and/or external relationships, are revealed through phenomena which subsequently confirm or invalidate the axioms or laws.

3. A specific body of teachable knowledge with its own background of education, training, procedures, methods and content areas.