Theoretical integration level

Each empirical discipline attempts to reconstruct the reality of its subject matter in theoretical terms in order to understand, explain and predict phenomena and events involving the subject matter. In doing so the categorical nature of the relevant observables determines the categorical level of theoretical integration of the fundamental and unifying concepts. With regard to their present level of theoretical integration, disciplines can be distinguished according to their achieved state of maturity. At one extreme a discipline may be absorbed by mere description and phenotypic taxonomies of its subject matter; at the other a discipline may have developed a single theory system powerful enough to cover almost all the phenomena of its subject matter. Mutually exclusive levels of theoretical integration may exist within one discipline, because of the lack of relationship between theories and between observables. There may also be apparently unbridgeable gaps between the theoretical integration levels of some empirical disciplines, whilst other disciplines may show increasing convergence of their respective levels of theoretical integration.