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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Alternative Sociology: Probing into the Sociological Thought of Allama M. T. Jafari Chapter 3: The Perils of Reductionism Compartmentalization of Mind Within modern context of knowledge one should bear in mind that ‘specialization’ is a necessary dimension of scientific enterprise.

It seems Allama Jafari is not opposed to specialization as such but this does not mean that he supports mental compartmentalization which looks like to be an outcome of disciplinary rationality. He argues, for instance, if someone is interested in sociology of law s/he may need to spend three or four decades in order to master intricate aspects of problems which are of vital importance within the field. To embark upon the path of knowledge with a specialist orientation is a constructive approach.

But too deeply inclined towards specialization without having a rounded picture of reality would lead to unidimensionality in the context of thinking. Thus a jurist could be considered as a specialist in law and treated as an authority when s/he knows not only about legal issues but other fields of knowledge such as psychology too.

Because all fields of knowledge are interconnected to each other and without realizing this integral aspect of knowledge one would be lost when studying multifaceted dimensions of human existence. Human being is, in general, not the subject of any science but it is a very important subject in branches of knowledge which are related to human being.

Now and again a specialist delves into the subject of her/his study that s/he may forget everything including the pivotal problem of her/his research, i.e. human self. For example, an economist may be so infatuated with economic issues that s/he may not take into consideration the human factor in her/his economic analyses.

In other words, compartmentalization of knowledge seems to be very deeply connected to disintegration of mental capacity of modern human self which could have grave consequences for life as we have known it for centuries. (Jafari, 1976. Ch.