VUCA world with interdisciplinary science and schools of thought in social sciences

Three decades ago, the Board of Directors of the University of General Sciences, now the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, wanted to organize a subject calledSchools in social sciencefor postgraduates. This was shared by Prof. Pham Hong Tung: when I first returned to the country, the Board of Directors proposed to implement this subject. But time has passed, and only now has this become a reality. This is a tireless effort of generations of leaders of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, as Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Thanh Nam said, this is an affirmation of the vision of the school's leaders and is an extremely difficult task, but the Board of Directors is still determined to do it.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dang Thi Thu Huong, Vice Principal of the school, stated that generalizing schools in social sciences is a huge challenge for those who implement it, but we will work and adjust as we go along to move towards a “backbone” subject in Social Sciences and Humanities taught for the first time in Vietnam. To solve this problem, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Chinh proposed that this subject is not to provide all the background knowledge but to inspire learners to self-study and self-research, so there should be interdisciplinary slices. From there, learners can delve deeper into their own major.

It can be said that the vision of the school leaders was set at the right time.VUCA world [1] and education 4.0is having a huge impact on science in particular and human life in general. According to Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan, “interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary will be the fundamental trend in the context of the university ecosystem operating under the motto of connection and innovation - creativity. For a long time, Vietnamese universities have followed a narrow and specialized orientation... Specialized training has certain advantages, but in the era of digital human resources with artificial intelligence and automatic internet of things, interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary has more outstanding advantages”. It is easy to see that interdisciplinary science today is not only the connection of social sciences with each other but also the combination with natural sciences and technology. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) has been breaking many institutions in science and in society such as copyright issues. That requires social scientists to have policy advice and find ways to deal with the huge impact of science and technology.

Over the past 2000 years, “natural” science has gone fromFive elements(Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth) to the discovery of most of the chemical elements (Mendeleev's periodic table), going deeper into the microscopic world to find molecules, atoms, subatomic particles, Higgs particles, ... and going further to the world of the Galaxy, the Milky Way and the universe. Meanwhile, Social Sciences still only do one job: Discover human life and society. This is also the most difficult job that humanity has had to work hard to answer eternal questions such as: Who are we? What are we here for? ... The complexity of humans and society is the reason for the birth of schools in Social Sciences, on the contrary, the purpose ofschools of social sciencesis to understand and propose ways to deal with the complexity of humans and society.
From a historical perspective, from ancient sages such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle in the West or Confucius, Lao Tzu, Zarathustra in the East to Enlightenment philosophers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, ... all put their interests on people and society. Whether building institutions, policies, laws or understanding differences in religion, beliefs, ... schools in social sciences from the past to the present have always had a combination of different specialties. There are views that have lasted for thousands of years, there are views that are no longer suitable, but the work of social scientists has only one goal: to find schools or views that are suitable for their time and the society in which they live. Therefore, suitable "slices" are the purpose of the course.Schools in social sciencerequires learners to have. This can only be created from interdisciplinary thinking.
From a contemporary perspective, it seems that schools of social science from the past to the present have all aimed at a common principle, which is to build a better society and bring people to a higher level of civilization. To do that, people need not only intelligence but also dignity, tolerance, love, compassion, and furthermore, freedom, humanity and liberation. These are the things that religions and institutions through the ages have set as common principles. In fact, harmonizing the relationship between nature, people and society are the principles that sages such as Lao Tzu or Buddha Shakyamuni mentioned more than two thousand years ago.
Nowadays, social scientists have more and more tools to explore people and society with a variety of approaches, theories and research methods in social sciences, natural sciences and technology. However, social scientists also face countless challenges from newly emerging issues. For example, is Elon Musk's implantation of chips into human brains compatible with nature? Is it compatible with the ethical aspect? The answer will not come from natural scientists or technology corporations, but it is the responsibility and obligation of social scientists.
With the strategic vision and correct orientation of the leadership of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, the leading training center in social sciences in Vietnam, we hope to find answers to the above thorny issues. At least with appropriate “slices” that the courseSchools in social scienceequip learners
[1] Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity. See: “Higher Education 4.0: Interdisciplinary and Innovation - Creativity for Development” on the website: https://ussh.vnu.edu.vn