Multidimensionality

 Multidimensionality

Multidimensionality is an approach to complex problems like action or order that rejects linear analysis and one-dimensional thought. One-dimensional thinking is usually empirical but can be normative where material conditions and social problems are minimized. 

Multidimensionality means that all dimensions are considered and in this sense is considered formal although strictly formal analysis may conflate dimensions or displace one level of analysis by another. For example, one critic will evaluate a theory for its normative emphasis while another critic will emphasize the focus on empirical, material conditions. 

Multidimensional analysis takes the variety of variables and the levels of analysis into consideration; presuppositions and assumptions are analyzed, the subjectivity of actors and groups are examined, objective conditions and events are related to the normative order and the actual behaviors. 

Multidimensionality entails complexity and rejects reduction or simplification. For example, each theorist is faced with selectivity issues like expectations, belief systems or ideology, culture, and systems such as personality and society or social interactions. She does not merely address an issue as normative or empirical or an exigency, but interrelates these levels. And, the theorist is constantly taking up contingent processes and describing their relevance and impact. 

However, multidimensionality is not just methodological or epistemological, presuppositions are addressed; multidimensional approaches synthesize all relevant theories as analytic elements.