10 Facts About Reductionism

Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena.

Reductionism can be applied to any phenomenon, including objects, problems, explanations, theories, and meanings.

Reductionism should be distinguished from eliminationism: reductionists do not deny the existence of phenomena, but explain them in terms of another reality; eliminationists deny the existence of the phenomena themselves.

Reductionism's admits that the phrase "really real" is apparently senseless but she has tried to explicate the supposed difference between the two.

Reductionism provides the example of a computer, which using hierarchical reductionism is explained in terms of the operation of hard drives, processors, and memory, but not on the level of logic gates, or on the even simpler level of electrons in a semiconductor medium.

Reductionism writes that "At each stage, entirely new laws, concepts and generalizations are necessary, requiring inspiration and creativity to just as great a degree as in the previous one.

Reductionism refers to this as the "fallacy of the misplaced concreteness".

Reductionism's scheme was to frame a rational, general understanding of phenomena, derived from our reality.

Reductionism argues that many systems are so complex that they can never be described in complete detail.

Reductionism believes that science can only progress by outlining questions that are unanswerable and by using models that do not try to explain everything in terms of smaller hierarchical levels of organization, but instead model them on the scale of the system itself, taking into account some factors from levels higher and lower in the hierarchy.