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Topic: Ontological reductionism

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	Reductionism - Definition, explanation
		Reductionism in philosophy describes a number of related, contentious theories that hold, very roughly, that the nature of complex things can always be reduced to (explained by) simpler or more fundamental things.
		Ontological reductionism is the idea that everything that exists is made from a small number of basic substances that behave in regular ways.
		Analytical reductionism as used in "is the underlying a priori of ontological reductionism".
	www.calsky.com /lexikon/en/txt/r/re/reductionism.php (313 words)

	Reference.com/Encyclopedia/Reductionism
		Reductionism is often understood to imply the unity of science.
		Ontological reduction is the idea that everything that exists is made from a small number of basic substances that behave in regular ways (compare to monism).
		Methodological reductionism is the idea that developing an understanding of a complex system's constituent parts (and their interactions) is the best way to develop an understanding of the system as a whole.
	www.reference.com /browse/wiki/Reductionism (1142 words)

	Reference.com/Encyclopedia/Scientific reductionism
		Daniel Dennett defends this basic kind of reductionism, which he says is really little more than materialism, by making a distinction between this and what he calls "Greedy reductionism": the idea that every explanation in every field of science should be reduced all the way down to particle physics or string theory.
		Greedy reductionism, he says, deserves some of the criticism that has been heaped on reductionism in general because the lowest-level explanation of a phenomenon, even if it exists, is not always the best way to understand or explain it.
		Richard Dawkins describes the alternative as "hierarchical" reductionism: organisms can be described in terms of DNA, DNA in terms of atoms, atoms in terms of sub-atomic particles; but there is no need to deal with details of sub-atomic particles to explain animal behavior if one can make adequate explanations and predictions at a higher level.
	www.reference.com /browse/wiki/Scientific_reductionism (824 words)

	Summary_1(1-26-99)
		An advocate of constitutive reductionism-sometimes referred to ontological reductionism-is Ernst Mayr.
		Ontological reductionism is an example of classical physics regarding atoms.
		Another kind of reductionism is theory reductionism, which states that one theory can be deduced by another theory.
	www-ssg.sr.unh.edu /preceptorial/Summaries_2003/summary3a_JR_2003.html (2043 words)

	Reductionism
		Reductionism in philosophy describes a number of related, contentious theories that hold, very roughly, that the nature of complex things can always be reduced to (explained by) simpler or more fundamental things.
		Ontological reductionism[?] is the idea that everything that exists is made from a small mumber of basic substances that behave in regular ways.
		Theoretical reductionism[?] is the idea that older theories or explanations are not generally replaced outright by new ones, but that new theories are refinements or reductions of the old theory in greater detail.
	www.ebroadcast.com.au /lookup/encyclopedia/re/Reductionism.html (250 words)

	Reductionism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Reductionism in philosophy is a theory that asserts that the nature of complex things is reduced to the nature of sums of simpler or more fundamental things.
		Reductionism is often understood to imply the unity of science.
		Eliminativism is often regarded as a form of reductionism, since the eliminated theory is at some point replaced by a theory referring to the objects that were not eliminated.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Reductionism (1328 words)

	Reductionism Summary
		Harvard biologist, and two-time Pulitzer-Prize winner, Edward O. Wilson, in his 1998 book Consilience, stated that "the cutting edge of science is reductionism, the breaking apart of nature into its natural constituents." The journal Nature, in 1997, def...
		Reductionism in the Philosophy of Mind Reduction can be understood in a loose or in a strict sense.
		Reductionism in philosophy is the theory that asserts that the nature of complex things can always be reduced to (explained by) simpler or more fundamental things.
	www.bookrags.com /Reductionism (198 words)

	DISF - Interdisciplinary Encyclopaedia of Religion and Science \| Reductionism (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-26)
		Reductionism of this kind is closely related to methodological reductionism, the widely practised scientific strategy of studying wholes through breaking them up into their constituent parts.
		An example of a successful reduction of this kind is afforded by the use of the kinetic theory of gases to reduce the concept of temperature (originating in the thermodynamics of bulk matter) to exact equivalence to the average kinetic energy of the molecules of the gas.
		Causal reductionism is closely allied to ontological reductionism, the assertion that the whole is the sum of its parts.
	www.disf.org /en/Voci/104.asp (3173 words)

	Ontological reductionism - Definition, explanation
		Ontological reductionism is evident in the dominant discourses in the business of commercial and academic study of the management of software development.
		This provides an illustration of how ontological reductionism is often present as an unquestioned pre-understanding by members of these communities.
		In this way separate ontologically reduced atomic processes can be coupled, joined or grouped together to create a larger system of processes which may in turn be represented as a higher-level process.
	www.calsky.com /lexikon/en/txt/o/on/ontological_reductionism.php (263 words)

	Ontological Emergence and the Failure of Reductionism (from Evolutionary Theory Conference Summary), Esalen Center for ...
		When reflecting on the conceptual usage of the term "emergence," Deamer said that the emergence of life from non-life should be considered a rigorous case of ontological emergence (or strong emergence), in which something truly novel did come into the universe.
		According to Kauffman, it is an example of strong or ontological emergence: a collective phenomenon (a chemical reaction graph) emerges from a random chemical soup.
		Instead, in ontological emergence, A and B are definable only by virtue of the fact that they are related to each other, and the relations that define the system are not analyzable in terms of the intrinsic properties of the constituent parts.
	www.esalenctr.org /display/confpage.cfm?confid=18&pageid=133&pgtype=1 (2014 words)

	:: dispatx art collective : abandonment : holism and the gestalt :: (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-26)
		Dennett (1995) coined the term "greedy reductionism" to describe reductionist theories that attempt to explain too much with too little – while it may at some level be meaningful for me to describe the behaviour of my car with reference to sub-atomic particle behaviour, I will lose much of the useful context.
		In considering Holism and Reductionism as two diametrically or philosophically opposed positions, I have touched briefly on three areas of a broadly holist disposition and highlighted how reductionism takes a different approach.
		If I have not illustrated as extensively the makeup of reductionism it is only because the view that objects are made up of their constituent parts seems at least to me to be intuitively easier to grasp than the view that there is something more going on.
	www.dispatx.com /issue/04/en/gestalt/02.html (1925 words)

	Mind in Nature: the Interface of Science and Philosophy
		Thus physical reductionism is rightly called the methodological ‘superparadigm’ of modern science, and it seems odd indeed to look for research programs in opposition to it.
		Ontological unity was thereupon sought by opting for a monist solution: for idealism (the monism of the res cogitans), or materialism (that of the res extensa), or for the hoped-for middle ground of phenomenalism.
		Therein lies Weizsaecker’s ‘reductionism.’ It does not reduce mind to palpable 19th-century matter, nor even to a something situated in physical space; and it leaves open the possibility of other, non-objectivating modes of encountering mind, in which another ‘Thou’ is met.
	www.religion-online.org /showchapter.asp?title=2066&C=1847 (4645 words)

	THOUGHTS AS TOOLS: THE MEME IN DANIEL DENNETT'S WORK
		This sort of ontological reductionism does not, however, entail a commitment to theory reduction, the view that we should replace biology by physics.
		Greedy reductionism, on the other hand, is when explaining is replaced by explaining away, "when overzealousness leads to falsification of the phenomena" and a denial of "the existence of real levels, real complexities, real phenomena" [7].
		Reductionism cannot, however, be such an insult, for while neo-Darwinism is definitely opposed to Lamarckism, vitalism and essentialism, it is by no means so obviously opposed to "reductionism".
	pespmc1.vub.ac.be /Conf/MemePap/Mason.html (3099 words)

	John Gregg: Reductionism (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-26)
		Now, sometimes reductionism means methodological reductionism, which is simply the practice of analyzing things in terms of their components.
		Reductionism combined with deterministic physicalism results in the claim that if you knew the exact initial conditions of the universe, and knew the true laws of physics, you could, in principle, predict everything that would ever happen during the lifetime of the universe, including the fall of the Roman empire and the Gettysburg Address.
		Even in a universe in which reductionism is absolutely true, the physical world is hugely complex, and its complexities explode out of control very quickly in a chaotic fashion without any hope of being modeled at the low levels by beings with cognitive limitations like us.
	home.comcast.net /~johnrgregg/reductio.htm (2716 words)

	New Page 0
		Reductionism is defined as: "..trying to explain the macro levels (psychological properties) in terms of micro levels (neural network properties)." In her earlier book Neurophilosophy, she qualifies this approach as a form of intertheoretic reduction.
		Part-whole ‘holism’ easily leads to reductionism, because either whole and parts are both conceived as the product or result of underlying and more basic processes (microphysical processes, for instance); or whole and parts are seen as determined by the laws and regularities of the largest whole, i.e.
		By reductionism I mean here the ‘nothing-but’ kind of (ontological) reduction, according to which phenomena at some level A are ‘nothing but’ phenomena at the underlying level B (for instance, the subjective experience of pain is nothing but a pattern of neuronal activities).
	www.iapche.org /GlasInsert.htm (11218 words)

	Society for Philosophy and Technology - Volume 2, numbers 3-4
		Ontological reductionism in theoretical biology occurs when a theory states that a living system is nothing but a collection of physical parts (atoms) being acted upon by the laws of physics.
		Causal reductionism "is a relation between any two types of things that can have causal powers, where the existence and a fortiori the causal powers of the reduced entity are shown to be entirely explainable in terms of the causal powers of the reducing phenomena" (Searle, 1994, p.
		Finally, methodological reductionism in biology is the claim that living systems should be studied at their most basic level, either the actual atoms and molecules or their theoretical interactions (Sattler, 1986, p.
	scholar.lib.vt.edu /ejournals/SPT/v2n3n4/sullins.html (5617 words)

	Maverick Philosopher - Composition and Identity
		Reductionism implies that in ultimate reality there are no such partite entities as bicycles or pools of water or bolts of lightning.
		This is the essence of ontological analysis: we start with complex wholes, resolve them into their parts, and ultimately into their simple (not further analyzable) parts.
		Reductionism is a ‘middle path’ between non-reductionism and eliminativism.
	maverickphilosopher.powerblogs.com /composition_and_identity (4977 words)

	Journal of Environmental Peace
		The imposing of distinctions and the subsequent drawing of boundaries, beginning with the primary act that severs the observer from the observed, is the basis for reductionism.
		Reductionism is a practical approach - a valuable tool in scientific method without which science, as we know it, would be impossible.
		This would be a shift from methodological reductionism to ontological reductionism.
	www.library.utoronto.ca /iip/journal/MAIN1/holismreductionism.htm (2773 words)

	Epistemicism and the Combined Spectrum
		Ontological reductionism contrasts with the view that we are separately existing entities, such as persisting immaterial Cartesian egos.
		ontological non-reductionism, that it is not the case that a person consists merely in a brain, a body, and a series of interrelated physical and mental events; and (c) that personal identity is what matters; personal identity justifies special anticipatory concern.
		Like the normative formulation, the ontological formulation provides a response to the objection from epistemicism: although epistemicism explains how there could be a sharp borderline in the combined spectrum, it fails to explain how there could be an ontologically based borderline.
	www.as.ua.edu /philos/talter/Epistemicism.htm (4736 words)

	20th WCP: Ontological Levels and Symmetry Breaking
		I deal with their conceptual and ontological background, limits of validity, their relation to the theories of evolution and reductionism and to level theories.
		The law of correspondence between the ontological levels and their potential symmetry properties is formulated in four constituent statements and two concluding laws are also presented.
		Consequently, the precondition of the development (in its relative totality) of a qualitatively new (material) level is the breaking of a certain symmetry (property), and at the same time, the condition of the continuance (existence) of the new level is to possess (new?) conserved properties.
	www.bu.edu /wcp/Papers/Scie/ScieDarv.htm (4644 words)

	Theory & Psychology
		First, I explain why physicalism implies a straightforward ontological reductionism; hence, on an ontological reading, 'non-reductive physicalism' is a contradiction in terms.
		Physicalism, then, implies ontological reductionism, which is to say that the ontology of the world coincides with the ontology of physics.
		In many philosophical accounts of physicalism, the ontological implications of the theories of physics are simply taken for granted.
	www.psych.ucalgary.ca /thpsyc/VOLUMES.SI/2001/11.6.Radder.html (4404 words)

	DPGS - programme
		Ontological reductionism is the theory that all phenomena are determined by the behavior of microphysical entities (elementary particles and fields).
		Related to the latter is methodological reductionism, which states that it is useful to attempt reductions without stating (as in epistemological reductionism) that this should always be possible.
		Concluding, the theme of reductionism leads to a number of interesting questions on the relation between geosciences, physics and biology, on the fundamental nature of geoscientific phenomena and on the comparison of causal explanations and seemingly more vague ideas of geomorphological reasoning.
	www.frw.ruu.nl /fg/philosophy/abstrmk.htm (1827 words)

	Edge: BEYOND REDUCTIONISM: REINVENTING THE SACRED By Stuart A. Kauffman
		The modern world view of reductionism clearly grows from the success of modern physics, but finds its roots in ancient Greek philosophy, that all is made of earth, air, fire, and water, or from atoms.
		With reductionism comes the conviction that a court proceeding to try a man for murder is "really" nothing but the movement of atoms, electrons, and other particles in space, quantum and classical events, and ultimately to be explained by, say, string theory.
		The ontological view is that new entities with their own properties and causal powers arise and are part of the furniture of the universe.
	www.edge.org /3rd_culture/kauffman06/kauffman06_index.html (5235 words)

	The Question Concerning Emergence
		This position is consistent with the adoption of a scientific (materialist) metaphysics and reflected in a commitment to ontological reductionism, the view that emergent phenomena do not contradict physical laws and, moreover, are causally determined by such laws.
		The former is associated with the abstraction or `cutting' of ontological categories from a poi tic (generative) categorial source while the latter is associated with the manifestation of categorial potentiality once ontological categories have been defined.
		Heidegger's ontological analysis of Being (1959) leads to a definition of emergence in terms of the poi sis or coming-forth from concealment of physis, the originary power of Being and establishes emergence1 as a necessary condition for emergence2.
	mcs.open.ac.uk /sma78/casys97.html (2285 words)

	chapter 1 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-26)
		The common thread in all the varieties of ontological reductionism is the idea that it should be possible to show how mental phenomena arise from or are constituted by suitable arrangements of the basic materials that make up the rest of the natural world.
		Indeed, whereas Tye´s view combines ontological and methodological components, Shapiro explicitly rejects an ontological component to his naturalism; he thinks that the ontological approach is unable to make the distinction that, on his view, really matters to naturalism.
		Neither ontological nor methodological approaches to naturalism require reductionism (although they are compatible with it), and the fact that there are alternative approaches to naturalizing the mind is valuable.
	grimpeur.tamu.edu /~colin/SpeciesofMind/chapter1.html (6630 words)

	[No title]
		The aim of this paper is to focus on the subject of reductionism - to define it, and examine its role, and usefulness, through the analysis of representative cases in science, in increasing tthe body of knowledge that is a result of the scientific process.
		Ontological reductionism, as the prefix "ontology" implies, refers to questions of ultimate explanations, and traces back to Greek thought.
		Reductionism is not something that is likely to be proved or refuted, but is better viewed as an attitude to how science is progressing and how the different sciences relate.
	people.cc.jyu.fi /~jonmak/Files2.html (3766 words)

	Emergent Properties (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
		Adjudicating the case for or against ontological emergence outside the mental realm is equally difficult.
		This is in keeping with the British emergentists' view of emergence as midway between ‘mechanistic’ reductionism and vitalism of a sort which posited entelechies, substances embodying life-governing principles.
		Crane (2001b) is a careful and clear discussion of issues concerning ontological reductionism, nonreductive physicalism, and ontological emergence in the philosophy of mind.
	plato.stanford.edu /entries/properties-emergent (8840 words)

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