Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An attempt or tendency to explain a complex set of facts, entities, phenomena, or structures by another, simpler set.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun an approach to studying
complex systems or ideas byreducing them to a set of simplercomponents - noun philosophy any of several theories holding that
complex systems or ideas can always bereduced to a set ofsimpler components
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a theory that all complex systems can be completely understood in terms of their components
- noun the analysis of complex things into simpler constituents
Etymologies
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Examples
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The first is actually itself a problem in terms of scientific self-understanding: the problem usually designated by the word reductionism, which is the problem of how you decide what's the most basic form of explanation and whether you think that the most basic form of explanation is the only real form of explanation.
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This is known as reductionism: the ironclad belief that describing events in biological terms comprises a scientific advancement no matter how hypothetical the explanation is and how little it improves our understanding of -- or ability to influence -- outcomes.
Stanton Peele: So You Think That Sibling Study in Science Proves Something About Addiction? Stanton Peele 2012
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This is known as reductionism: the ironclad belief that describing events in biological terms comprises a scientific advancement no matter how hypothetical the explanation is and how little it improves our understanding of -- or ability to influence -- outcomes.
Stanton Peele: So You Think That Sibling Study in Science Proves Something About Addiction? Stanton Peele 2012
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This is known as reductionism: the ironclad belief that describing events in biological terms comprises a scientific advancement no matter how hypothetical the explanation is and how little it improves our understanding of -- or ability to influence -- outcomes.
Stanton Peele: So You Think That Sibling Study in Science Proves Something About Addiction? Stanton Peele 2012
-
This is known as reductionism: the ironclad belief that describing events in biological terms comprises a scientific advancement no matter how hypothetical the explanation is and how little it improves our understanding of -- or ability to influence -- outcomes.
Stanton Peele: So You Think That Sibling Study in Science Proves Something About Addiction? Stanton Peele 2012
-
This is known as reductionism: the ironclad belief that describing events in biological terms comprises a scientific advancement no matter how hypothetical the explanation is and how little it improves our understanding of -- or ability to influence -- outcomes.
Stanton Peele: So You Think That Sibling Study in Science Proves Something About Addiction? Stanton Peele 2012
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Due to the conceptual incompatibilities between different theories, and simple limitations in the tractability of equations when dealing with systems containing billions of particles, epistemological reductionism is false.
Stuart Kauffman and Reinventing the Sacred Gordon McCabe 2009
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This is known as reductionism: the ironclad belief that describing events in biological terms comprises a scientific advancement no matter how hypothetical the explanation is and how little it improves our understanding of -- or ability to influence -- outcomes.
Stanton Peele: So You Think That Sibling Study in Science Proves Something About Addiction? Stanton Peele 2012
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Due to the conceptual incompatibilities between different theories, and simple limitations in the tractability of equations when dealing with systems containing billions of particles, epistemological reductionism is false.
Archive 2009-07-01 Gordon McCabe 2009
-
This is known as reductionism: the ironclad belief that describing events in biological terms comprises a scientific advancement no matter how hypothetical the explanation is and how little it improves our understanding of -- or ability to influence -- outcomes.
Stanton Peele: So You Think That Sibling Study in Science Proves Something About Addiction? Stanton Peele 2012
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