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The Problem of Reductionism in Science

(Colloquium of the Swiss Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science, Zürich, May 18–19, 1990)

  • Book
  • © 1991

Overview

Editors:
  1. Evandro Agazzi

    1. University of Fribourg, Switzerland
      University of Genova, Italy

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Part of the book series: Episteme (EPIS, volume 18)

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XVIII
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  2. Reductionism as Negation of the Scientific Spirit

    • Evandro Agazzi
    Pages 1-29

  3. The Power and Limits of Reduction

    • Mario Bunge
    Pages 31-49

  4. Theory of Antireductionist Arguments: The Bohr Case Study

    • Paul Hoyningen-Huene
    Pages 51-70

  5. A Short History of Emergence and Reductionism

    • Manfred Stöckler
    Pages 71-90

  6. The Technical Problem of “Full Abstractness” as a Model for an Issue in Reductionism

    • Erwin Engeler
    Pages 91-99

  7. A Neutral Reduction: Analytical Method and Positivism

    • Jules Vuillemin
    Pages 101-118

  8. Reductionism and Reduction in Logic and in Mathematics

    • Paul Weingartner
    Pages 119-147

  9. Reductionism in Biology

    • Renzo Morchio
    Pages 149-160

  10. Reductionism: Palaver Without Precedent

    • Hans Primas
    Pages 161-172

  11. Must a Science of Artificial Intelligence be Necessarily Reductionist ?

    • Gilles-Gaston Granger
    Pages 173-182

  12. Can Psychological Software be Reduced to Physiological Hardware?

    • Patrick Suppes
    Pages 183-198

  13. On the Problem of Reducing Value-Components in Epistemology

    • Elena Klevakina
    Pages 199-210

  14. Back Matter

    Pages 211-216
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Keywords

About this book

The topic to which this book is devoted is reductionism, and not reduction. The difference in the adoption of these two denominations is not, contrary to what might appear at first sight, just a matter of preference between a more abstract (reductionism) or a more concrete (reduction) terminology for indicating the same sUbject matter. In fact, the difference is that between a philosophical doctrine (or, perhaps, simply a philosophical tenet or claim) and a scientific procedure. Of course, this does not mean that these two fields are separated; they are only distinct, and this already means that they are also likely to be interrelated. However it is useful to consider them separately, if at least to better understand how and why they are interconnected. Just to give a first example of difference, we can remark that a philosophical doctrine is something which makes a claim and, as such, invites controversy and should, in a way, be challenged. A scientific procedure, on the other hand, is something which concretely exists, and as such must be first of all described, interpreted, understood, defined precisely and analyzed critically; this work may well lead to uncovering limitations of this procedure, or of certain ways of conceiving or defining it, but it does not lead to really challenging it.

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of Fribourg, Switzerland

    Evandro Agazzi

  • University of Genova, Italy

    Evandro Agazzi

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Problem of Reductionism in Science

  • Book Subtitle: (Colloquium of the Swiss Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science, Zürich, May 18–19, 1990)

  • Editors: Evandro Agazzi

  • Series Title: Episteme

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3492-7

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Kluwer Academic Publishers 1991

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-7923-1406-6Published: 31 August 1991

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-010-5544-4Published: 03 October 2013

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-011-3492-7Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVIII, 217

  • Topics: Philosophy of Science, Logic, Philosophy of Nature, Epistemology

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