Abstract
The main thesis of this book is that holism and reductionism should be seen as mutually dependent and co-operating research programmes instead of incompatible views of nature or of the relations between sciences. Holism and reductionism are incompatible only in so far as there are holists who claim that wholes cannot be analyzed at all, and reductionists who claim that there are no wholes other than, say, atoms to study. These claims are so absurd, however, that they are not worthy of discussion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Looijen, R.C. (2000). Epilogue. In: Holism and Reductionism in Biology and Ecology. Episteme, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9560-5_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9560-5_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5364-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9560-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive