An approach to studying complex systems or ideas by reducing them to a set of simpler components.
Used in a Sentence
reductionism
Definitions, parts of speech, synonyms, and sentence examples for reductionism.
Editorial note
And that concern is that a lot of agricultural science suffers from a dangerous sort of reductionism.
Examples17
Definitions2
Parts of speech1
Quick take
An approach to studying complex systems or ideas by reducing them to a set of simpler components.
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of reductionism gathered in one view.
(philosophy) A philosophical position which holds that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be reduced to accounts of individual constituents. In a reductionist framework, the phenomena that can be explained completely in terms of relations between other more fundamental phenomena are called "epiphenomena".
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for reductionism.
noun
An approach to studying complex systems or ideas by reducing them to a set of simpler components.
noun
(philosophy) A philosophical position which holds that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be reduced to accounts of individual constituents. In a reductionist framework, the phenomena that can be explained completely in terms of relations between other more fundamental phenomena are called "epiphenomena".
Example sentences
And that concern is that a lot of agricultural science suffers from a dangerous sort of reductionism.
Thinking that believing reductionism will somehow transform human minds into mathematics is like thinking that believing evolution will transform humans into chimps.
And whether or not you believe in reductionism, the reality of humanity won't change.
Artists, and to a lesser extent philosophers, are impatient with this reductionism and layering...
Emergentism is much easier to knock down -- as is naïve reductionism.
This may require neurological hardware that we just don't have, so we try to muddle through by applying linear reductionism.
Because reductionism doesn't provide a satisfying explanation for higher level emergent phenomena.
I think that evo-psych reductionism, while in vogue, tends to suffer from oversimplification.
Intelligence and will seem mostly orthogonal, in that advanced computational reductionism appears capable of extremely intelligent behavior without anywhere near the amount of self-determinism shown by insects.
While reductionism is useful to learn about the constituent parts of a system, let's not forget that we don't know many things & it's ok.
I would call reductionism and logical positivism the baseline assumed perspective in much of science - definitely in biology, the field with which I am most familiar.
It looks that Lisps are more suitable for implementing algorithms because of the reductionism, but in more realistic systems world, you build interfaces, add random strings, and so on.
Quote examples
It seems to lead philosophers down a road of reductionism until they explode into a paroxysm of reductionism so complete that they won't even admit subatomic particles "exist".
It stands in contrast to "reductionism", the alternate notion that things "boil down" to fundamental elements.
So I'm heartened to read Dyson talking about incompleteness as a failure of "reductionism".
You can not simply escape reality by crying "reductionism".
Proper noun examples
Reductionism, or substituting the part for the whole.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use reductionism in a sentence?
And that concern is that a lot of agricultural science suffers from a dangerous sort of reductionism.
What does reductionism mean?
An approach to studying complex systems or ideas by reducing them to a set of simpler components.
What part of speech is reductionism?
reductionism is commonly used as noun.