Psychology Dictionary of Arguments

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Reductionism, philosophy: reductionism is a collective term for attempts, to either trace back statements in a subject area to statements from a sub-area of this subject area or equating statements of a subject area with statements of another subject area. The main point here is the justification of such transfers. Reductionism in the narrower sense is the thesis that reduction is possible. Typical reductionisms exist in the domain of the philosophy of mind. See also holism, eliminativism, materialism, physicalism, functionalism.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Gerhard Vollmer on Reductionism - Dictionary of Arguments

II 171
VsReduction/VsReductionism/Vollmer: We must realize that we are still able to formulate conflicting statements in the same language. Why then reduction?
>Reduction
, >Contradictions.
II 207/208
VsReduction/biology: organisms are completely structured, while parts of a celestial body could be exchanged.
>Structures, >Necessity, >Contingency.
II 228
Reduction/Evolution/Vollmer: with the evolution argument the universal evolution serves as evidence that a reduction by deduction could be possible.
>Evolution, >Deduction.
Problems:
VsReduction/Evolution/Vollmer: the evolution argument only applies to right (true) theories.
If system S2 resulted from system S1, then theory T2 must logically imply theory T1.
However, when T1 or T2 are still flawed, it is unlikely that there is an implication relation between them.
>Consequence, >Implication.

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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.

Vollmer I
G. Vollmer
Was können wir wissen? Bd. I Die Natur der Erkenntnis. Beiträge zur Evolutionären Erkenntnistheorie Stuttgart 1988

Vollmer II
G. Vollmer
Was können wir wissen? Bd II Die Erkenntnis der Natur. Beiträge zur modernen Naturphilosophie Stuttgart 1988


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