Needham, Paul (Author)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Volume: 41
Pages: 163--170
Despite all the criticism showered on Nagel's classic account of reduction, it meets a fundamental desideratum in an analysis of reduction that is difficult to question, namely of providing for a proper identification of the reducing theory. This is not clearly accommodated in radically different accounts. However, the same feature leads me to question Nagel's claim that the reducing theory can be separated from the putative bridge laws, and thus to question his notion of heterogeneous reduction. A further corollary to the requirement that all the necessary conditions be incorporated in an adequate formulation of the putative reducing theory is that the standard example of gas temperature is not reducible to average molecular kinetic energy. As originally conceived, Nagel's conception of reduction takes no account of approximate reasoning and this failure has certainly restricted its applicability, perhaps to the point of making it unrealistic as a model of reduction in science. I suggest approximation can be accommodated by weakening the original requirement of deduction without jeopardizing the fundamental desideratum. Finally, I turn to briefly consider the idea sometimes raised of the ontological reducibility of chemistry.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Sahotra Sarkar;
(2015)
Nagel on Reduction
(/isis/citation/CBB557469066/)
Article
Harris, Martha L.;
(2008)
Chemical Reductionism Revisited: Lewis, Pauling and the Physico-Chemical Nature of the Chemical Bond
(/isis/citation/CBB000930749/)
Article
Thomas, Gerald F.;
(2012)
The Emancipation of Chemistry
(/isis/citation/CBB001210750/)
Article
Bishop, Robert C.;
(2010)
Whence Chemistry?
(/isis/citation/CBB001024209/)
Article
Earley, Joseph E., Sr.;
(2012)
A Neglected Aspect of the Puzzle of Chemical Structure: How History Helps
(/isis/citation/CBB001210755/)
Article
Schummer, Joachim;
(2000)
Models in Chemistry (2): Molecular Models
(/isis/citation/CBB000101910/)
Article
Erduran, Sibel;
Bravo, Agustin Aduriz;
Naaman, Rachel Mamlok;
(2007)
Developing Epistemologically Empowered Teachers: Examining the Role of Philosophy of Chemistry in Teacher Education
(/isis/citation/CBB001032893/)
Article
Sober, Elliott;
(1999)
The multiple realizability argument against reductionism
(/isis/citation/CBB000110813/)
Article
James F. Stark;
(2016)
Anti-Reductionism at the Confluence of Philosophy and Science: Arthur Koestler and the Biological Periphery
(/isis/citation/CBB647674208/)
Book
Bokulich, Alisa;
(2008)
Reexamining the Quantum-Classical Relation: Beyond Reductionism and Pluralism
(/isis/citation/CBB001032943/)
Chapter
McKaughan, Daniel J.;
(2011)
Was Delbrück a Reductionist?
(/isis/citation/CBB001221101/)
Book
Riccardo Mona;
(2023)
Oltre il meccanicismo. La causalità della teoria dell'evoluzione
(/isis/citation/CBB780306593/)
Chapter
Roll-Hansen, Nils;
(2011)
Niels Bohr and Max Delbrück: Balancing Autonomy and Reductionism in Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001221100/)
Article
Zamora Bonilla, Jesús P.;
(2003)
Darwinism and Social Science: Is There Any Hope for the Reductionist?
(/isis/citation/CBB000933610/)
Book
Steel, Daniel;
Guala, Francesco;
(2011)
The Philosophy of Social Science Reader
(/isis/citation/CBB001450891/)
Article
Simões, Ana;
(2002)
Dirac's Claim and the Chemists
(/isis/citation/CBB000642043/)
Article
Louis Caruana;
(2018)
Mechanistic Trends in Chemistry
(/isis/citation/CBB703605057/)
Book
Raffaella Campaner;
Carlo Gabbani;
(2023)
Realismo e antirealismo nelle scienze: Un percorso multidisciplinare
(/isis/citation/CBB608622537/)
Book
Chang, Hasok;
(2012)
Is Water H2O? Evidence, Realism and Pluralism
(/isis/citation/CBB001213213/)
Article
Erduran, Sibel;
(2001)
Philosophy of Chemistry: An Emerging Field with Implications for Chemistry Education
(/isis/citation/CBB000101842/)
Be the first to comment!