reductionism

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re·duc·tion·ism

(rĭ-dŭk′shə-nĭz′əm)

An attempt or tendency to explain a complex set of facts, entities, phenomena, or structures by another, simpler set: "Science requires some degree of reductionism, some picking apart and focusing on one or two variables at a time" (Natalie Angier).

re·duc′tion·ist adj. & n.

re·duc′tion·is′tic adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

reductionism

(rɪˈdʌkʃəˌnɪzəm)

1. the analysis of complex things, data, etc, into less complex constituents

2. often derogatory any theory or method that holds that a complex idea, system, etc, can be completely understood in terms of its simpler parts or components

reˈductionist n, adj

reˌductionˈistic adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

re•duc•tion•ism

(rɪˈdʌk ʃəˌnɪz əm)

n.

1. the theory that every complex phenomenon, esp. in biology or psychology, can be explained by analyzing the simplest, most basic physical mechanisms that are in operation during the phenomenon.

2. the practice of oversimplifying a complex idea or issue to the point of minimizing or distorting it.

[1940–45]

re•duc′tion•ist, n., adj.

re•duc`tion•is′tic, adj.

reductionism

The attempt to explain complex phenomena in terms of simple laws or principles.

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Noun	1.	reductionism - a theory that all complex systems can be completely understood in terms of their components theory - a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena; "theories can incorporate facts and laws and tested hypotheses"; "true in fact and theory"
	2.	reductionism - the analysis of complex things into simpler constituents analytic thinking, analysis - the abstract separation of a whole into its constituent parts in order to study the parts and their relations

Translations

redukcionismus

reduccionismo

réductionnisme

reductionism

n → Reduktionismus m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in periodicals archive ?

Among the topics are explanation and the scientific study of religion, beyond the skeptic and the devotee: reductionism in the scientific study of science, the transcription of belief and the domestication of faith in the academic study of religion, beyond thick descriptions and interpretive sciences: explaining religious meaning, and dissolving rationality: the anti-science phenomenon and its implications for the study of religion.

The Science of Religion: A Defence: Essays by Donald Wiebe

An eminent scholar and author of several books on philosophy and Marxism, Ashfaq Saleem Mirza, said that people mostly saw economic reductionism and class struggle as a basis of Marxism.

Nation and nationalism in focus at Hamza Alavi lecture

Does the global supervenience of one class on another entail reductionism, in the sense that any property in the former class is definable from properties in the latter class?

THE JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY: Vol. 115, No. 8, August 2018

Reductionism states that the behavior of the whole is equal to the sum of the behavior of the parts; that sophisticated systems are merely combinations of simpler systems (2) and that pathophysiology is linear and predictable.

Focusing on Preinvasive Neoplasia

(1) They can accept either reductionism or nonreductionism about how moral properties relate to properties invoked in the best natural and social scientific explanations, which I call "scientific properties." (2) This article argues that reductionism is the best form of naturalistic moral realism.

ETHICAL REDUCTIONISM

The Range Rover Velar--which is not only the latest in the brand's lineup, but which, as a midsize SUV, slots between the Evoque and Sport-is based on the Jaguar Land Rover Lightweight Aluminum Architecture and has a design that's predicated on what they're calling "reductionism," which presumably means the elimination of anything that is superfluous.

Digital tech in the Range Rover Velar

29-36): (1) 'passivism'--the idea that the behaviour of entities is determined by an external contingent force; included within this broad category are forms of essentialism, reductionism and social constructivism; (2) the Aristotelian teleological view of the behaviour of entities as being goal-directed; and (3) relational dispositionality, which Lie defends, in which entities have real dispositions to act in certain non-contingent ways, so that 'all being of nature [are] active...

Philosophy of Nature: Rethinking Naturalness

Davis and Gonzalez's collected volume aims to interrogate western medicine: we are "living in a moment of antagonism" between medical reductionism and holist conceptions and approaches to health (14).

Davis, Joseph E. and Ana Marta Gonzalez, eds.: To Fix or to Heal: Patient Care, Public Health, and the Limits of Biomedicine

Within the context of communicating truth and meaning, the ways of Jesus and science are susceptible to reductionism as a means to alleviate tension.

The ways of Jesus and science at an IVGCF meeting

"But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against -- the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil or, if you will, the righteous and sinners," Francis said.