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Summary 2.3 Problem 1
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Summary for problem 1 for Block 2.3
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Problem 8 – Bem & Jong + articlesBEM & JONG
What is reduction?
- Reduction: an explanation of a macro-phenomenon through underlying micro-mechanisms
- Reductionism: the philosophical position that all phenomena are ultimately reducible to
something like basic physics
- 2 aspects of reduction:
o Reduction entails a claim about the structure of the world: complex things and
events accumulates fom simpler things
o Reduction is a relation between theories: theory reduction
Several levels of explanations can coexist in psychology
- Reduction involves a chain of “whys” and “becauses”
- Arrows of reduction all point the same way and converge on a final theory that does not
require reduction (this does not yet exist)
- Complexity assumption: complex things can be understood by breaking them down into
their constituents
“Nothing-but” perspective
- “nothing-buttery” perspective: the idea that most of the everyday phenomena we know
can be explained away by science
- This leads to elimination:
o in psychology this would mean the displacement of folk psychology explanation by
neuro-physiological language
o humans are nothing but a machine or a neural network
- Reduction in human sciences can sharpen our sense of the ways human beings are more
than science explains
Theory reduction and deductive-nomological model
- The deductive-nomological (DN) model: explanation is deducing statements from general
laws plus statements describing initial conditions
- Theory reduction: reducing a higher-level theory is showing how it can be deduced from a
lower-level theory plus boundary condition, thus a lower-level science may explain
phenomena of more complex levels
- 2 conditions for theory reduction:
o Connectability:
Bridge laws: establishing equivalences between the two theories and
connecting concepts across levels
o Deducibility: theories are finished and formalized
- Progress in science consists of smooth incorporation of formerly disjointed knowledge in a
single theory
o The older theory is actually retained, its general view of world is incorporated into a
new theory – it’s reduced but not eliminated
- Problems:
- when the old theory is false, it can’t logically be consistent with the new theory, so the old
theory is abandoned meaning the connectability condition is not satisfied
- Non-transitivity of explanation: Deduction from higher to lower ignores the structure of the
higher level
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