ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book outlines the anti-reductionistic programs of the psychologists in the hope that contemporary psychology can learn from their struggles, and perhaps even develop an approach to observational and experimental methods that is not inherently reductionistic. It provides a strong argument against reductionist methodology in the social sciences. Indeed, reduction lives in the very heart of the human community. Language is a reduction, as are all the systems of meaning that bind us together. Reduction is a necessary analytic and abstractive practice. Reductionism is the notion that any given phenomenon can be reduced to its constituent elements without any loss of meaning. Mind-brain reduction seems to be "in the air" for most social scientists but it is rarely explicit and certainly beyond the current state of empirical validation.
