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Book

Conservative Reductionism

Book

Conservative Reductionism

DOI link for Conservative Reductionism

Conservative Reductionism book

Conservative Reductionism

DOI link for Conservative Reductionism

Conservative Reductionism book

ByMichael Esfeld, Christian Sachse
Edition 1st Edition
First Published 2011
eBook Published 28 March 2011
Pub. Location New York
Imprint Routledge
DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203817346
Pages 212
eBook ISBN 9780203817346
Subjects Humanities
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Esfeld, M., & Sachse, C. (2011). Conservative Reductionism (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203817346

ABSTRACT

Conservative Reductionism sets out a new theory of the relationship between physics and the special sciences within the framework of functionalism. It argues that it is wrong-headed to conceive an opposition between functional and physical properties (or functional and physical descriptions, respectively) and to build an anti-reductionist argument on multiple realization. By contrast, (a) all properties that there are in the world, including the physical ones, are functional properties in the sense of being causal properties, and (b) all true descriptions (laws, theories) that the special sciences propose can in principle be reduced to physical descriptions (laws, theories) by means of functional reduction, despite multiple realization. The book develops arguments for (a) from the metaphysics of properties and the philosophy of physics. These arguments lead to a conservative ontological reductionism. It then develops functional reduction into a fully-fledged, conservative theory reduction by means of introducing functional sub-types that are coextensive with physical types, illustrating that conservative reductionism by means of case studies from biology (notably the relationship between classical and molecular genetics).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|25 pages

The Dilemma of Functionalism

chapter 2|55 pages

The Metaphysics of Causal Structures

chapter 3|31 pages

The Theory of Evolution and Causal Structures in Biology

chapter 4|24 pages

Case Study: Classical and Molecular Genetics

chapter 5|29 pages

Conservative Functional Reduction

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