ABSTRACT
Explanation and reduction are two closely related concepts. For instance, Ernest Nagel has used Carl Hempel's scientific explanation model to represent his own theory of reduction. By the 1960s, Hempel's scientific explanation models were already well established, and Nagel, borrowing the logical structure of scientific explanation, proposed the structure of theory reduction. Alan Garfinkel thinks micro-explanation is different from macro-explanation. Explanatory reduction suggests that macro-explanation be deduced from micro-explanation, and according to Garfinkel's analyses, it is also problematic. Macro-explanation cannot necessarily be reduced to micro-explanation, meaning explanatory reduction is also problematic. In science and philosophy, reductionism has a long history. In a homogeneous reduction, the reducing law and the reduced law use the same vocabulary. The chapter discusses the relation between explanation and reduction. It explores a series of concepts such as language reduction, theory reduction, discipline reduction, micro-reduction, ontological reduction, methodological reduction, and explanatory reduction.
