reductionism

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“
Mendeleev's table is also a kind of reductionism, a welcome one.

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Definitions (3)

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  1. noun An attempt or tendency to explain a complex set of facts, entities, phenomena, or structures by another, simpler set: "For the last 400 years science has advanced by reductionism ... The idea is that you could understand the world, all of nature, by examining smaller and smaller pieces of it. When assembled, the small pieces would explain the whole” (John Holland).

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Examples (37)

  • So for philosophical reductionism, there is no obvious impact of chaos. —  Omni: November 1993
  • I guess the bottom line, if there is one, is that chaos doesn't seem to me to have a major impact on reductionism, at least if one is careful about what one means by the term. —  Omni: November 1993
  • Whatever position one takes on the question, it is clear that chaos has stimulated new ways of thinking and writing about literature About reductionism: One kind of question to ask is how reality actually is. —  Omni: November 1993
  • Dennett claims that greedy reductionism is using all skyhooks to explain things which leads to gross oversimplification whereas proper reductionism uses all cranes to explain things. —  Serendip's Exchange -
  • Mendeleev's table is also a kind of reductionism, a welcome one. —  ScreenTalk
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