Reductionism

In philosophy, reductionism is a theory that asserts that the nature of complex things is reduced to the nature of sums of simpler or more fundamental things. This can be said of objects, phenomena, explanations, theories, and meanings.

Reductionism is often understood to imply the unity of science. For example, fundamental chemistry is based on physics, fundamental biology is based on chemistry, psychology is based on biology, sociology is based on psychology, and political science and anthropology are both based on sociology. The first two of these reductions are commonly accepted but the last three or four--psychology to biology and so on--are controversial. For example, aspects of evolutionary psychology and sociobiology are rejected by those who claim that complex systems are inherently irreducible or holistic. Some strong reductionists believe that the behavioral sciences should become "genuine" scientific disciplines by being based on genetic biology, and on the systematic study of culture (cf. Dawkins's concept of memes).