Reductionism: The philosophical position that holds that the fine grain or molecular details of a phenomenon provide an exclusive rather than an
integral part of its explanation. Reductionism gives primacy to complex explanations that are unleavened by common sense metaphors, or in other words, the devil is in the details because the details are all that count. For example, a reductionist explanation of a head cold uses molecular biochemical and microbiological terms, but ignores integrating the metaphors of viruses and germs with the metaphors that describe how people feel (not to be confused with the conflation of different metaphors, or level confusion). Unfortunately, a fear of reductionism is used as an alibi for not learning how things work, thus arriving at models of the mind that ignore reductionistic metaphors and replace them with irreducible metaphors (e.g. consciousness, will power,
flow states) that represent another reductionism, of the absurdum type. (see humanistic psychology,
behaviorism, evolutionary psychology)
integral part of its explanation. Reductionism gives primacy to complex explanations that are unleavened by common sense metaphors, or in other words, the devil is in the details because the details are all that count. For example, a reductionist explanation of a head cold uses molecular biochemical and microbiological terms, but ignores integrating the metaphors of viruses and germs with the metaphors that describe how people feel (not to be confused with the conflation of different metaphors, or level confusion). Unfortunately, a fear of reductionism is used as an alibi for not learning how things work, thus arriving at models of the mind that ignore reductionistic metaphors and replace them with irreducible metaphors (e.g. consciousness, will power,
flow states) that represent another reductionism, of the absurdum type. (see humanistic psychology,
behaviorism, evolutionary psychology)
