[Review of the book Reductionism in the Philosophy of Science, by Cachse]

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Brigandt, Ingo

• Introduction: Reductionism in the Philosophy of Science develops a novel account of reduction in science and applies it to the relationship between classical and molecular genetics. However, rather than addressing the epistemological issues that have been essential to the reductionism debate in philosophy of biology, the discussion primarily pursues ontological questions, as they are known, about reducing the mental to the physical. For Sachse construes reductionism as a purely philosophical endeavor and defends the possibility of reduction in principle, which may not be relevant to understanding reductionist reasoning and explanation occurring in scientific practice, as discussed by philosophers of science. Likewise, the conceptual framework used stems more from metaphysics and philosophy of mind than philosophy of science. Sachse's aim is twofold. First, he argues for the special sciences' being reducible to physics, by deriving the in principle possibility of epistemological reduction from ontological reduction. Second, he attempts to simultaneously make room for the legitimacy of the special sciences, effecting a conservative reduction rather than an elimination of the special sciences.

• Date created

  2007

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Ontology
  • Philosophy of Science
  • Book Reviews
  • Reductionism

• Type of Item

  Review

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3CV4C614

• License

  © 2007 Brigandt, I. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.