Reductionism vs Reduction - What's the difference?
reductionism | reduction |
an approach to studying complex systems or ideas by reducing them to a set of simpler components
(philosophy) Reductionism is a philosophical position which holds that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be reduced to accounts of individual constituents. This can be said of objects, phenomena, explanation, theories, and meanings. Reductionism strongly reflects a certain perspective on causality. In a reductionist framework, the phenomena that can be explained completely in terms of relations between other more fundamental phenomena, are called "epiphenomena". Often there is an implication that the epiphenomenon exerts no causal agency on the fundamental phenomena that explain it. Reductionism does not preclude the existence of what might be called "emergent phenomena", but it does imply the ability to understand those phenomena completely in terms of the processes from which they are composed.
The act, process, or result of reducing.
The amount or rate by which something is reduced, e.g. in price.
(chemistry) A reaction in which electrons are gained and valence is reduced; often by the removal of oxygen or the addition of hydrogen.
(cooking) The process of rapidly boiling a sauce to concentrate it.
(mathematics) The rewriting of an expression into a simpler form.
(computability theory) a transformation of one problem into another problem, such as mapping reduction or polynomial reduction.
(music) An arrangement for a far smaller number of parties, e.g. a keyboard solo based on a full opera.
(philosophy, phenomenology) A philosophical procedure intended to reveal the objects of consciousness as pure phenomena. (See phenomenological reduction.)
(medicine) A medical procedure to restore a fracture or dislocation to the correct alignment.
As nouns the difference between reductionism and reduction
is that reductionism is an approach to studying complex systems or ideas by reducing them to a set of simpler components while reduction is reduction.reductionism
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Noun
(wikipedia reductionism)See also
* holismreduction
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Noun
(en noun)- A 5% reduction in robberies