Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-7tdvq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-10T12:09:59.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Construction by Reduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Jeffry L. Ramsey
Jeffry L. Ramsey*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy Oregon State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scientists employ a variety of procedures to eliminate degrees of freedom from computationally and/or analytically intractable equations. In the process, they often construct new models and discover new concepts, laws and functional relations. 1 argue these procedures embody a central notion of reduction, namely, the containment of one structure within another. However, their inclusion in the philosophical concept of reduction necessitates a reevaluation of many standard assumptions about the ontological, epistemological and functional features of a reduction. On the basis of the reevaluation, 1 advocate a continuum of reduction which proceeds from the eliminative to the constructive. The metaphysical aspects of theory use in constructive reductions are sketched.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Previous versions of this paper were read to the Department of Philosophy at Rice University and to the members of Studies of Science and Technology Program at the University of Minnesota. I am deeply indebted to members of both audiences for many critical and constructive comments. Thanks also to Dan Rothbart, who provided insightful and illuminating comments on this version of the paper. Later stages of this work were supported by a post-doctoral fellowship in the SST program at the University of Minnesota.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331–3902, USA.

References

Achinstein, P. (1991), Particles and Waves: Historical Essays in the Philosophy of Science. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Agazzi, E. (ed.), (1991), The Problem of Reductionism in Science. Boston: Kluwer.10.1007/978-94-011-3492-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayala, F. (1983), “Biology and Physics: Reflections on Reductionism”, in Old and New Questions in Physics, Cosmology, Philosophy, and Theoretical Biology: Essays in Honor of Wolfgang Yourgrau. New York: Plenum Press, pp. 525–534.10.1007/978-1-4684-8830-2_37CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bechtel, W. and Richardson, R. (1993), Discovering Complexity: Description and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cartwright, N. (1983), How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford: Clarendon Press.10.1093/0198247044.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cartwright, N. (1989), Nature's Capacities and Their Measurement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Churchland, P. M. (1979), Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Mind. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511625435CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowell, P. H. and Crommelin, A. D. (1908), “The Orbit of Jupiter's Eighth Satellite”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 68: 576–581.10.1093/mnras/68.8.576CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairclough, R. A. and Hinshelwood, C. N. (1937), “The Functional Relation between the Constants of the Arrhenius Equation”, Journal of the Chemical Society: 538–546.10.1039/jr9370000538CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galison, P. (1987), How Experiments End. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hacking, I. (1983), Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511814563CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardcastle, V. G. (1992), “Reduction, Explanatory Extension, and the Mind/Brain Sciences”, Philosophy of Science 59: 408–428.10.1086/289678CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hempel, C. (1965), Aspects of Scientific Explanation and other Essays in the Philosophy of Science. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Hinshelwood, C. N. (1926), Kinetics of Chemical Change in Gaseous Systems. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hinshelwood, C. N. (1935), “Considerations Concerning the Mechanism of Chemical Reactions”, Journal of the Chemical Society: 1111–1115.10.1039/jr9350001111CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, D. (1974), Philosophy of Biological Science. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Hull, D. (1976), “Informal Aspects of Theory Reduction”, in Cohen, R. S., Hooker, C. A., Michalos, A. C., and van Evra, J. W., (eds.), R. S. Cohen, C. A. Hooker, A. C. Michalos, and J. W. van Evra, vol. 32. Boston: Reidel, pp. 653–670.Google Scholar
Kassel, L. (1932), The Kinetics of Homogenous Gas Reactions. New York: American Chemical Society.Google Scholar
Laymon, R. (1985), “Idealizations and the Testing of Theories by Experimentation”, in Achinstein, P. and Hannaway, O., (eds.), P. AchinsteinObservation, Experiment and Hypothesis in Modern Physical Science., Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 147–173.Google Scholar
Laymon, R. (1989), “Cartwright and the Lying Laws of Physics”, Journal of Philosophy 86: 353–372.10.2307/2027145CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeGrand, H. (1990), “Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Experiments?” in LeGrand, H., (ed.), Experimental Inquiries: Historical, Philosophical, and Social Studies of Experimentation in Science. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, pp. 241–270.Google Scholar
Lennon, K. and Charles, D. (1992), Reduction, Explanation and Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Levins, R. (1984), “The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology”, in Sober, E., (ed), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology: An Anthology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 18–28.Google Scholar
McCauley, R. (1986), “Intertheoretic Relations and the Future of Psychology”, Philosophy of Science 53: 179–199.10.1086/289306CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, E. ([1961] 1979), The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation. 2d ed. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.10.1119/1.1937571CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nickles, T. (1973), “Two Senses of Reduction”, Journal of Philosophy 70: 181–201.10.2307/2024906CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oppenheim, P. and Putnam, H. (1958), “Unity of Science as a Working Hypothesis”, in Feigl, H., Scriven, M. and Maxwell, G., (eds.), H. Feigl, M. Scriven and G. Maxwell, vol. 2. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3–36.Google Scholar
Polanyi, J. (1992), “The Transition State”, in Zewail, A., (ed.), A. Zewail, Boston: Academic Press, pp. 149–174.Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1979), “The ‘Corroboration’ of Theories”, in Philosophical Papers. Vol. 1, Mathematics, Matter and Method. 2d ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 250–269.10.1017/CBO9780511625268.018CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsey, J. (1990a), “Beyond Numerical and Causal Accuracy: Expanding the Set of Justificational Criteria”, in Fine, A. and Forbes, M., (eds.), A. Fine and M. Forbes, vol. 1. East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 485–499.Google Scholar
Ramsey, J. (1990b), Metastable States: The Justification of Approximative Procedures in Chemical Kinetics. Ph.D. Dissertation, Conceptual Foundations of Science, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Ramsey, J. (1992), “Towards an Expanded Epistemology for Approximations”, in Okruhlik, K., Fine, A. and Forbes, M., (eds.), K. Okruhlik, A. Fine and M. Forbes, vol. 1. East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 154–164.Google Scholar
Ramsey, J. (1993), “When Reduction Leads to Construction: Design Considerations in Scientific Methodology”, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 7: 239–251.10.1080/02698599308573468CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reich, L. (1985), The Making of American Industrial Research: Science and Business at GE and Bell, 1876–1926. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rohrlich, F. (1989), “The Logic of Reduction: The Case of Gravitation”, Foundations of Physics 19: 1151–1170.10.1007/BF00731877CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, A. (1988), Orbital Motion. Philadelphia: Adam Hilger.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. (1991), “Are Pictures Really Necessary? The Case of Sewall Wright's ‘Adaptive Landscapes’ ”, in Fine, A., Forbes, M. and Wessels, L., (eds.), A. Fine, M. Forbes and L. Wessels, vol. 2. East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 63–78.Google Scholar
Sarkar, S. (1992), “Models of Reduction and Categories of Reductionism”, Synthese 91: 167–194.10.1007/BF00413566CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapere, D. (1984), Reason and the Search for Knowledge: Investigations in the Philosophy of Science. Dordrecht: Reidel.Google Scholar
Sklar, L. (1967), “Types of Inter-Theoretic Reduction”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 18: 109–124.10.1093/bjps/18.2.109CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szebehely, V. (1967), Theory of Orbits: The Restricted Problem of Three Bodies. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Waters, C. K. (1990), “Why the Anti-reductionist Consensus Won't Survive the Case of Classical Mendelian Genetics”, in Fine, A., Forbes, M. and Wessels, L., (eds.), A. Fine, M. Forbes and L. Wessels, vol. 1. East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 125–139.Google Scholar
Wimsatt, W. (1976), “Reductive Explanation: A Functional Account”, in Cohen, R., Hooker, C. A., Michalos, A. C., and van Evra, J. W., (eds.), R. Cohen, C. A. Hooker, A. C. Michalos, and J. W. van Evra, vol. 32. Boston: Reidel, pp. 671–710.Google Scholar
Wimsatt, W. (1991), “Taming the Dimensions—Visualizations in Science”, in Fine, A., Forbes, M. and Wessels, L., (eds.), A. Fine, M. Forbes and L. Wessels, vol. 2. East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 111–135.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1958), Philosophical Investigations. 2d ed. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar