{"id":44603,"date":"2017-10-16T19:49:11","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T01:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=44603"},"modified":"2017-10-16T19:49:11","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T01:49:11","slug":"note-scientistic-reductionism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/10\/note-scientistic-reductionism.html","title":{"rendered":"A note on scientistic reductionism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/a>
An aerial view of the East Campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Charles River, facing Back Bay and central Boston. The Harvard Bridge is at the bottom right.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo by Nick Allen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Ian H. Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a\u00a0primary research interest in plasma physics. \u00a0In this passage from his book Monopolizing Knowledge<\/em>, he takes aim at \u201creductionism\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is the assertion, or more usually unspoken presumption, that when a satisfactory scientific explanation at a reduced level exists, such an explanation trumps, invalidates, or explains away understanding at higher levels: that the higher level descriptions lose their force or relevance. \u00a0This is certainly what, for example, Donald MacKay in his The clockwork image<\/em> (1974) is complaining about, and why he coined the disparaging but descriptive phrase \u201cnothing-buttery\u201d to refer to ontological reductionism. \u00a0\u201cNothing-buttery is characterized by the notion that by reducing any phenomenon to its components you not only explain it, but explain it away<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0It is definitely helpful to analyze animal bodies in terms of their cells, but it is unhelpful, and fundamentally untrue, to conclude that if one completes such an analysis, then animals are demonstrated to be nothing but<\/em> assemblies of cells. \u00a0The presumption that reduced level explanations explain away higher level descriptions generally operates inconsistently. \u00a0It must do so, because science is full of descriptions and explanations that are actually not reductionist in the senses identified by [Richard] Dawkins and [Michael] Ruse. \u00a0Nothing-buttery usually operates in such a way as to discriminate against the descriptions that don\u2019t conform to the ideals of science. \u00a0We shall examine later some examples of this process at work, but here we simply draw attention to the fact that it is a trait of scientism<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Ian Hutchinson,\u00a0Monopolizing Knowledge<\/em>\u00a0[Belmont, MA: Fias Publishing, 2011], 1-3)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Illustrative specimens\u00a0that come to mind might include, among almost infinitely many others,\u00a0any\u00a0painting by Leonardo da Vinci. \u00a0Nobody, I trust, would seriously propose that one had really thoroughly understood his \u201cfresco\u201d of The Last Supper<\/em>\u00a0by measuring it precisely, calculating the chemical composition of the various pigments, determining their depth on the wall, and so forth, while excluding Leonardo\u2019s purpose in creating it and in making it just as it is, the historical background of the painting (including the New Testament story that it represents), the intentions of those who commissioned it, its function in the room of Milan\u2019s\u00a0Convent of\u00a0Santa Maria delle Grazie where it appears, the function of that room itself, the economy of late-fifteenth-century Florence, and a host of other potentially fruitful approaches.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Da<\/a>
Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s late fifteenth-century mural of \u201cThe Last Supper\u201d
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If one could somehow construct an exhaustive and accurate account of the synaptic firings in Shakespeare\u2019s brain\u00a0(or the Earl of Oxford\u2019s, or whatever author you prefer) during the time that he was writing King Lear<\/em>, would doing so\u00a0actually help very much, if at all, in fully understanding or appreciating that very great play?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Dr. Ian H. Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a\u00a0primary research interest in plasma physics. \u00a0In this passage from his book Monopolizing Knowledge, he takes aim at \u201creductionism\u201d: \u00a0 It is the assertion, or more usually unspoken presumption, that when a satisfactory scientific explanation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA note on scientistic reductionism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Dr. Ian H. 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