Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:24:14.213Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reductionism and the Unification Theory of Explanation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Todd Jones*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy University of Nevada at Las Vegas

Abstract

P. Kitcher's unification theory of explanation appears to endorse a reductionistic view of scientific explanation that is inconsistant with scientific practice. In this paper, I argue that this appearance is illusory. The existence of multiply realizable generalizations enable the unification theory to also count many high-level accounts as explanatory.

Type
Research Article
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

I would like to thank Philip Kitcher, Maurice Finocchiaro, and an anonymous referee for many helpful comments they made on earlier drafts of this paper.

Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154-5028, USA.

References

Berlekamp, E.; Conway, J.; and Guy, R. (1982), Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays, vol. 2. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bromberger, S. (1963), “A Theory about the Theory of Theory and about the Theory of Theories”, in Reese, W., (ed.), W. Reese, New York: Wiley, pp. 79105.Google Scholar
Fodor, J. (1974), “Special Sciences (Or: The Disunity of Science as a Working Hypothesis)”, Synthese 28: 97115.10.1007/BF00485230CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, M. (1974), “Explanation and Scientific Understanding”, Journal of Philosophy 71: 519.10.2307/2024924CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, J. (1992), “Multiple Realization and the Metaphysics of Reduction”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 52: 126.10.2307/2107741CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1976), “Explanation, Conjunction and Unification”, The Journal of Philosophy 73: 207212.10.2307/2025559CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1981), “Explanatory Unification”, Philosophy of Science 48: 507531.10.1086/289019CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1984), “1953 and All That. A Tale of Two Sciences”, Journal of Philosophy 93: 335373.Google ScholarPubMed
Kitcher, P. (1989), “Explanatory Unification and the Causal Structure of the World”, in Salmon, W. and Kitcher, P., (eds), Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 13, Scientific Explanation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 410505.Google Scholar
Poundstone, W. (1985), The Recursive Universe: Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge. 1st ed. New York: William Morrow & Co.Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1973), “Reductionism and the Nature of Psychology”, Cognition 2: 131146.10.1016/0010-0277(72)90033-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, W. (1990), Four Decades of Scientific Explanation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar