Reductionism, Emergence and Levels of Reality

by Sergio Chibbaro

Scientists have always attempted to explain the world in terms of a few unifying principles. In the fifth century B.C. Democritus boldly claimed that reality is simply a collection of indivisible and eternal parts or atoms. Over the centuries his doctrine has remained a landmark, and much progress in physics is due to its distinction between subjective perception and objective reality. This book discusses theory reduction in physics, which states that the whole is nothing more than the sum of its the properties of things are directly determined by their constituent parts. Reductionism deals with the relation between different theories that address different levels of reality, and uses extrapolations to apply that relation in different sciences. Reality shows a complex structure of connections, and the dream of a unified interpretation of all phenomena in several simple laws continues to attract anyone with genuine philosophical and scientific interests. If the most radical reductionist point of view is correct, the relationship between disciplines is strictly chemistry becomes physics, biology becomes chemistry, and so on. Eventually, only one science, indeed just a single theory, would survive, with all others merging in the Theory of Everything. Is the current coexistence of different sciences a mere historical venture which will end when the Theory of Everything has been established? Can there be a unified description of nature?Rather than an analysis of full reductionism, this book focuses on aspects of theory reduction in physics and stimulates reflection on related is there any evidence of actual reduction? Are the examples used in the philosophy of science too simplistic? What has been endangered by the search for (the) ultimate truth? Has the dream of reductionist reason created any monsters? Is big science one such monster? What is the point of embedding science Y within science X, if predictions cannot be made on that basis?

Genres: Philosophy, Physics

Hardcover

First published May 13, 2014

Reviews

[Stefan Gugler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not super appreciate the Galilean dialogue in the beginning. I understand that they were about to throw some questions up but it felt quite disorganized. After that, it was a really good and interesting read talking about Monism and the Unity of Science (where I think their explanation of Emergence by Kim was not really good but secondary-secondary literature helped) followed by 4 applied chapters and rounded off with concluding remarks. In the applied chapters, I liked the last one of the classical/quantum limits most, especially because the Born-Oppenheimer approximation took such a central stage together with the EPR paradox. Warms my heart every time. The chapter on chaos was a bit hard without prior knowledge on it. Stat mech, chapter 3, was too much of stuff I've already heard.

I'm glad they finished with some perspective on data, i.e. Jaynes. I think they are too rough with the MaxEnt principle but there was not enough space, I guess. Similar for Solomonoff induction but maybe that's for another book.

What I really liked was that on one hand they were physicists talking in a language I understand but importantly, on the other hand, they weren't conceited or dismissive of philosophy but rather humbly pointing out their epistemic weaknesses when talking about stuff outside their expertise.

All in all a nice book on the issues with reductionism in the hard sciences, albeit a bit meager in explaining emergence.