the way physics really works, as far as we can tell, is that there is only the most basic level—the elementary particle fields and fundamental forces. You can’t handle the raw truth, but reality can handle it without the slightest simplification. (I wish I knew where Reality got its computing power.) The laws of physics do not contain distinct additional causal entities that correspond to lift or airplane wings, the way that the mind of an engineer contains distinct additional cognitive entities that correspond to lift or airplane wings. This, as I see it, is the thesis of reductionism.
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Emergentism or thoughts of layers are due to scientific realism. With empirical constructivism, you can understand the "levels" of theory with their own approximations that we find convenient. It's in us.
