Reductionism

1. A thesis according to which all scientific concepts are reducible to a set of ultimately irreducible concepts, to be identified as physical properties of things (whether as common observations of physical states or as predicates of the most elementary physical units) thus placing physical theory at the foundation of science and explanation. Physics thus becomes the only discipline that is conceptually independent of other empirical sciences, and the dependence of others is taken as unidirectional. Other disciplines deal with the concepts which could be synthesized from those used by the prior disciplines, thus introducing a hierarchy of disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and social science.

2. Analysis of a phenomenon is then best accomplished by continually breaking it down or reducing it to lower levels. Through the elaboration of a single descriptive language in which all the terms of the science could be defined (or to which they could be reduced), it is assumed that once the lower levels are comprehended, resynthesis can occur and the higher levels will fall into place upon a solid foundation for the unity of science.

3. In the progressive analysis of the unitary universe into abstracted elements, the reductionist prefers to move from a focus on larger aggregates downwards, gaining precision of information about fragments as he descends, but losing information content about the larger orders he leaves behind, in that he is no longer able to supplement the sum of the statements that can be made about the separate parts by any such additional statements as will be needed to describe the collective behaviour of the parts, when in an organized group. (By contrast, the holist proceeds in the opposite direction, from below, trying to retrieve the lost information content by reconstruction, but is forced to recognize early in the ascent that information is not forthcoming unless he has already had it on record in the first place).