Re: reductionism
DON MIKULECKY (MIKULECKY%VCUVAX.BITNET@letterbox.rl.ac.uk)
Sun, 17 Sep 1995 13:13:44 -0400
Don Mikulecky,MCV/VCU,Mikulecky@gems.vcu.edu
Reply to Onar,
Our whole arguement is not that reductionism is wrong, but that it is special.
Yes, within a more general approach, such as general sytems theory, or the one
we are now creating collectively, reductionism has a very well defined and
circumscribed role. As we see it, that role is the study of mechanisms or
simple systems, the subject matter of physics up until recently. Biology is
crippled by a strict confinement to reductionism. Hence we see things which
are very natural in living systems (evolution, emergence, complexity, etc.)
as if they were special. The present revolution involves changing that
old, outmoded perspective. general Systems Theory is one branch of that
emerging new viewpoint.
Best wishes,
Don mikulecky