Re: super-systems, super-systems & co
DON MIKULECKY (MIKULECKY@VCUVAX.BITNET)
Mon, 30 Sep 1996 08:44:49 -0400
Don Mikulecky replies to Paulo Garrido:
I think you bring up an excellent point. The use of metaphors (these are NOT
really analogical models....if they were, the mapping would work in both
directions, and we could do medicine by studying sociology,etc.) of the
sort you mention is an excellent example of Peacocke's Epistemological
Reductionism [A. Peacocke, "The case for reductionism in the sciences" in
Reductionism in Academic Disciplines. SRHE & NFER-Nelson, Guilford, Surrey
1985. I quote Peacocke:
"...Epistemological reductionism can be described as the view that, if the
theories and experimental laws formulated in one field of science, (eg,
biology, sociology, psychology) can be shown to be special cases of theories and
laws formulated in some other branch of science (eg physical chemistry or
biology, or the neuro sciences) then the formerscience, the former set of
theories and experimental laws, is said to be reduced to the latter.
...."
He then shows the falacy inherent in such reductions. It is a familiar one to
any student of Robert Rosen. The problem with such reductions is that they are
really intended to focus on the SYNTAX of the the laws involved, but inevitab
ly
also invoke some or all of the SEMANTICS. Ay this point the process becomes
somewhat absurd.
Best regards,
Don Mikulecky, http://views.vcu.edu/complex