Pragmatic Holism - Bruce Edmonds

Contents

Contents

Abstract

1 - Introduction

2 - The reductionist/holist debate

2.1 - Versions of reductionism

2.2 - Weaknesses in the reductionist position

2.3 - Weaknesses in the holist position

2.4 - Irrelevances to the debate

2.4.1 - Determinism

2.4.2 - Analogue vs. digital

2.4.3 - Ability to modify hardware

2.4.4 - Noise and randomness

2.4.5 - Particular formal languages (2-valued logic)

2.4.6 - Self-reference

2.4.7 - Simultaneity

3 - Practical limits to modelling

3.1 - Finiteness

3.2 - Limited computational resources

3.3 - Complexity

3.4 - Context

4 - The number - complexity analogy

5 - Formal modelling and reductionism

6 - Heuristics in the search for truth

7 - Conclusion - combining a plurality of techniques

Acknowledgements

References

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