Abbott, Russ (2009) The reductionist blind spot. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Can there be higher level laws of nature even though everything is reducible to the fundamental laws of physics? The computer science notion of level of abstraction explains how there can be. The key relationship between elements on different levels of abstraction is not the is-composed-of relationship but the im-plements relationship. I take a scientific realist position with respect to (material) levels of abstraction and their instantiation as (material) entities. They exist as ob-jective elements of nature. Reducing them away to lower order phenomena pro-duces a reductionist blind spot and is bad science.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Abbott, Russ
Keywords:	emergence, entities, level of abstraction, reductionism
Subjects:	General Issues > Laws of Nature Specific Sciences > Computer Science General Issues > Reductionism/Holism Specific Sciences > Complex Systems
Depositing User:	Prof. Russ Abbott
Date Deposited:	31 Mar 2009
Last Modified:	07 Oct 2010 15:17
Item ID:	4540
Subjects:	General Issues > Laws of Nature Specific Sciences > Computer Science General Issues > Reductionism/Holism Specific Sciences > Complex Systems
Date:	February 2009
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/4540

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• The reductionist blind spot. (deposited 23 May 2008)
  • The reductionist blind spot. (deposited 31 Mar 2009) [Currently Displayed]

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