"There have been a number of attempts to show that reductionism cannot work. They usually take the form of a rather formal definition, followed by an argument that reductionism of this type cannot be true. What is ignored is that reductionism is not the rigid process of explaining one fixed set of ideas in terms of another fixed set of ideas at a lower level, but a dynamic interactive process that modifies the concept at both levels as knowledge developments. After all, "reductionism" is the main theoretical method that has driven the development of physics, chemistry, and . It is largely responsible for the spectacular developments of modern science. It is the only sensible way to proceed until and unless we are confronted with strong experimental evidence that demands we modify our attitude. General philosophical arguments against reductionism will not do."
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Francis Crick,
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Reductionism
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Reductionism
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