Reduction (philosophy)

Reduction (philosophy)

In philosophy, reduction is the process by which one object, property, concept, theory, etc., is shown to be explicable in terms of another, lower level, entity. For example, we say that physical properties such as the boiling point of a substance are reducible to that substance’s molecular properties, because statistical mechanics explain why a liquid boils at a certain temperature using only the properties of its constituent atoms. Thus we might also describe reduction as a process analogous to absorption, by which one theory (or concept, or property, and so on) is wholly subsumed under another.

In science, such reduction is generally desirable, because it explains why and how the thing which is being reduced exists, and because it promotes conceptual and theoretical economy. Reducing chemical properties to properties of atoms thus explains these properties and integrates them into a single explanatory framework, that of atomic structure.

Reductionism may therefore be divided into three general areas – methodological, theoretical, and ontological – and reduction (the process) into two – theoretical and ontological.