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Pragmatic Holism

Edmonds, Bruce (1996) Pragmatic Holism. [Journal (Paginated)]

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Abstract

The reductionist/holist debate seems an impoverished one, with many participants appearing to adopt a position first and constructing rationalisations second. Here I propose an intermediate position of pragmatic holism, that irrespective of whether all natural systems are theoretically reducible, for many systems it is completely impractical to attempt such a reduction, also that regardless if whether irreducible `wholes' exist, it is vain to try and prove this in absolute terms. This position thus illuminates the debate along new pragmatic lines, and refocusses attention on the underlying heuristics of learning about the natural world.

Item Type:Journal (Paginated)
Keywords:pragmatism, holism, reductionism, representation, modelling, heuristics
Subjects:Philosophy > Philosophy of Science
ID Code:1774
Deposited By: Edmonds, Dr Bruce
Deposited On:30 Aug 2001
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:54

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