Pragmatic holism (or pragmatic reductionism)
Foundations of Science 4 (1):57-82 (1999)
| Abstract | The reductionist/holist debate is highly polarised. I propose an intermediate position of pragmatic holism. It derives from two claims: firstly, that irrespective of whether all natural systems are theoretically reducible, for many systems it is utterly impractical to attempt such a reduction, and secondly, that regardless of whether irreducible 'wholes exist, it is vain to try and prove this. This position illuminates the debate along new pragmatic lines by refocussing attention on the underlying heuristics of learning about the natural world. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,701 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. Try with proxy. Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesKent Bach (2008). Applying Pragmatics to Epistemology. Philosophical Issues 18 (1):68-88.
Jacob Ross & Mark Schroeder (forthcoming). Belief, Credence, and Pragmatic Encroachment1. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
Hagit Benbaji (2009). On the Pragmatic Explanation of Concessive Knowledge Attributions. Southern Journal of Philosophy 47 (3):225-237.
Julie Zahle (2003). The Individualism-Holism Debate on Intertheoretic Reduction and the Argument From Multiple Realization. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 33 (1):77-99.
Newton C. A. Da Costa, Otávio Bueno & Steven French (1998). The Logic of Pragmatic Truth. Journal of Philosophical Logic 27 (6):603-620.
Peter Achinstein (1984). The Pragmatic Character of Explanation. PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1984:275 - 292.
Simon Woods (1998). A Theory of Holism for Nursing. Medicine, Healthcare and Philosophy 1 (3):255-261.
Bruce Edmonds (1996). Pragmatic Holism. Foundations of Science 4 (1):57-82.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads21 ( #58,767 of 549,093 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,361 of 549,093 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
