Problems for Reductionism

"Since the middle ages there has been a drive among thinkers to posit a theoretical unity of knowledge. This has traditionally been conceived as the result of the discovery of a universal science, one from which all of the special sciences can be derived. In modern times this universal science is taken to be physics. This kind of reduction is a very tempting prospect; it accords very well with a deductive nomological account of explanation and, if successful, offers to explain every significant fact about the world encountered in every special science. There are difficulties with this view, however."

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