"Guy Hoelzer"  wrote in message
news:c8098n$231j$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> Reductionism, as it is currently used IMHO, is a philosophy of science
based
> on the assumption that causation always and only flows from the bottom up.
> The reductionistic paradigm in science is devoted to drilling down in
scale
> to discover the causes of macroscopic phenomena.  A reductionist never
looks
> up for sources of causation, because they believe that things at larger
> scales than the one they study are merely consequences of what they are
> already studying.

I'm not so sure that the misguided masses are quite so deluded as you seem
to
think they are.  However, change "causation always and only flows from the
bottom up" to "explanation always and only flows from the bottom
up", and
you may be close to enunciating a sociological truth.

(Incidentally, your misinterpretation provides yet another another
illustration
of the importance of a methodological rule that I will call the "Peorian
guide
for the perplexed".  The rule is: Never allow the opponents of a doctrine to
define the doctrine - they will inevitably distort it.  John Wilkins, please
take
note.)

In this, and in other matters, I think that it is useful for anyone thinking
about
causation to ponder Aristotle's thoughts on the subject.  Efficient,
material,
formal, and final causation can usefully be distinguished, and people who
wish to restrict the direction of causal flow in their models would do well
to treat each type of causation separately.  For example, the "central
dogma"
of molecular biology restricts the flow of formal cause, but it says
nothing about the flow of efficient cause.  And in engineered systems,
which are almost always subject to reductionism, final cause usually flows
down.

> The reductionistic program is to continue drilling deeper
> and deeper until we find the bottom (no more smaller turtles).

Your cosmology is very different from mine.  In my cosmology, the turtles
down near the bottom are BIG suckers.
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info{at}bbsworld.com

---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 5/13/04 11:12:13 PM