Seventeenth-Century Mechanism: An Alternative Framework for Reductionism

Philosophy of Science 80 (5):907-918 (2013)
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Abstract

The current antireductionist consensus rests in part on the indefensibility of the deductive-nomological model of explanation, on which classical reductionism depends. I argue that the DN model is inessential to the reductionist program and that mechanism provides a better framework for thinking about reductionism. This runs counter to the contemporary mechanists’ claim that mechanism is an alternative to reductionism. I demonstrate that mechanists are committed to reductionism, as evidenced by the historical roots of the contemporary mechanist program. This view shares certain core commitments with reductionism. It is these shared commitments that constitute the essential elements of the reductionist program

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Kari Theurer
Trinity College

Citations of this work

Redefining Physicalism.Guy Dove - 2018 - Topoi 37 (3):513-522.
“Looking Up” and “Looking Down”: On the Dual Character of Mechanistic Explanations.Kari L. Theurer - 2018 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 49 (3):371-392.

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