Talk:Greedy reductionism

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Great! I am going to link a few articles to this. Thanks. Paul Beardsell 12:24, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 second paragraph 2 More changes 3 Greedy reductionism versus "explaining away" 4 Bulverism 5 Use of this term 6 Added a third section

[edit] second paragraph

The second paragraph about Daniel Dennetts argument on how the brain works is a bit unclear and has a kind of indignant flavor to it. I don't understand if the article is explaining the concept or speaking for or against Dennett. but it's a minor problem, the article is good otherwise.

I agree that I tend to write sentences that are "a bit unclear". It would be good if someone could replace what I wrote with a better version. If two seemingly different phenomena are found to be related in such a way that one phenomenon can be reduced to another, it is natural for people to feel disorientation and maybe even indignation. Dennett is among those who have the intuition that it is possible to produce consciousness from a collection of coordinated unconcious processes. I share Dennett's intuition, but I think it is fair to ask if Dennett is slipping into greedy reductionism. The only way to know is to construct a detailed account of how consciousness is generated. --JWSchmidt 13:08, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] More changes

I've made two passes at this and, while I think they keep most of the good stuff in the original and put it together in a cleaner, more comprehensive package, I know that this article could be better. If you have any ideas, please jump in. Feel free to discuss them here if you're not yet ready to implement them or want feedback.

[edit] Greedy reductionism versus "explaining away"

I want to note that greedy reductionism is not just another form of explaining away, nor is it the same as choosing the wrong (too low) level of explanation to yeild explanatory work. Greedy reductionism as Dennett uses it refers more specifically to trying to impose simple, inadequate explanations on complex phenomena while dismissing problematic details in a tendentious way. While I don't believe there's anything incorrect about the article, I think readers may miss that nuance.

Dennett's discussion uses his metaphors of cranes and skyhooks; probably that's too long to cover here. However, his distinction between good reductionism and greedy reductionism was the same as that between attempting to build theories only with cranes (atop cranes, atop cranes...) ultimately grounded on the earth and using no magical skyhooks, and attempting to build theories without even cranes.

[edit] Bulverism

good addition to the article, but is there any suggestion anywhere about the origin of the word? was it named after someone named Bulver? Adambrowne666 08:05, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

http://www.davidbergan.com/Summa/Bulverism David Bergan 19:26, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Use of this term

Are there any sources suggesting that this term is in widespread use beyond Dennet's work? All the sources listed, and all the ones I can find in the scholarly literature are either from Dennet himself, or are referencing the fact that Dennet uses the term...I see no evidence that this term is used in a broader sphere. Cazort (talk) 22:02, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Added a third section

I added a third section, feeling that Dennett's "greedy reductionism" sounded so much like the classic "fallacy of division" that it should be noted in the article somewhere. I decided that it warranted its own section, however, I would understand if it were moved to the related links section (or whatever it was called). I do believe that most every academic wishing to express the notion of "greedy reductionism" refers to the fallacy of division instead. This seems to be some kind of catchphrase Dennett invented and keeps around for personal use. Furthermore, I do not intend to revisit and revise this page, so feel free to edit away.

Djdoobwah (talk) 07:31, 20 February 2008 (UTC)