Reduction intertheoretic

And there is the philosophical problem. If such intertheoretic connections are important because, in company with experimental data, they test and confirm the reducing theory, then the inferential steps in such a reduction are critical to the role. In other words, we had better know why our approximations work it is not adequate to employ any old maneuver that produces agreement with observable data when such agreement serves as the benchmark by which to assess the approximate truth of the reducing theory, in this case, quantum mechanics. Much the same is true if we seek to codify connections to ensure logical consistency between our theories. 

A related but distinct notion of reduction is as a dateable achievement of intertheoretic explanation. For this usage, see for instance Scerri 1994. 

When intertheoretic relationships are studied in flesh-and-blood science, one can see the different kinds of resources needed to establish the links. In fact, the relations between theories are usually much more subtle and varied than what the traditional perspective supposes they involve limits, coarse-graining, approximations and other mathematical techniques far more complex than the simple logical links involved in reduction. Moreover, they are not mere tools to which we turn in response to our perceptual or technological limitations. 

Summing up, the fears of authors such as Needham and Hettema are unfounded the rejection of reduction does not undermine the unification of science. Far from leading to a disintegrated science, our Kantian-rooted pluralism incorporates a wide and meaningful articulation between scientific theories and disciplines. By recognizing the variety of intertheoretic relationships possible in science, this non-reductive unification transcends the conventional boundaries that separate rather than bring closer — the different disciplines of science. 

Nickles, Thomas. 1973. Two concepts of intertheoretic reduction. The Journal of Philosophy 70 181-201. 

Friedman. Kenneth. 1982. Is intertheoretic reduction feasible The British Journal for the Philosophy (rfScience 33 17- 10. 

Van Gulick, Robert N. 1992. Nonreductive materialism and the nature of intertheoretical constraint. In Emergence or reduction essays on the prospects of non-reductive physicalism, ed. Ansgar Beckermann, Hans Flohr, and Jaegwon Kim, 157-179. Berhn de Gruyter. 

In Chapter 5.1, Reduction, Emergence and Physicalism Robin Hendry sets out the general framework within which the issue of reduction is addressed by philosophers, distinguishing between the issues of intertheoretic and ontological reduction as they apply to chemistry. The former issue has classically been the central topic of debate in the philosophy of science. Yet even if chemical theories are irreducible to physical theories, there remains the question of ontological reduction is the subject matter of chemistry in some sense just that of physics ... 

How should we understand the intertheoretic relations between chemistry and physics, especially quantum mechanics How might this understanding impact on general accounts of theory reduction How might it impact on the viability of physicalism in the philosophy of mind ... 

The classical models of intertheoretic reduction are now widely rejected by philosophers, but in Section 2 I will consider how well they fit the relationship between physics and chemistry if only because they are so well understood. The central point is that the failure of the explanatory relationship between physical and chemical theories to fit some model of intertheoretic reduction does not settle the question of whether chemistry is reducible in principle. There are many... 

Three featmes of these classical accoimts of reduction are worth emphasising. Firstly, intertheoretic reduction is a kind of subsmnption, in which a more generally applicable theory replaces one of more restricted application. Secondly, intertheoretic relationships may show how to correct the laws of the reduced theory, as when the atomic theory showed how to correct the ideal gas laws to reflect the molecular structure of gases, via the van der Waals equation of state. Thus the laws of the reduced theory may be recovered only approximately. Thirdly, because reduction is an intertheoretic relation, the reduction of one disciphne (or domain ) by another is a scientific achievement seemed at some specific time, when theories with the requisite explanatory resources become available. 

So quantum chemistry does not seem to offer explanations that look hke classical intertheoretic reductions. It is not just that the calculations are too complex Woolley s arguments suggest that they cannot succeed. But clearly, physics has done some explanatory work in chemistry. Is this not evidence for ontological... 

I suspect that the status of chemistry as the middle science makes it especially fertile ground for the development of hybrid representation schemes that function explicitly as inferential tools. Consider, for example, chemical equations, Lewis structures, the periodic table, and reaction mechanism diagrams. In each case there is a rich story of novel representation in the face of complexity. We would do well to consider in a more systematic manner how such representation schemes can be robust inferential tools, how issues of representation are related to explanatory power, and how recognition of amalgamated concepts might influence our accounts of reduction and intertheoretic relations more generally. 

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