anti-reductionism
|an-ti-re-duc-tion-ism|
🇺🇸
/ˌæn.ti.rɪˈdʌkʃənɪzəm/
🇬🇧
/ˌæn.ti.rɪˈdʌkʃ(ə)nɪzəm/
against reducing complex wholes to parts
Etymology
'anti-reductionism' originates from Modern English, specifically the Greek prefix 'anti-' (from Ancient Greek 'anti', meaning 'against') combined with 'reductionism' (ultimately from Latin 'reducere' via English 'reduction'), where 'reducere' meant 'to lead back'.
'anti-reductionism' developed as a compound: the noun 'reduction' came from Latin 'reducere' and passed through Old French/Medieval English as 'reduction', later forming the noun 'reductionism' in English; the modern compound 'anti-reductionism' arose in usage in the 19th–20th century to denote opposition to 'reductionism'.
Initially the elements conveyed 'against the act of reducing (to simpler parts)', and over time the compound came to denote a specific philosophical position opposing reductionist explanations (especially in philosophy of mind, biology, and social sciences).
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a philosophical stance opposed to reductionism: the view that complex systems or phenomena cannot be fully or satisfactorily explained solely by reducing them to their constituent parts or lower-level elements (often applied in philosophy of mind, biology, and social theory).
Many philosophers of mind adopt anti-reductionism, arguing that mental properties are not fully explainable in terms of physical brain states.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/11/19 02:42