display all the ideas for this combination of philosophers
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| 8685 | Studying biology presumes the laws of chemistry, and it could never contradict them [Friend] |
| Full Idea: In the hierarchy of reduction, when we investigate questions in biology, we have to assume the laws of chemistry but not of economics. We could never find a law of biology that contradicted something in physics or in chemistry. | |
| From: Michèle Friend (Introducing the Philosophy of Mathematics [2007], 3.1) | |
| A reaction: This spells out the idea that there is a direction of dependence between aspects of the world, though we should be cautious of talking about 'levels' (see Idea 7003). We cannot choose the direction in which reduction must go. |