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Single Idea 15056

[filed under theme 7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 2. Reduction ]

Full Idea

The notion of ground should be distinguished from the strict notion of reduction. A statement of reduction implies the unreality of what is reduced, but a statement of ground does not.

Gist of Idea

The notion of reduction (unlike that of 'ground') implies the unreality of what is reduced

Source

Kit Fine (The Question of Realism [2001], 5)

Book Ref

-: 'Philosophers' Imprint' [-], p.15


A Reaction

That seems like a bit of a caricature of reduction. If you see a grey cloud and it reduces to a swarm of mosquitoes, you do not say that the cloud was 'unreal'. Fine is setting up a stall for 'ground' in the metaphysical market. We all seek structure.


The 25 ideas with the same theme [explaining higher levels of existence by lower ones]:

Reduction has been defined as deriving one theory from another by logic and maths [Nagel,E, by Kim]
Reduction requires that an object's properties consist of its constituents' properties and relations [Sellars]
Reduction is either by elimination, or by explanation [Searle]
Eliminative reduction needs a gap between appearance and reality, as in sunsets [Searle]
Reduction can be of things, properties, ideas or causes [Searle]
Smooth reductions preserve high-level laws in the lower level [Jackson]
Reductionism is good on light, genes, temperature and transparency [Kim, by PG]
The whole truth supervenes on the physical truth [Lewis]
Supervenience is reduction without existence denials, ontological priorities, or translatability [Lewis]
Reduction can be by identity, or constitution, or elimination [Parfit, by PG]
A weaker kind of reductionism than direct translation is the use of 'bridge laws' [Kirk,R]
Institutions are not reducible as types, but they are as tokens [Lycan]
Types cannot be reduced, but levels of reduction are varied groupings of the same tokens [Lycan]
An understanding of the most basic physics should explain all of the subject's mysteries [Krauss]
The reductionist programme dispenses with levels of reality [Heil]
Reduction might be producing a sentence which gets closer to the logical form [Fine,K]
Reduction might be semantic, where a reduced sentence is understood through its reduction [Fine,K]
Reduction is modal, if the reductions necessarily entail the truth of the target sentence [Fine,K]
The notion of reduction (unlike that of 'ground') implies the unreality of what is reduced [Fine,K]
Our categories lack the neat arrangement needed for reduction [Heil]
Good reductionism connects fields of knowledge, but doesn't replace one with another [Pinker]
Three types of reduction: Theoretical (of terms), Definitional (of concepts), Ontological (of reality) [Schaffer,J]
Reduce by bridge laws (plus property identities?), by elimination, or by reducing talk [Macdonald,C]
Multiple realisability is said to make reduction impossible [Okasha]
That Peano arithmetic is interpretable in ZF set theory is taken by philosophers as a reduction [Halbach]