more from Georges Rey

Single Idea 3140

[catalogued under 17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 3. Eliminativism]

Full Idea

Reduction is not the same as elimination; if chemists reduce water to H2O, or biologists reduce life to a complex chemical process, they have not shown that they don't exist.

Gist of Idea

If you explain water as H2O, you have reduced water, but not eliminated it

Source

Georges Rey (Contemporary Philosophy of Mind [1997], 1.2.1)

Book Reference

Rey,Georges: 'Contemporary Philosophy of Mind' [Blackwell 1997], p.22


A Reaction

Depends what you mean by 'elimination'. It is important to be clear whether you are eliminating something from life, or from strict philosophical ontology. Ontologists never mention mountains.