Reduction and Elimination in Philosophy and the Sciences

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identity theory, or as a predecessor theory coming very close to psychophysical identification. However, if we view these theories from the perspective of explanation, seeing them as attempts to explain psychophysical identity, we also see that they explain physicalism away. What they Problems with Psychophysical Identities — Peter Kügler assume is a distinction between mental and physical parts, properties or aspects, or between the mental and the physical on the one side and a neutral third on the other. None of this is physicalism. 189
Reducing Complexity in the Social Sciences Meinard Kuhlmann, Bremen, Germany 1. Explanation, Reduction, and Mechanisms in the Social Sciences Reductions are attractive since they enhance the unity of our knowledge and allow for a sparser ontology or conceptual scheme. Reduction is intimately connected with explanation since reductive relations between different theories, i.e. ‘intertheory relations’, figure prominently in at least two of the main accounts of explanation. According to the covering law model, explanations of phenomena or special laws are viewed as derivations from (more) general laws, or conversely, in their reduction to more general laws. In the unificationist account, the core of explanations is considered to be their unifying power. Concerning the explanation of special laws, for instance, explanation consists in the overall reduction of independent laws, says the unificationist. Eventually, certain causal theories of explanations can also be rated as reductive in the sense that a diversity of phenomena is subsumed under universal generating mechanisms. In the social sciences (i.e. including economics) methodological individualism, first introduced by Max Weber, makes a clear and still today very influential claim about how explanations ought to proceed, namely in terms of micro reductions to (individual) human actions (see Udehn 2001 for a comprehensive account). For this reason it is often said that methodological individualism expresses a particular version of reductionism, applicable in the social sciences. Methodological individualism is a bottom-up approach since the starting point is always the bottom level of individual constituents. The main thrust of methodological individualism that matters for my concerns is the emphasis that social phenomena cannot be sufficiently understood by analysing statistical correlations between macro quantities, e. g. macroeconomic variables, but that it is necessary to refer to the micro level of actors. However, as I will show below, very often not all micro details are relevant, and moreover, the attention must not be restricted to individuals in isolation. Friedrich August von Hayek, explicitly endorsing Weber’s doctrine of methodological individualism, underlined that an understanding of economic phenomena presupposes explanations in terms of rational actions by economic agents. Hayek’s ideas must not be misunderstood as a form of rationalism since he even emphasizes the limits of rationalism in the sense of social planning and control, arguing that economic phenomena often emerge as unintended consequences of the economic agent’s actions, whose perspectives are always very limited (cf. Heath 2005). For this reason, systematic economic analyses should always start by considering the perspective of the economic agents, i. e. by following the doctrine of methodological individualism. In the 1980s, the advent of rational choice theory and in particular of game theory triggered new debates about methodological individualism, arguing again that “there do not exist collective desires or collective beliefs” (Elster 1986: 3). These ideas shed some light on modern agent-based models of financial markets, studied among others by physicists. In both cases it is assumed that the constituents of the system have no access to information on the level of the whole system. Nevertheless, the net effect of all the individual contributions can be large-scale 190 structures that seem unexpected given the uncoordinated behaviour of the constituents. Explanations in terms of social mechanisms, advocated among others by Elster, can be seen as a way to overcome the divide between methodological individualism and holism, its classical opponent, since they enable explanations in the middle between microsociological and macro-sociological research, which is often desirable for explanatory purposes. They “provide more fine-grained accounts of social processes than do macro structural theories, but they do not require a commitment to the strictures of methodological individualism” (Pickel 2004: 177). In particular, modeling with artificial societies combines methodological individualism on the one side and the search for mechanistic explanations on the other side. The corresponding formal manifestation is a “shift from equation-based modeling to agent-based modeling” (Sawyer 2004: 263). In the following I want to reflect upon one particular strand of agent-based modeling. In the last decade economists and physicists investigated various so-called microscopic models of financial markets, for instance the Kim-Markowitz, the Levy-Levy-Solomon, the Cont- Bouchaud, the Solomon-Weisbuch, the Lux-Marchesi, the Donangelo-Sneppen and the Solomon-Levy-Huang model (see Samanidou et al. 2007 for a review). In the stochastic multi-agent model of Lux and Marchesi (1999), for instance, there are two types of traders, ‘fundamentalists’ and ‘noise traders’ (or ‘chartists’). Fundamentalists are rational traders in the sense that their action is based on the comparison of the fundamental value of the traded asset (e.g. stocks, bonds or currencies) and the actual market price. Fundamentalists buy if the asset is undervalued, and they sell if it is overvalued. In the case of noise traders the behaviour only depends on the current price trend and the opinion of other traders. In the following I will use this approach as an exemplary agentbased model. 2. False Models as a Path towards Real Mechanisms In non-law-based accounts of explanation, such as Woodward's (2003) causal approach, models often play a crucial role in discovering causal relations (also see Glennan 2002). I want to claim that in agent-based explanations, the identification and understanding of causal mechanisms is in fact the main function of modelling. Mechanisms are not simply very detailed descriptions of what is happening, but their identification is crucial for causal explanations of why things behave the way we observe them. The specification of mechanisms is explanatory because it abstracts from as many details as possible with respect to the explanatory target. Thus simplicity is a crucial characteristic of mechanisms and the best way to identify mechanisms in complex systems is by constructing simple idealized models. It is not essential that the mechanism is completely realistic. Gibbard and Varian 1978 point out that even ‘caricature models’ can help to understand certain aspects
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31 Alexander Hieke Hannes Leitgeb H
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Reduktion und Elimination in Philos
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Distributors Die Österreichische L
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6 Inhalt / Contents Wittgenstein me
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8 Inhalt / Contents The Evolution o
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Formal Mechanisms for Reduction in
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4. Property language and theoretica
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imperatives, or commands in the for
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Referential Practice and the Lure o
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The Augustinian account confuses mo
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hurried to fix it on the page. The
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The Essence (?) of Color, According
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Literature Austin, James 1980 “Wi
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Wittgenstein’s Externalism - Gett
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Informal Reduction E.P. Brandon, Ca
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An Anti-Reductionist Argument Based
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An Anti-Reductionist Argument Based
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Did I Do It? -Yeah, You Did! Wittge
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Literature Did I Do It? -Yeah, You
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tween the two approaches. The task
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On Two Recent Defenses of The Simpl
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On Two Recent Defenses of The Simpl
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Queen Victoria’s Dying Thoughts T
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Diagonalization. The Liar Paradox,
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Proof: Given a function ƒ from con
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that I am sure that it is true that
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experiencing something as a red pen
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There can be Causal without Ontolog
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There can be Causal without Ontolog
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objects. But they also leave unansw
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The Knower Paradox and the Quantifi
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The Knower Paradox and the Quantifi
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lent. It also implies that an inven
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The Scapegoat Theory of Causality M
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We may have evolved a specialized c
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easoning have their source in the l
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Wittgenstein on Frazer and Explanat
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genstein 1993, p. 143). In order to
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an adequate syntactic analysis of o
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Wittgenstein meets ÖGS: Wovon man
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Wittgenstein meets ÖGS: Wovon man
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3. Der Elementarsatz wird als Relat
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Literatur Glock, Hans Johann 2006
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Explaining the Brain: Ruthless Redu
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Occam’s Razor in the Theory of Th
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Literature Campbell, Donald T. 1987
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Die Nichtreduzierbarkeit der klassi
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Literatur Die Nichtreduzierbarkeit
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Let T I be the minimal theory of tr
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Does Bradley’s Regress Support No
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(3) Mutatis mutandis, realism has t
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Zeitliche Ontologie und zeitliche R
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Betrachtung ontologischer Fragen, M
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The decisive consequences of this a
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Benacerraf and Bad Company (An Atta
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offer a solution to the bad company
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Literature Benacerraf, Paul 1965
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"PA" by using "PA* ", at least at t
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Hard Naturalism and its Puzzles Ren
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The Mind-Body-Problem and Score-Kee
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mental properties, for instance, or
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kommt es zu einem gravierenden Miss
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Reduction Revisited: The Ontologica
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4. Conclusion Reduction Revisited:
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All in all, we have seen that reduc
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Physicalism Without the A Priori Pa
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Literature Cartwright, Nancy 1999:
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Wittgensteins Projektionsmethode al
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Schlussbemerkungen Wittgensteins Pr
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Page 142 and 143: Relating Theories. Models and Struc
Page 144 and 145: Literature Relating Theories. Model
Page 146 and 147: e invoked in response to the questi
Page 148 and 149: Do Brains Think? Christopher Humphr
Page 150 and 151: 4. Conclusion So do brains think or
Page 152 and 153: How Metaphors Alter the World-Pictu
Page 154 and 155: The Modal Supervenience of the Conc
Page 156 and 157: Literature van der Auwera, Johan an
Page 158 and 159: 3. The Determination of Form by Syn
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Page 164 and 165: Assessing Humean Supervenience Amir
Page 166 and 167: determination thesis; it fails as a
Page 168 and 169: Aus der obigen Definition folgt, da
Page 170 and 171: Ding-Ontology of Aristotle vs. Sach
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Page 174 and 175: How do Moral Principles Figure in M
Page 176 and 177: “Downward Causation”: Emergent,
Page 178 and 179: “Downward Causation”: Emergent,
Page 180 and 181: A with distinguished subset Z of te
Page 182 and 183: A Metaphysically Moderate Version o
Page 184 and 185: Literature Balashov, Yuri 2002 ''Wh
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Page 188 and 189: Problems with Psychophysical Identi
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Page 194 and 195: Four Anti-reductionist Dogmas in th
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Page 198 and 199: notion of time and requires that so
Page 200 and 201: Some Remarks on Wittgenstein and Ty
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Page 204 and 205: concrete particulars can be subject
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Page 212 and 213: „Vom Weißdorn und vom Propheten
Page 214 and 215: „Die Einheit hören“ - Einige
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Page 218 and 219: S4) the necessity of arithmetic is
Page 220 and 221: Getting out from Inside: Why the Cl
Page 222 and 223: Dispensing with Particulars: Unders
Page 224 and 225: Literature Dispensing with Particul
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Page 228 and 229: Defining Ontological Naturalism Mar
Page 230 and 231: Literature Jackson, Frank 1986. “
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Page 236 and 237: Properties and Reduction between Me
Page 238 and 239: Does this mean that metaphysics sho
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do not pick out pain in a system by
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The Writing of Nietzsche and Wittge
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his teachings. He coincides with hi
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sense of a proposition without firs
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Naturalistic Ethics: A Logical Posi
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Literature Kant, Immanuel 2006 Crit
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What we now require is a bridge the
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Species, Variability, and Integrati
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could mention the many sorts of iso
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to work this way. Classic examples
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The Key Problems of KC Matteo Pleba
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have embraced the myth of prose: it
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5. Prior’s Problem As Patrick Bla
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Reductionism in Axiology: the Case
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developing of cancer tissue in huma
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(2) One-way Nagelian bridge princip
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Rethinking the Modal Argument again
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Rethinking the Modal Argument again
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that we are to find the features we
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Atypical Rational Agency Paul Raymo
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Literature Anscombe, G. E. M. 1957
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situation bieten sich keine Kriteri
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Two Reductions of ‘rule’ Dana R
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one that could take place, but does
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physics is not able to make, since
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Wittgenstein’s Attitudes Fabien S
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view of logic, in accordance with h
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Warum man auf transzendentalphiloso
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Making the Mind Higher-Level Elizab
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Literature Churchland, P. M. (1995)
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Zwischen Humes Gesetz und „Sollen
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Mental Causation: A Lesson from Act
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Again, this is mistaken. Non-reduct
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auf alle Arten von kontingenten Pro
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Reduction, Sets, and Properties Ben
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Literature Egan, Andy (2004): ‘Se
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there is a tension between evaluati
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The Elimination of Meaning in Compu
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sufficient to explain all of the em
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that 'A' and 'A' could never be tok
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the necktie sense) can differ in wh
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Supervenience and ‘Should’ Arto
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word 'norm' can be thought to expre
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Rule-following as Coordination: A G
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vast majority are bent: gruesome, g
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human life, the violent condition o
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A Division in Mind. The Misconceive
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A Division in Mind. The Misconceive
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could then deduce (1c) and conclude
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Neutral Monism. A Miraculous, Incoh
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Neutral Monism. A Miraculous, Incoh
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A somewhat Eliminativist Proposal a
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Impliziert der intentionale Redukti
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Impliziert der intentionale Redukti
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Structure of the Paradoxes, Structu
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Structure of the Paradoxes, Structu
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that he was working on a translatio
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Objects of Perception, Objects of S
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Objects of Perception, Objects of S
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Let us take the example of the hypo
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Reducing Sets to Modalities Rafał
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variables ai that (under an interpr
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Are Lamarckian Explanations Fully R
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A Note on Tractatus 5.521 Nuno Vent
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And he goes on saying, referring to
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The Place of Theory Reduction in th
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Ethik als irreduzibles Supervenienz
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unabhängig von denen ihrer Mitglie
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Das ‘schwierige Problem’ des Be
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The Supervenience Argument, Levels,
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The Supervenience Argument, Levels,
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their relations both to the physica
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On the Characterization of Objects
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On the Characterization of Objects
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The Functional Unity of Special Sci
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size, location, temporal characteri
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Transcendental Philosophy and Mind-
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From Topology to Logic. The Neural
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From Topology to Logic. The Neural
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The Calculus of Inductive Construct
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The Four-Color Theorem, Testimony a
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experience. Of course, a detailed a
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Clearly x = y → x = ext y holds,
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Intentional Fundamentalism Petri Yl
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The second dimension to be consider
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The very existence of the special s
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Heil, J. (1999), “Multiple Realiz
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independent of what is the fact, fa
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415
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Publications of the Austrian Ludwig
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