Associations to the word «Reductionism»

Wiktionary

REDUCTIONISM, noun. An approach to studying complex systems or ideas by reducing them to a set of simpler components.
REDUCTIONISM, noun. (philosophy) A philosophical position which holds that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be reduced to accounts of individual constituents. In a reductionist framework, the phenomena that can be explained completely in terms of relations between other more fundamental phenomena, are called "epiphenomena".

Dictionary definition

REDUCTIONISM, noun. A theory that all complex systems can be completely understood in terms of their components.
REDUCTIONISM, noun. The analysis of complex things into simpler constituents.

Wise words

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.
Noam Chomsky