Reductionism reading list
post by lukeprog · 2011-06-24T23:53:35.938Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 9 comments
- Yudkowsky, Reductionism sequence (2008)
- Ladyman et al., Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized (2007)
- Bickle, Philosophy and Neuroscience: A Ruthlessly Reductive Account (2003)
- Bickle, 'Real Reduction in Real Neuroscience' (2008)
- Glimcher, Foundations of Neuroeconomic Analysis (2010)
- Ney, 'Reductionism' [for Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy] (2008)
- Hohwy & Kallestrup (eds.), Being Reduced (2008)
- Drescher, Good and Real (2006)
I can't endorse everything in all these works, but they each provide insights into understanding reduction.
What else do ya'll recommend?
9 comments
Comments sorted by top scores.
comment by [deleted] · 2011-06-25T04:37:16.408Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Do any of the items on the reading list besides Yudkowsky's sequence deal with dissolving the question to cognitive algorithms? I don't know if this idea has been spotted in academia or if it's just a LessWrong/AI-researcher-turned-philosopher thing.
Also, I would recommend adding Gary Drescher's Good and Real to the list.
Replies from: lukeprog, lukstafi↑ comment by lukeprog · 2011-06-25T05:10:46.295Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Duh, Drescher! Added. Thanks.
As for dissolving the question to cognitive algorithms, there are certainly many philosophers and scientists who have written about why the brain produces certain unfounded debates in philosophy. See...
- 'Explaining the cognitive processes that generate our intuitions'
- 'Greene's work on moral judgment'
- 'Dennett's Freedom Evolves'
- 'Talbot on intuitionism about consciousness'
- 'The mechanism behind Gettier intuitions'
...in this comment.
comment by BenLowell · 2011-06-26T09:15:50.515Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I'm really glad that I read Hayawaka's Language in Thought and Action after Eliezer's recommendations.
Physics textbooks helped me gain some insights. Reductionism is in the equations. The way that complex behavior such as masses bouncing on springs or arbitrary waves can always be broken down into sums of simpler behavior. I would look up Fourier transforms and superimposition of normal modes.
Replies from: Peterdjones↑ comment by Peterdjones · 2011-06-26T11:26:03.859Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
The way that complex behavior such as masses bouncing on springs or arbitrary waves can always be broken down into sums of simpler behavior
"Always" in textbook examples. Not always in all cases: the intractable cases don;t make it into textbooks. Physiists have written against the assumption of universal reductionism.
comment by XiXiDu · 2011-06-25T10:08:26.315Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Accompanying text: The scourge of perverse-mindedness