Time, evolution and physical reductionism

Time, evolution and physical reductionism. The arrow of evolutionary time challenges an eventual physical theory of everything.

The experience of time is familiar to us all, yet it remains one of the greatest scientific mysteries. For centuries, physicists and philosophers have puzzled over the nature of time, or even whether it exists at all. Is time a real, physical entity or a construction of the human mind? How did time start and where does it come from? Will it ever end and what came before it? For physicists, the ...

Evolution of neuroarchitecture, multi-level analyses and calibrative reductionism.

Evolution has sculpted the incredibly complex human nervous system, among the most complex functions of which extend beyond the individual to an intricate social structure. Although these functions are deterministic, those determinants are legion, heavily interacting and dependent on a specific evolutionary trajectory. That trajectory was directed by the adaptive significance of quasi-random ge...

Reductionism and intelligence: the case of inspection time.

Reductionism and its heuristics: Making methodological reductionism honest

Methodological reductionists practice ‘wannabe reductionism’. They claim that one should pursue reductionism, but never propose how. I integrate two strains in prior work to do so. Three kinds of activities are pursued as “reductionist”. “Successional reduction” and inter-level mechanistic explanation are legitimate and powerful strategies. Eliminativism is generally ill-conceived. Specific pro...

Reductionism and Biological Complexity

The biologist's progblem is the problem of complexity. According to the conventional wisdom, the way to study complex systems is by breaking them down into their parts. In Richard Dawkins's words, "the biologist tries to explain the workings, and coming into existence, of complex things in terms of simpler things. He can regard his task as done when he has arrived at entities so simple that the...