Why I am not a reductionist

OLIMPIA LOMBARDI

Buenos Aires

Workshop; Reduction and Inter-Theoretical Relatioships in the Sciences; 2023

SADAF

Theaim of this talk is explicit in the title: why I do not advocate reductionism. Forthis purpose, the presentation will be divided into three parts. In the first introductorypart, I will make some initial precisions: (i) I am primarily interested inontological reduction and its associated notions, (ii) being anti-reductionistdoes not mean that reduction is impossible in any case, and (iii) the problemof intertheoretical reduction is different from the problem of elimination. Inthe second critical part, I will consider the problem of the reduction ofmolecular structure to quantum mechanics in its three aspects: the problem ofthe Born-Oppenheimer approximation, the problem of symmetry, and the problem ofisomerism. I will show that all three aspects challenge the idea of reductionin this case. Finally, in the third constructive part, I will briefly presentmy Kantian-rooted ontological pluralism as a positive alternative toreductionism.