210: Reductionism

1. Material Reductionism
1. Reduces everything to matter or non-matter where non matter is not important
2. Democritus & Leucippus
1. Atomism
1. Stuff
1. Matter
2. Non-stuf
1. Void
2. This side isn't study-able
2. Anything non material is not study-able 
1. So have any of you ever studied the space between you and the person next to you?
3. There is an implication that the brain is what produces the mind.  The mind is secondary to the brain.  This implies that we are determined.
1. So if free will is gone and we are determined what happens to meaning?
1. Is it meaningful if Dr. Reber goes to get his wife flowers after class tonight?  Or is that just something that is being forced by biological factors?
4. Hard Sciences use this type of material reductionism
5. Argument from Deficit
1. We use brain damage to a specific area as evidence that whatever behavioral deficit is present means that that specific area of the brain must have controlled the now absent behavioral
2. He used the example of slices someones achilles tendons and making it so they are unable to walk.  Does that mean that walking is synonymous with the achilles tendon?  No.  It means that the achilles is a part of it but not the whole thing.
2. Mechanistic Reductionism
1. A combination of metaphysical reductionism acting upon material reductionism
2. Deism (Newton)
1. God created everything then put it together.  He started it running, like a clock, and then just let it tick by itself.  Got put everything in motion but is no longer needed.
2. Following this was a long discussion about theology that ended with most people feeling happy inside
3. Any time in psychology where we talk about some body part that are acting we usually are talking about a mechanistic way of thinking.  Most psychology is mechanistic.
3. Temporal Reductionism
1. Reduce the idea of time to just "the past"
2. Newton
1. Time = a linear timeline
2. Problem
1. Present
1. There is no such thing as the present on a timeline because it immediately becomes the past
1. So what kind of psychology would we have if we were to study the present?  It would be irrelevant with this view of time.
2. Future
1. We don't now what is in the future so we cannot study it.
3. Past
1. This means that you only have the past as something that is accessible to study.  
2. Psychology, because it has adopted this view of time, really only studies the past.
3. Because you cannot change your past that means that you are determined by your past.
3. Alternative to the Timeline Point of View
1. Here and Now Psychology
1. All you really have is the present.  The present is a sort of amorphous field and in that field are a bunch of memories, which are the past, and your goals, which represent your future.
1. With this view, your past and future can be both changed and adapted
4. Evolutionary Reductionism
1. Combination of metaphysical reductionism, because it believes there is a law that governs all organisms (natural selection), it is material reductionistic, because of the focus on our genes, and it is temporal reductionistic, in that it focuses on ancestry.
1. Could also say that it is mechanistic and temporal but is best understood in three parts: metaphysical, material, and temporal.
2. Primary Component of Evolutionary Reductionism
1. Mate Selection
1. Everything is driven by genetic proliferation which we are naturally drawn to do
2. There are specific characteristics of both men and women that are sought after in a partner
2. After Sex
1. Effect on the Female
1. She is pregnant for 9 months and then the child needs a parent to raise it for a certain amount of time
2. Effect on Men
1. There is about a 15 minute refractory period
3. Because of these differences the idea is that men and women develop different attitudes towards potential sexual partners
1. Women need to find a monogamous partner who will stay with them for an extended period of time.  Men are evolutionarily designed to reproduce with as many women as possible.
3. What is the effect of evolutionary psychology on free will?
1. It reduces choices to raw sex that is determined by evolution 
5. Linguistic Reductionism
1. We can't help but reduce.  It is an inescapable process.  Don't fight reducing but instead fight against reification
1. Reification
1. When we use a word to capture a whole set of abilities that are really more than just a word
2. Examples: gravity, intelligence, self-esteem, the Id, etc.
3. Examples from other types of reductionism
1. Metaphysical: the Id
2. Mechanistic: the brain is like a computer
3. Temporal: the past
4. Evolutionary: the law of natural selection
4. Perhaps the most dangerous reification in psychology is disorders
1. For example, labeling something as depressed.  A person doesn't have depression but instead they have a series of symptoms that we have chosen to reify as depression.
2. Instead recognize that you have to use words and labels but you don't have to think of them as "real"
3. There is free will in linguistic reduction
1. You can change your interpretation, and in fact you should be open to change, so that you can adjust as you receive new information