Editing Reductionism (section)

=== In science ===
An alternative term for ontological reductionism is ''fragmentalism'',<ref>{{cite journal|author=Kukla A|title=Antirealist Explanations of the Success of Science|journal=Philosophy of Science|volume=63|issue=1|pages=S298–S305|year=1996|doi=10.1086/289964|jstor=188539|s2cid=171074337}}</ref> often used in a [[pejorative]] sense.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Pope ML|title=Personal construction of formal knowledge |journal=Interchange |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=3–14 |year=1982 |doi=10.1007/BF01191417 |s2cid=198195182}}</ref> In [[cognitive psychology]], [[George Kelly (psychologist)|George Kelly]] developed "constructive alternativism" as a form of [[personal construct psychology]] and an alternative to what he considered "accumulative fragmentalism". For this theory, knowledge is seen as the construction of successful [[mental model]]s of the exterior world, rather than the accumulation of independent "nuggets of truth".<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Pope ML, Watts M |title=Constructivist Goggles: Implications for Process in Teaching and Learning Physics|journal=Eur. J. Phys.|volume=9|pages=101–109|year=1988|doi=10.1088/0143-0807/9/2/004|issue=2|bibcode = 1988EJPh....9..101P |s2cid=250876891 }}</ref> Others argue that inappropriate use of reductionism limits our understanding of complex systems. In particular, ecologist [[Robert Ulanowicz]] says that science must develop techniques to study ways in which larger scales of organization influence smaller ones, and also ways in which feedback loops create structure at a given level, independently of details at a lower level of organization. He advocates and uses [[information theory]] as a framework to study [[Propensity probability|propensities]] in natural systems.<ref>R.E. Ulanowicz, ''Ecology: The Ascendant Perspective'', Columbia University Press (1997) ({{ISBN|0231108281}})</ref> The limits of the application of reductionism are claimed to be especially evident at levels of organization with greater [[complexity]], including living [[Cell (biology)|cells]],<ref name=Huber2013>{{cite journal |last1=Huber |first1=F |last2=Schnauss |first2=J |last3=Roenicke |first3=S |last4=Rauch |first4=P |last5=Mueller |first5=K |last6=Fuetterer |first6=C |last7=Kaes |first7=J  |title=Emergent complexity of the cytoskeleton: from single filaments to tissue |journal=Advances in Physics |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=1–112 |year=2013 |doi=10.1080/00018732.2013.771509|bibcode = 2013AdPhy..62....1H |pmid=24748680 |pmc=3985726}} [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00018732.2013.771509 online]</ref> [[neural networks (biology)]], [[ecosystems]], [[society]], and other systems formed from assemblies of large numbers of diverse components linked by multiple [[feedback loop]]s.<ref name="Huber2013" /><ref name=Clayton2006>{{cite journal |editor1-last= Clayton |editor1-first= P |editor2-last= Davies |editor2-first= P |title=The Re-emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |year=2006}}</ref>