Organon F
Volume 27, May 2020, Issue 2, Pages 142–168
ISSN 2585-7150 (online) ISSN 1335-0668 (print)
Research Article
Unification and the Myth of Purely Reductive Understanding
Michael J. Shaffer
https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2020.27201
In this paper significant challenges are raised with respect to the view that explanation essentially involves unification. These objections are raised specifically with respect to the well-known versions of unificationism developed and defended by Michael Friedman and Philip Kitcher. The objections involve the explanatory regress argument and the concepts of reduction and scientific understanding. Essentially, the contention made here is that these versions of unificationism wrongly assume that reduction secures understanding.
Explanation; reduction; simplicity; scientific understanding; unification.
Author
Michael J. Shaffer
Affiliation
St. Cloud State University
Address
Department of Philosophy, St. Cloud State University, CH365N, 720 4th Ave. S., St. Cloud, MN 56301, USA
Received
20 April 2019
Accepted
6 August 2019
Published online
14 September 2019
Publishers
Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
APA
Shaffer, M.J. (2020). Unification and the Myth of Purely Reductive Understanding. Organon F, 27(2), 142–168. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2020.27201
Chicago
Shaffer, Michael J. 2020. "Unification and the Myth of Purely Reductive Understanding." Organon F 27 (2): 142–168. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2020.27201
Harvard
Shaffer, M.J. (2020). Unification and the Myth of Purely Reductive Understanding. Organon F, 27(2), pp. 142–168. https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2020.27201
© Michael J. Shaffer
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