Reductionism

The Depth and Breadth of Disease

Ayurveda has a very unique concept of “depth” and “breadth” of a disease, which we do not find in modern medicine. The idea is that when a disease begins, it typically has only one effect or symptom. At that time, symptomatic cures can be applied, and those may cure the disease. However, the symptomatic cure may not actually cure the cause...

The Structure-Function Debate in Biology

Modern science grew out of the idea that the universe is comprised of independent parts, and a complex system can be reduced to these parts without loss of completeness. The independence of parts became the basis of reductionism―the idea that the whole is simply a linear sum of parts. Sometimes, this reduction fails, and then it becomes necessary to postulate that...

Do We Have Free Will?

Attacks on free will have become fairly common. While the attackers often recognize what is at risk — namely the sense of responsibility and accountability — they are motivated by establishing the primacy of what science seems to be telling us over what we have commonsensically believed over the centuries. This post examines the critique of free will and its associated problems, showing why contrary...

The Broken Watchmaker

Even a broken watch tells the right time twice a day.  However, to know that the watch is broken, we must observe it when it tells the time incorrectly rather than when it tells it correctly. This analogy is a useful way to understand the problem in modern science because clearly there are times in which science makes correct predictions. Those...

Is the Mind like the Fluidity of Water?

A common argument against the mind-body duality is that the mind is an epiphenomenon of chemical reactions in the brain much like the fluidity of water is a consequence of molecular interactions. This argument seems appealing because if we reduce water to its molecules, we don’t see fluidity in each molecule; fluidity is only a property of the collection. The mind-brain...