Reductionist

In science

Reductionist thinking and methods form the basis for many of the well-developed topics of modern science, including much of physics, chemistry and molecular biology. Classical mechanics in particular is seen as a reductionist framework. For instance, the Solar System is understood in terms of its components (the Sun and the planets) and their interactions. Statistical mechanics can be considered as a reconciliation of macroscopicthermodynamic laws with the reductionist method of explaining macroscopic properties in terms of microscopic components, although it has been argued that reduction in physics 'never goes all the way in practice'.