Understanding, Explanation, and Reductionism: Finding a Cure for Cartesian Anxiety

Abstract

This chapter is about the historical changes that have occurred in scientific methodology as it applies to the empirical sciences, especially since the 1950s. Methodology is complementary to, but distinct from, methods. A methodology describes the general rules of science that guide and constrain the elaboration of methods and measurement models, which are the specific techniques for designing, conducting, and evaluating empirical inquiry. My focus in this chapter is on a rule that was central to the methodology called neopositivism and has continued to influence the descendants of neopositivism: the rule of reductionism.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 27 citations exist upstream.