reductionism.

An approach explaining a complex thing wholly or primarily through lower-level components or processes.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• methodological reductionism
• explanatory reductionism

On the page

Methodological reductionism directed the study toward component mechanisms.

The explanatory reductionism was criticized for omitting relations among the parts.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: institutional and conceptual change, philosophical orientation, qualification of recurrence and degree. Disciplines: academic writing, philosophy, cross-disciplinary analysis. Commonness: moderately common.