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Reductionism reading list

12 Post author: lukeprog 24 June 2011 11:53PM

 

 

I can't endorse everything in all these works, but they each provide insights into understanding reduction.

What else do ya'll recommend?

Comments (9)

Comment author: [deleted] 25 June 2011 04:37:16AM 4 points [-]

Do any of the items on the reading list besides Yudkowsky's sequence deal with dissolving the question to cognitive algorithms? I don't know if this idea has been spotted in academia or if it's just a LessWrong/AI-researcher-turned-philosopher thing.

Also, I would recommend adding Gary Drescher's Good and Real to the list.

Comment author: lukeprog 25 June 2011 05:10:46AM *  1 point [-]

Duh, Drescher! Added. Thanks.

As for dissolving the question to cognitive algorithms, there are certainly many philosophers and scientists who have written about why the brain produces certain unfounded debates in philosophy. See...

  • 'Explaining the cognitive processes that generate our intuitions'
  • 'Greene's work on moral judgment'
  • 'Dennett's Freedom Evolves'
  • 'Talbot on intuitionism about consciousness'
  • 'The mechanism behind Gettier intuitions'

...in this comment.

Comment author: lukstafi 25 June 2011 11:29:57AM 0 points [-]

Reductionism "from mystery to science" is hardly a reductionism...

Comment author: BenLowell 26 June 2011 09:15:50AM 0 points [-]

I'm really glad that I read Hayawaka's Language in Thought and Action after Eliezer's recommendations.

Physics textbooks helped me gain some insights. Reductionism is in the equations. The way that complex behavior such as masses bouncing on springs or arbitrary waves can always be broken down into sums of simpler behavior. I would look up Fourier transforms and superimposition of normal modes.

Comment author: Peterdjones 26 June 2011 11:26:03AM 0 points [-]

The way that complex behavior such as masses bouncing on springs or arbitrary waves can always be broken down into sums of simpler behavior

"Always" in textbook examples. Not always in all cases: the intractable cases don;t make it into textbooks. Physiists have written against the assumption of universal reductionism.

Comment author: Morendil 25 June 2011 09:18:16AM 0 points [-]

Two of Dennett's - Darwin's Dangerous Idea and Consciousness Explained.

Comment author: XiXiDu 25 June 2011 10:08:26AM 0 points [-]
Comment author: atucker 25 June 2011 06:41:44AM *  0 points [-]

Godel Escher Bach (by Douglas Hofstadter) is what put me into the reductionist camp, but I imagine other things could do it faster.

Comment author: timtyler 25 June 2011 06:54:30PM *  0 points [-]

Hofstadter's key "reductionism" diagram from “Prelude…Ant fugue” is now online.