Well shit, I talked myself into arguing against holistic thinking. Hofstadter got it wrong. The opposite of holism is not reductionism (that still inherits the well-posedness delusion of holism). The opposite is fragmentism (shardism? disconnectionism? muttism? discordianism?)
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Reductionism is the belief that your solution to a problem will inevitably roll up into more complex solutions to bigger problems, all the way up to the problem of life, the universe and everything being 42.
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Fragmentism by contrast, doesn't expect any sort of coherent roll-up of a localized solution to any problem to anything bigger, more holistic. It is not an integrationist view of differential bits of the universe.
More strongly, it speculates that such roll-up is unnecessary
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This is a nice touchdown on an idea I've been slowing pushing along for years now
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Can you explain how it’s unnecessary?
Pure reductionism doesn’t work because of emergence in complex systems. But understanding quantum is still useful in chemistry. Psychology informs economics etc.
More complexity -> more local solutions
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If you haven't, you may be interested in reading about "strong" vs "weak" emergence




