Editing Reductionism (section)

{{Distinguish|text=the [[Reductionism (music)|reductionist]] experimental music genre}}
{{For|term used phenomenological tradition in Western philosophy|phenomenological reduction}}
{{Short description|Philosophical view explaining systems in terms of smaller parts}}

[[File:Digesting Duck.jpg|300px|thumb|right|[[René Descartes]], in [[The World (Descartes)|De homine]] (1662), claimed that non-human animals could be explained reductively as [[automaton|automata]]; meaning essentially as more mechanically complex versions of this [[Digesting Duck]].]]

'''Reductionism''' is any of several related [[Philosophy|philosophical]] ideas regarding the associations between [[Phenomenon|phenomena]] which can be described in terms of simpler or more fundamental phenomena.<ref name=MerriamWebster /> It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical position that interprets a [[complex system]] as the sum of its parts.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Kricheldorf|first=Hans R.|title=Getting It Right in Science and Medicine: Can Science Progress through Errors? Fallacies and Facts|publisher=Springer|year=2016|isbn=978-3319303864|location=Cham|pages=63|language=en}}</ref> Reductionism tends to focus on the small, predictable details of a system and is often associated with various philosophies like [[emergence]], [[materialism]], and [[determinism]].