This book develops a philosophical account that reveals the major characteristics that make an explanation in the life sciences reductive and distinguish them f

After the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, scientists working in molecular biology embraced reductionism—the theory that all complex systems can be

In contemporary philosophy of science, ontological reductionism, or the claim that everything that exists in the world is something physical, is the consensus m

Grand debates over reduction and emergence are playing out across the sciences, but these debates have reached a stalemate, with both sides declaring victory on

This book argues for the explanatory autonomy of the biological sciences. It does so by showing that scientific explanations in the biological sciences cannot b