Abstract
In a recent article in this journal (Foundations of Chemistry, 7 (2005), 125–148) Lombardi and Labarca call into question a thesis of ontological reduction to which several writers on reduction subscribe despite rejecting a thesis of epistemological reduction. Lombardi and Labarca advocate instead a pluralistic ontology inspired by Putnam’s internal realism. I suggest that it is not necessary to go so far, and that a more critical view of the ontological reduction espoused by the authors they criticise circumvents the need to resort to their radical alternative.
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Needham, P. ONTOLOGICAL REDUCTION: A COMMENT ON LOMBARDI AND LABARCA. Found Chem 8, 73–80 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-005-9002-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-005-9002-6