Editorial: Reductionism and Holism in Behavior Science and Art

Abstract

How should we handle complexity? In both science and in art, there is tension between the holist view that the properties of any entity or system cannot be understood or explained by its parts alone, and the reductionist view, which holds that an entity or system can be understood or explained by reducing it to its component parts (Graham, 2013). As Kandel (2016) points out, reductionism in science and art serve different, but analogous, purposes. In science, reductionism is used to solve complex problems; in art, reductionism is used to evoke new emotional responses in art consumers. Scientific reductionism is a process of reducing and then rebuilding that often leads to new insights that would not be found in either a solely reductionist or holist view. For example, Kandel began his quest to understand human learning and memory by studying the sea slug (aplysia), and the insights gleaned from intensive study of a simple organism guided and shaped his experimentation leading to brain science (Kandel, 1979). Artistic reductionism also leads to new insights. Through reductionism artists peel away unnecessary details and discover a work's essential features. Consumers of art experience new and often unique affective reactions to art when a visual or musical composition is stripped to its barest parts. 1 Kandel's book, Reductionism in Art and Brain Science: Bridging the Two Cultures, explores the commonalities between abstract art and brain science, arguing that both pursuits use reductionist methodologies in their search for higher level truths about human nature. One can adopt holism and accept complexity as an irreducible given, or embrace reductionism and work to disassemble and decompose complexity into simplicity. For

Challenges in Teaching Biotechnology in the Philippine STE Program

“…The challenging nature of biotechnology often results in teachers using a reductionist approach to teaching the subject. Reductionist methods in teaching strive to dissect complex systems into individual digestible components, often an attempt to make an abstract concept comprehensible (Hantula, 2018;Van Regenmortel, 2004). However, to simplify complex ideas to the level of student understanding, teachers and textbooks employ loose terms or statements that may result in relying on individual interpretations (Duda et al, 2021).…”

FHH Quick App Review: How Can a Quality Review Process Assist Primary Care Providers in Choosing a Family Health History App for Patient Care?

“…Perhaps the use of FHH is still underutilized because of the complexity of the problem of effectively integrating and implementing FHH in daily medical care practice. Using reductionism in this manuscript might be a step forward to reducing the complex phenomena into more basic parts and help the primary care physician in assessing the quality and reliability of eHealth apps and utilizing FHH to its full potential [ 15 ].…”