36:. Whereas "good" reductionism means explaining a thing in terms of what it reduces to (for example, its parts and their interactions), greedy reductionism occurs when "in their eagerness for a bargain, in their zeal to explain too much too fast, scientists and philosophers ... underestimate the complexities, trying to skip whole layers or levels of theory in their rush to fasten everything securely and neatly to the foundation". Using the terminology of "cranes" (legitimate, mechanistic explanations) and "skyhooks" (essentially, fake—e.g. supernaturalistic—explanations) built up earlier in the chapter, Dennett recapitulates his initial definition of the term in the chapter summary on p. 83: "Good reductionists suppose that all Design can be explained without skyhooks; greedy reductionists suppose it can all be explained without cranes."
626:
56:. It is often said of this school of thought (which dominated the field of psychology, at least in the Anglo-American world, for part of the twentieth century) that it denied the existence of mental states such as beliefs, although at least in Skinner's original version it merely denied the theoretical utility (or necessity) of postulating such states in order to explain behavior. Notably, Skinner himself characterized his views as anti-reductionist: in
101:. In response, critics accused him of "explaining away" consciousness because he disputes the existence of certain conceptions of consciousness that he considers overblown and incompatible with what is physically possible. This is perhaps what motivated Dennett to make the greedy/good distinction in his follow-up book, to freely admit that reductionism can go overboard while pointing out that not all reductionism goes this far.
104:
A departure from strict reductionism in the opposite direction from greedy reductionism is called nonreductive physicalism. Nonreductive physicalists deny that a reductionistic analysis of a conscious system like the human mind is sufficient to explain all of the phenomena which are characteristic of
144:
Yet one occasionally hears it said that the brain is nothing but a machine. The assertion is usually made in a slurring tone which implies that the brain has been overrated in some unspecified way and is supposed to put an end to further discussion. One investigator calls this "nothing buttery"
370:
163:
Although in the 1970s the phrase "nothing-buttery" had already been in use for at least twenty years, it is often associated with the scholar Donald Mackay, who popularized its use at that time and debated publicly with B. F. Skinner.
136:
An older name for 'greedy reductionism' is "nothing-buttery", an expression based on the repeated phrase "such-and-such is nothing but...". For example, in the article title, "Consciousness is
Nothing But a Word".
149:
The expression began to be used in US English from 1953, and in UK English from the beginning of the 1960s. Its usage peaked in about 1970, but the phrase continues to be used up to the present.
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The related expression "nothing-but-ism" appeared earlier, in the 1930s. One of its earliest documented uses was in a 1935 review by W. J. H. Sprott of Carl Jung's book
72:), he wrote that while mental and neurological states did exist, behavior could be explained without recourse to either. As Dennett says, "Skinner proclaimed that
120:, who claim the true relationship between the physical and the mental may be beyond scientific understanding—and therefore a "mystery"—have been dubbed
80:—could account for all mentality, all learning, not just in pigeons but in human beings. ... Skinner was a greedy reductionist, trying to explain
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Sprott, W. J. H. (1935). "Review of
Religion and the Sciences of Life., ; Men and their Motives., ; Modern Man in Search of a Soul".
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160:. Sprott praised Jung's book because "it does not attempt to explain away spiritual aspiration, the antithesis of 'nothing-but'-ism".
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exists, we can understand it as coming about from the coordinated activity of many components in the brain that are themselves
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Washburn, David A. (December 1997). "The MacKay‐skinner debate: A case for "nothing buttery"".
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A canonical example of greedy reductionism, labelled as such by
Dennett himself, is the (
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This 1955 example of the phrase demonstrates its use in its characteristic context:
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that system. This idea is expressed in some theories that say consciousness is an
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thinking. It is certainly a grave insult to the brain—and to the machines.
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that cannot be reduced to physiological properties of neurons. Those
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Darwin's
Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life
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84:the design (and design power) in a single stroke".
93:, Dennett argued that, without denying that human
351:. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 261
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76:of the fundamental Darwinian process—
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321:"Consciousness is nothing but a word"
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706:From Bacteria to Bach and Back
16:Kind of erroneous reductionism
1:
371:"n-gram of "nothing-buttery""
443:Danielian, A. (1994-11-19).
319:Schlinger, Henry D. (2005).
396:"Oxford English Dictionary"
788:
375:Google Books n-gram Viewer
275:Losing our Minds to Darwin
273:Dennett 1995; Chapter 13,
244:Skinner, Burrhus Frederick
232:Losing our Minds to Darwin
230:Dennett 1995; Chapter 13,
59:Beyond Freedom and Dignity
725:The Philosophical Lexicon
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484:10.1080/09515089708573235
217:Dennett 1995; Chapter 3,
114:nonreductive physicalists
32:, is a kind of erroneous
527:, Simon & Schuster,
521:Dennett, Daniel (1995),
501:Dennett, Daniel (1991),
472:Philosophical Psychology
252:, Acton, Massachusetts:
674:Darwin's Dangerous Idea
666:Consciousness Explained
504:Consciousness Explained
345:Pfeiffer, John (1955).
292:The Science of the Mind
254:Copley Publishing Group
154:Man in Search of a Soul
90:Consciousness Explained
29:Darwin's Dangerous Idea
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62:and other works (e.g.
762:Metatheory of science
616:Multiple drafts model
507:, The Penguin Press,
194:Mereological nihilism
142:
87:In his earlier book
78:operant conditioning
74:one simple iteration
772:Metaphysics of mind
736:Universal Darwinism
596:Heterophenomenology
591:Greedy reductionism
179:Fallacy of division
26:, in his 1995 book
20:Greedy reductionism
757:Informal fallacies
698:Breaking the Spell
601:Intentional stance
66:and chapter 19 of
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743:
586:Cartesian theater
534:978-0-684-82471-0
514:978-0-316-18066-5
445:"Nothing Buttery"
305:978-0-262-56056-6
64:About Behaviorism
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731:New Atheism
642:Brainstorms
264:pp. 432-452
99:unconscious
50:behaviorism
751:Categories
658:Elbow Room
495:References
122:mysterians
116:, such as
296:MIT Press
611:Memetics
579:Concepts
325:eSceptic
290:(1991).
277:(p. 395)
246:(1957),
234:(p. 395)
168:See also
107:emergent
40:Examples
455:15 June
430:2250327
401:15 June
380:15 June
355:15 June
330:15 June
221:(p. 82)
46:radical
709:(2017)
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661:(1984)
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645:(1981)
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199:Monism
189:Holism
717:Other
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205:Notes
529:ISBN
509:ISBN
457:2017
418:Mind
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158:Mind
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