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Reduction and Emergence in Chemistry—Two Recent Approaches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Eric Scerri
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Abstract

Two articles on the reduction of chemistry are examined. The first, by McLaughlin (1992), claims that chemistry is reduced to physics and that there is no evidence for emergence or for downward causation between the chemical and the physical level. In a more recent article, Le Poidevin (2005) maintains that his combinatorial approach provides grounding for the ontological reduction of chemistry, which also circumvents some limitations in the physicalist program.

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