reductionism

reductionism

[riduk′shəniz′əm]

an approach that tries to explain a form of behavior or an event in terms of a specific category of phenomena, such as biologic, psychologic, or cultural, negating the possibility of an interrelation of causal phenomena.

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reductionism(rē·dukˑ·sh·niˑ·zm),

n a tenet of the modern bioscientific approach to knowledge according to which anything complex can be explained primarily in terms of its simpler components.

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reductionism

policy of reducing subjects to its parts in an attempt to simplfy the understanding of the whole. The opposite of holism.