Unity of Science

by Tuomas E. Tahko

Unity of science was once a very popular idea among both philosophers and scientists. But it has fallen out of fashion, largely because of its association with reductionism and the challenge from multiple realisation. Pluralism and the disunity of science are the new norm, and higher-level natural kinds and special science laws are considered to have an important role in scientific practice. What kind of reductionism does multiple realisability challenge? What does it take to reduce one phenomenon to another? How do we determine which kinds are natural? What is the ontological basis of unity? In this Element, Tuomas Tahko examines these questions from a contemporary perspective, after a historical overview. The upshot is that there is still value in the idea of a unity of science. We can combine a modest sense of unity with pluralism and give an ontological analysis of unity in terms of natural kind monism. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

78 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 11, 2021

About the author

Tuomas Tahko is Professor of Metaphysics of Science at the University of Bristol. He has worked in Bristol since 2018. Before that, he worked at the University of Helsinki for seven years.

Tahko has also been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Sydney, University of Toronto, University of Reading, New York University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the eidos Centre in Metaphysics of the University of Geneva. He earned an MA in philosophy from Helsinki in 2005 and a PhD in philosophy from Durham in 2008 (under E.J. Lowe's supervision), where he remained as a Visiting Research Fellow for two years, before coming back to Finland,

Tahko's work is mostly in analytic metaphysics and his primary research interests concern the metaphysics and epistemology of modality, methodology of metaphysics, essence, natural kinds, laws of nature, and a priori knowledge. Additional research interests include epistemology, philosophical logic, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and history of philosophy (Aristotle).

For further information, see his website: www.ttahko.net