Date/Time
Date(s) - 06/09/2026
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Location
The Rose Battersea
On Sunday 6th September 2026 at 12:30. Gary Chamberlin will speak on “The Case against Reductionism”. See Gary’s summary below.
“In Kieran’s South London talk in July, he strongly argued Democritus’s view that “it’s all just atoms and the void”, backing this up with the resources of modern science. Evolution, quantum theory, statistical mechanics, these all formed part of the attack. It seems that even the human experience of meaning and intention can be captured as statistical values and pounded into the sauce of materialist reductionism. Maybe Kieran is right (?) – but there is another angle. To begin with, what is the effect of adopting the reductionist position? Does it make any difference to the reality of nature, of the Universe? I’d say not: it’s just part of the evanescent efforts of a time-limited form of life to grasp its hopeless situation on a minor planet lost in the enormity of galactic space. Too bad. But what if you happen to be one of those creatures, with this extraordinary consciousness of the vastness of the domain, its beauty and complexity? Doesn’t the reductionism operate, not on the Universe, but on your own experience of life? Isn’t it a method to contract and confine the mind-space in which you live, curtailing your horizons, darkening your very habitation when it could be filled with greater light? In any case, does science really demand that we surrender to reductionism? It’s true, many people believe it does, but I shall argue that science is greater than that. Indeed, it can add to the sense of wonder which both Plato and Aristotle affirmed are philosophy’s starting point.”
We meet in The Rose Battersea, 74-76 Battersea Bridge Road, London SW11 3AG but the meeting will also be on Zoom for details see SLPC Zoom Meeting
We always welcome new speakers. If you would like to give a talk on a philosopher or a philosophical topic please contact Adrian Carter at southlondonphilosophy@gmail.com