[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Originally Posted by Ian

The whole of physical reality is random. Randomness need not imply unpredictability. On the other hand chaos theory will entail that many things are completely unpredictable -- but that's just not interesting. Anyway I explained what reductionism means. I thought you might have found it easier to understand than something like my proof for mental causation. My mistake!

Chaos theory says that systems may be unpredictable by any conceivable computer. They are predictable in principle, unless there are random factors. You are right that randomness is unescapable in reality, which means that we cannot predict the behavior of a system from its components nor the exact components from the behavior. So what does this leave for reductionism to mean? Only that we can describe a system, in principle, by building a model from its components.

So you're not going to make another effort to explain reductionism to me?

For example, consider a clockwork clock. By looking at the components of that clock - namely the cogs, the springs, and the wheels - and how they all interrelate together, we can actually understand how the minute and hour clock hands move.

Now consider the weather. Can we understand it by looking at all the atoms in the atmosphere?

I don't think I'm assuming anything apart from the notion that consciousness i.e phenomenological consciousness, exists. I don't know if you think such an assumption entails dualism.

Exists as a concept, as a complex behavior, or as a separate existent?

~~ Paul