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PARTISAN REVIEW
physical processes that natural science claims as its own, it
cannot be reduced to those processes, nor can it be explained
by the Jews of those processes.'
Explanations of "mind" in terms of physical processes do not wipe
out the distinction between the behavior of inorganic masses and
the distinctive activities of men; nor do they pretend to deduce
somehow the direction of those activities from physical laws con–
taining no mention of purposive behavior. Such explanations
simply state the generalized conditions for the occurrence of
"mind." Accordingly, the only form of "reduction" with which
the natural sciences may rightly be charged, is the form which
consists in ascertaining the structures under which specific traits
are manifested; and it is clear that if those sciences failed in
effecting such a reduction, they would fail in achieving the objec–
tive of knowledge. The conclusion seems unavoidable .that those
who would exclude the logical methods of the natural sciences
from fields of social inquiry, on the score that these methods com–
mit their users to the "reductive fallacy," are in effect recom–
mending the abandonment of the quest for the causal determinants
of human affairs.
One final claim, associated with the charge that the logic of
natural science is "reductive," remains to be considered- the
claim that human traits are "emergent properties" on a "higher
level" of existence than are those with which physics and chemistry
are concerned, so that the methods employed by these disciplines
cannot be adequate to the study of the higher emergent qualities.
Some examples will make clear the chief features of the theory
of emergence. However much we may know about the interaction
of hydrogen and oxygen with
other
elements, so it is said, it is
impossible to infer from such knowledge the fact that they com·
bine to form water; and in particular, the qualities which emerge
when water is formed could never be predicted from those data.
Similarly, no amount of knowledge concerning the physics and
physiology of the human body makes it possible to deduce the
"spiritual" characteristics of the organism as a thinking, pur–
posive creature. Nature is thus conceived as a system of levels of
emergence, each level requiring a peculiar mode of study; and
a fortiori,
the distinctive qualities of human beings can be satis-
'Brand Blanshard, "Fact, Value, and Science," in
Science and Man
(edited
by
Ruth
Nanda Anshen),
pp.
189, 203.
