Meta-philosophical Preliminaries

Abstract

Chapter 2 serves to disclose the meta-philosophical assumptions that underlie my analysis of explanatory reduction. This includes explicating (and justifying) the aim of my analysis, the philosophical methodology by which I develop my account, and the criteria of adequacy that I accept. I will characterize my own account as being descriptive and bottom-up but critical, as being as universal as possible and as specific as necessary, as being normative in a certain way but not in another, and as being potentially useful for science.