Reductionism
Reductionism
[The comic represents an entry in a dictionary for a word. Unlike normal comics not only capital letters are used, and thus here the capitalization of the comic is also used in the transcript. The entry is cut off through the bottom of the fourth line by the bottom of the panel, but the last line is still readable.] REDUCTIONISM • n . 1. "R" is a letter with origins in the Egyptian hieroglyphics. "E" stands for a vowel sound normally represented by "I" until the 1500's. "D" is

Reductionism is an approach that seeks to understand the world by breaking problems into simpler pieces. This approach can disregard emergent properties which appear only from the individual parts working together.
In this comic Randall shows the first part of a dictionary entry on the word Reductionism . In a real dictionary like Dictionary.com an entry with similar build up looks like this:
Reductionism Noun 1. The theory that every complex phenomenon, especially in biology or psychology, can be explained by analyzing the simplest, most basic physical mechanisms that are in operation during the phenomenon. 2. The practice of simplifying a complex idea, issue, condition, or the like, especially to the point of minimizing, obscuring, or distorting it.
In the comic the n refers to noun and the "1." indicate that this is the first of more than one entries about the word.
The meta joke is that Randall is attempting to define the word Reductionism by taking the reductionist approach to its extreme. He thus breaks the word into its 12 individual letters explaining the origin of each individual letter, acting as if the word was nothing more than the "sum" of all its letters. In doing so he entirely fails to explain the actual meaning of the word.
The entire entry number 1. could in principle have 12 phrases one for each of the letters R, E, D, U, C, T, I, O, N, I, S and M, but here only the first two for R and E are included, the third (D) only just starts when the entry is cut off at the bottom of the panel. It could be argued that the two I's could share one explanation, but as a reductionist you might not even notice that the I had already been explained.
As it happens, every letter of the Latin alphabet (the writing system used by the English language and many other languages) is ultimately derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics , not just "R". But maybe the same sentence is used for all the consonants as the only word in the explanation for "D" is "is"; the same that starts the explanation for "R".
The second letter that is explained is "E", a vowel . In modern English spelling, the letter "E" is used – alone or in combination – to represent a number of different vowel sounds (compare "gene", "bed", "crepe"). In the word "reductionism", the "E" can be pronounced as /ɪ/ ("riductionism"), /iː/ ("reeductionism") or /ə/ ("ruductionism"), depending on dialect and emphasis, but the comic is talking about the sound used to pronounce the letter itself, /iː/ ("long E"). It explains that this vowel sound was normally represented with the letter "I" until the 1500's. This is a reference to the Great Vowel Shift , a change in the pronunciation of many English vowels around that time. Before then, a word like "see" was pronounced /seː/ (approximately "seh", with no diphthong), while a word like "bite" was pronounced /biːt/ ("beet"). So in modern English pronunciation, the "long E" sound is the same as what the "long I" spelling used to represent.
In the title text, two people are speaking. The first speaker has noticed that "physics people can be a little on the reductionist side". (Randall would consider himself a physicist). The presumed physicist then says that it is a ridiculous notion. He challenges the other to "Name ONE reductionist word I've ever said." But by claiming he is not a reductionist by focusing on the individual words (which, even/especially in the case of "reductionist", are never used solely by reductionists) he is asking for an impossible comparison to be made, when proof of reductionism is clearly an emergent property of a fuller sentences, if not whole discourses. By insisting on focusing only upon individual words in this manner the speaker likely proves themself a reductionist, in the very act of trying to refute this accusation.
Reductionism has previously appeared deep down in 1416: Pixels .
[The comic represents an entry in a dictionary for a word. Unlike normal comics not only capital letters are used, and thus here the capitalization of the comic is also used in the transcript. The entry is cut off through the bottom of the fourth line by the bottom of the panel, but the last line is still readable.] REDUCTIONISM • n . 1. "R" is a letter with origins in the Egyptian hieroglyphics. "E" stands for a vowel sound normally represented by "I" until the 1500's. "D" is
