生物界是有等级组织的,分子、细胞、组织、器官、有机体、繁殖种群、物种,有时还有社会系统,甚至也许还有生态系统(虽然大都被更合适地称为生态群聚体),所有这些组织水平都被视为真实的实在而不是任意的便利的分类,每一个较高级的水平均由较低级水平的实际单元组织而成。在接受生物界等级体制这一事实时,我们还原论者全都跟贝克纳和梅达沃一起,重视这样两条还原论原理: (1)所有在较高水平上的过程均受制于包括亚 The world of biology is hierarchical, with molecules, cells, tissues, organs, organisms, breeding stocks, species, and sometimes social systems, and perhaps even ecosystems (though most are more aptly called ecoclusters) All of these organizational levels are treated as real, not arbitrary, convenient classifications, each of which is organized in lower-level actual units. In accepting the fact that the hierarchy of the biological world, we restore theorists are all along with Beckner and Meddwov, attaches importance to such two principles of reductionism: (1) all at a higher level of the process are subject to including Asia