???
This brings out the point that interests me. Yes, the reduction is in the direction of one word, but the word differs according to the speaker.
I have witnessed this so many times. A set of experts in any discipline will fight over the prize, the prize of reducing ?? to an understandable coherence. This coherence is invariably ‘their’ coherence, of a particular discipline and often of a particular pet theory.
Who can resist claiming just a little bit of coherence from the chaos? Of course it’s attractive. It’s comforting too; we are all looking for a diagnosis - “What is it, doctor?”
Even the Buddha came up with a reduction; but it was a very subtle one.
everyone is looking for a good diet
-Imp
So, philosophers don’t argue?
Of course my view is cynical. You can look behind any philosopher and find a reduction, from Schopenhaur’s ‘will to power’ to Wittgenstein’s ‘common language’ to Freddy Ayer’s ‘verifiable sentences’.
They are all trying to reduce the chaos to some particular component parts, that they each see as fundamental. Maybe the only thing that philosophy can be reduced to is arguing.
On that theme, I used to think that Hegelian dialectic was a useful reduction, maybe I still do.
Why wouldn’t philosophical reductions be “attractive?” It’s always nice to bring order to something or classify something, so a philosophical reduction would put things in perspective!
I guess that answers my question. I did suspect that the answer would be psychological.
The idea of reductions putting things into perspective makes me feel uncomfortable. I am wondering whether this really means putting things into a certain perspective according to the reduction that I choose to see, or can’t help myself seeing. This brings philosophy back to the attempt to push certain perspectives over others.
Maybe the original question was value laden, as I freely admit that I am suspicious of reductions, having fallen a few times in the past. That, again, is a psychological point. Having see-sawed between Buddhism and Catholicism for a while, I am thinking that maybe I’ll never be able to get my reality into a bag, or at least I’ll need a bigger bag. Of course, that’s a personal observation.
I like that. I have a friend who is a psychological counsellor. It doesn’t matter what we talk about she turns it back into psychology. I really believe that she can turn anything into psychology.
If I comment on this, she looks at me with a counselly expression and says, “And how does that make you feel?” I want to tell her that I feel she is using her precious psychology as a club to beat me to death with. I have known her for ten years, and nearly every new acquaintance she meets ends up in therapy. It’s like she has some sort of therapy web/trap all around her.
Now that’s a psychological REDUCTION. 
Wise Words Whitelotus 