It is argued in this paper that the discussion on the irreducibility of ‘levels of reality’ is by no means of theoretical interest only. We are living in a world of planetary crises brought about by human domination of both nature and society. The Cartesian question of whether we can master the world is no longer valid. This we have indeed achieved. The question now is whether we can master our mastery. The unavoidable ethical implications brought about by this situation of having to face and redress the consequences of our actions imply that we have to finally and decisively break with the erroneous Modernist belief in separating ourselves from the world. Through our own doing, we have constructed a reality in which the irreversible ‘fusion’ of the subject and object, nature and society have become the dominant feature of the today’s world.

It is in this context that our contemplation of the irreducibility of the ‘levels of reality’ should be understood. Although the impossibility of reductionism is situated and safeguarded in the notion of the fundamental differences between the different levels of reality, it is submitted that imagining their non-differences or similarities are of equal importance. In other words, if we want to face the world we are living in today it has become critically important to conceptualise discontinuities and continuities simultaneously. However, our challenge is to think of what links or connects the different levels of reality in a way that will not resort back to any notion of the collapsibility one level into another—thereby (re)inviting reductionism through the backdoor as it were. To put it differently, thinking of the continuities between the different levels of reality should be done in a way that affirms and sustains their irreducibility.

Although this paper does not pretend to give a definitive answer as to how this could be achieved conceptually, at least, it is argued that when faced with complex real-world problems such as poverty it is critically important to approach these problems with this non-reductionist frame of mind. To illustrate the importance of this point, the theory of Human Scale Development, as developed by Manfred Max-Neef et.al, is taken as an example to demonstrate how the simultaneous or synergic satisfaction of our fundamental human needs on the ‘levels’ of the self (Eigenwelt), the social or collective (Mittwelt) and the environment or nature (Umwelt) can lead to a radically new understanding and approach of this global problem of poverty.