reductive

adj

1. (archaic)Pertaining to the reduction of a decree etc.; rescissory.
2. Causing the physical reduction or diminution of something.
3. That reduces a substance etc. to a more simple or basic form.

   “On the relative reductive powers of different classes of American coals, as demonstrated by the experiments with oxide of lead.”

   “It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.”

4. (archaic, historical)That can be derived from, or referred back to, something else.

   “But then beside the primary and direct sense of the text, the ancients commonly supposed that there was a reductive or anagogical meaning, in which it might be taken.”

5. That reduces an argument, issue etc. to its most basic terms; simplistic, reductionist.