Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 36 (2):421-441 (2005)
Authors |
|
Abstract |
Explanations in the life sciences frequently involve presenting a model of the mechanism taken to be responsible for a given phenomenon. Such explanations depart in numerous ways from nomological explanations commonly presented in philosophy of science. This paper focuses on three sorts of differences. First, scientists who develop mechanistic explanations are not limited to linguistic representations and logical inference; they frequently employ diagrams to characterize mechanisms and simulations to reason about them. Thus, the epistemic resources for presenting mechanistic explanations are considerably richer than those suggested by a nomological framework. Second, the fact that mechanisms involve organized systems of component parts and operations provides direction to both the discovery and testing of mechanistic explanations. Finally, models of mechanisms are developed for specific exemplars and are not represented in terms of universally quantified statements. Generalization involves investigating both the similarity of new exemplars to those already studied and the variations between them.
|
Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1016/j.shpsc.2005.03.010 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Thinking About Mechanisms.Peter Machamer, Lindley Darden & Carl F. Craver - 2000 - Philosophy of Science 67 (1):1-25.
Perceptual Symbol Systems.Lawrence W. Barsalou - 1999 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22 (4):577-660.
Aspects of Scientific Explanation.Carl Hempel - 1965 - In Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Free Press. pp. 504.
Cognitive Representations of Semantic Categories.Eleanor Rosch - 1975 - Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 104 (3):192-233.
View all 24 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
What is a Mechanism? Thinking About Mechanisms Across the Sciences.Phyllis Illari & Jon Williamson - 2012 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 2 (1):119-135.
Abstraction and the Organization of Mechanisms.Arnon Levy & William Bechtel - 2013 - Philosophy of Science 80 (2):241-261.
Natural Kindness.Matthew H. Slater - 2015 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 66 (2):375-411.
The Ontic Account of Scientific Explanation.Carl F. Craver - 2014 - In Marie I. Kaiser, Oliver R. Scholz, Daniel Plenge & Andreas Hüttemann (eds.), Explanation in the Special Sciences: The Case of Biology and History. Springer Verlag. pp. 27-52.
A Better Best System Account of Lawhood.Jonathan Cohen & Craig Callender - 2009 - Philosophical Studies 145 (1):1 - 34.
View all 347 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Seventeenth-Century Mechanism: An Alternative Framework for Reductionism.Kari L. Theurer - 2013 - Philosophy of Science 80 (5):907-918.
Papineau's Conceptual Dualism and the Distinctness Intuition.William S. Robinson - 2007 - Synthesis Philosophica 22 (2):319-333.
Understanding the Brain as an Endogenously Active Mechanism.William Bechtel & Adele Abrahamsen - unknown
The Ontic Account of Scientific Explanation.Carl F. Craver - 2014 - In Marie I. Kaiser, Oliver R. Scholz, Daniel Plenge & Andreas Hüttemann (eds.), Explanation in the Special Sciences: The Case of Biology and History. Springer Verlag. pp. 27-52.
Put Another Way.... Commentary on the Target Artcle by Ernst von Glasersfeld.D. I. Dykstra - 2008 - Constructivist Foundations 3 (2):72-73.
Dynamical Models and Explanation in Neuroscience.Lauren N. Ross - 2015 - Philosophy of Science 82 (1):32-54.
Computational Explanation in Cognitive Sciences: The Mechanist Turn.S. Delarivière & J. Frans - 2015 - Constructivist Foundations 10 (3):426-429.
Constraints on Localization and Decomposition as Explanatory Strategies in the Biological Sciences.Michael Silberstein & Tony Chemero - unknown
Explanation Beyond Causation? New Directions in the Philosophy of Scientific Explanation.Alexander Reutlinger - 2017 - Philosophy Compass 12 (2):e12395.
Explanation: A Mechanist Alternative.William Bechtel - 2005 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Biol and Biomed Sci 36 (2):421--441.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2016-02-04
Total views
50 ( #199,893 of 2,409,924 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
7 ( #102,247 of 2,409,924 )
2016-02-04
Total views
50 ( #199,893 of 2,409,924 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
7 ( #102,247 of 2,409,924 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads