Imagining Mechanisms with Diagrams

In Arnon Levy & Peter Godfrey-Smith (eds.), The Scientific Imagination. New York, US: Oup Usa (2019)
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Abstract

Some proponents of mechanistic explanation downplay the significance of how-possibly explanations. We argue that developing accounts of mechanisms that could explain a phenomenon is an important aspect of scientific reasoning, one that involves imagination. Although appeals to imagination may seem to obscure the process of reasoning, we illustrate how, by examining diagrams we can gain insights into the construction of mechanistic explanations.

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William Bechtel
University of California, San Diego

Citations of this work

The Value of Surprise in Science.Steven French & Alice Murphy - 2023 - Erkenntnis 88 (4):1447-1466.
Imagination in science.Alice Murphy - 2022 - Philosophy Compass 17 (6):e12836.
Thought Experiments and the Scientific Imagination.Alice Murphy - 2020 - Dissertation, University of Leeds

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