Did the bacterium really kill the colonel? Systemic view, inter-level causation, and levels of quasi-decompositionality in mechanistic explanations

&
Theoria : An International Journal for Theory, History and Fundations of Science 33 (1):129-148 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this paper, we critically analyze the mechanicist approach to scientific explanation and propose to complement this view with a conception of level as interval of quasi-decompositionality. This conception allows us to metaphysically base the mechanicist proposals on characteristic systemic features. By means of concrete examples, we claim that this proposal is able to overcome some of the alleged limitations of predominant models of mechanistic explanation.

Categories

Add categories

Keywords

Reprint years

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,386

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

Intervals of Quasi-Decompositionality and Emergent Properties.Emilio Cáceres Vázquez & Cristian Saborido - 2017 - Theoria : An International Journal for Theory, History and Fundations of Science 32 (1):89-108.
Making Sense of Interlevel Causation in Mechanisms from a Metaphysical Perspective.Beate Krickel - 2017 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 48 (3):453-468.
Causation at different levels: tracking the commitments of mechanistic explanations.Peter Fazekas & Gergely Kertész - 2011 - Biology and Philosophy 26 (3):365-383.
Regularity Constitution and the Location of Mechanistic Levels.Jens Harbecke - 2015 - Foundations of Science 20 (3):323-338.
New Mechanistic Explanation and the Need for Explanatory Constraints.L. R. Franklin-Hall - 2016 - In Ken Aizawa & Carl Gillett (eds.), Scientific Composition and Metaphysical Ground. London: Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 41-74.
One mechanism, many models: a distributed theory of mechanistic explanation.Eric Hochstein - 2016 - Synthese 193 (5):1387-1407.
Experiment, Downward Causation, and Interventionist Levels of Explanation.Veli-Pekka Parkkinen - 2016 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 30 (3):245-261.
“Looking Up” and “Looking Down”: On the Dual Character of Mechanistic Explanations.Kari L. Theurer - 2018 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 49 (3):371-392.
The scope and limits of a mechanistic view of computational explanation.Maria Serban - 2015 - Synthese 192 (10):3371-3396.
A Regularist Approach to Mechanistic Type-Level Explanation.Beate Krickel - 2018 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 69 (4):1123-1153.
Mechanisms without mechanistic explanation.Naftali Weinberger - 2017 - Synthese:1-18.
II—James Woodward: Mechanistic Explanation: Its Scope and Limits.James Woodward - 2013 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 87 (1):39-65.
Mechanistic Levels, Reduction, and Emergence.Mark Povich & Carl F. Craver - 2017 - In Stuart Glennan & Phyllis McKay Illari (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy. Routledge. pp. 185-97.
The Nature of Dynamical Explanation.Carlos Zednik - 2011 - Philosophy of Science 78 (2):238-263.
Functional analysis and mechanistic explanation.David Barrett - 2014 - Synthese 191 (12):2695-2714.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-07-18

Downloads
19 (#781,160)

6 months
7 (#418,426)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Emilio Caceres
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Cristian Saborido
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Explaining the brain: mechanisms and the mosaic unity of neuroscience.Carl F. Craver - 2007 - New York : Oxford University Press,: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press.
Nature's capacities and their measurement.Nancy Cartwright - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Thinking about mechanisms.Peter Machamer, Lindley Darden & Carl F. Craver - 2000 - Philosophy of Science 67 (1):1-25.
Physical Causation.Phil Dowe - 2000 - New York: Cambridge University Press.

View all 40 references / Add more references