Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics
Title | Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics PDF eBook |
Author | Hsiang-Ke Chao |
Publisher | Springer Science & Business Media |
Pages | 256 |
Release | 2013-07-31 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9400724543 |
This volume addresses fundamental issues in the philosophy of science in the context of two most intriguing fields: biology and economics. Written by authorities and experts in the philosophy of biology and economics, Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics provides a structured study of the concepts of mechanism and causality in these disciplines and draws careful juxtapositions between philosophical apparatus and scientific practice. By exploring the issues that are most salient to the contemporary philosophies of biology and economics and by presenting comparative analyses, the book serves as a platform not only for gaining mutual understanding between scientists and philosophers of the life sciences and those of the social sciences, but also for sharing interdisciplinary research that combines both philosophical concepts in both fields. The book begins by defining the concepts of mechanism and causality in biology and economics, respectively. The second and third parts investigate philosophical perspectives of various causal and mechanistic issues in scientific practice in the two fields. These two sections include chapters on causal issues in the theory of evolution; experiments and scientific discovery; representation of causal relations and mechanism by models in economics. The concluding section presents interdisciplinary studies of various topics concerning extrapolation of life sciences and social sciences, including chapters on the philosophical investigation of conjoining biological and economic analyses with, respectively, demography, medicine and sociology.
In Search of Mechanisms
Title | In Search of Mechanisms PDF eBook |
Author | Carl F. Craver |
Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
Pages | 251 |
Release | 2013-10-03 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 022603982X |
Neuroscientists investigate the mechanisms of spatial memory. Molecular biologists study the mechanisms of protein synthesis and the myriad mechanisms of gene regulation. Ecologists study nutrient cycling mechanisms and their devastating imbalances in estuaries such as the Chesapeake Bay. In fact, much of biology and its history involves biologists constructing, evaluating, and revising their understanding of mechanisms. With In Search of Mechanisms, Carl F. Craver and Lindley Darden offer both a descriptive and an instructional account of how biologists discover mechanisms. Drawing on examples from across the life sciences and through the centuries, Craver and Darden compile an impressive toolbox of strategies that biologists have used and will use again to reveal the mechanisms that produce, underlie, or maintain the phenomena characteristic of living things. They discuss the questions that figure in the search for mechanisms, characterizing the experimental, observational, and conceptual considerations used to answer them, all the while providing examples from the history of biology to highlight the kinds of evidence and reasoning strategies employed to assess mechanisms. At a deeper level, Craver and Darden pose a systematic view of what biology is, of how biology makes progress, of how biological discoveries are and might be made, and of why knowledge of biological mechanisms is important for the future of the human species.
Mechanisms in Science
Title | Mechanisms in Science PDF eBook |
Author | Stavros Ioannidis |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 291 |
Release | 2022-06-23 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 1009022431 |
In recent years what has come to be called the 'New Mechanism' has emerged as a framework for thinking about the philosophical assumptions underlying many areas of science, especially in sciences such as biology, neuroscience, and psychology. This book offers a fresh look at the role of mechanisms, by situating novel analyses of central philosophical issues related to mechanisms within a rich historical perspective of the concept of mechanism as well as detailed case studies of biological mechanisms (such as apoptosis). It develops a new position, Methodological Mechanism, according to which mechanisms are to be viewed as causal pathways that are theoretically described and are underpinned by networks of difference-making relations. In contrast to metaphysically inflated accounts, this study characterises mechanism as a concept-in-use in science that is deflationary and metaphysically neutral, but still methodologically useful and central to scientific practice.
The Construction of Modern Science
Title | The Construction of Modern Science PDF eBook |
Author | Richard S. Westfall |
Publisher | |
Pages | 171 |
Release | 1971 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 9780521218634 |
The interplay between the Platonic-Pythagorean tradition and the mechanical philosophy during the 'scientific revolution'.
Discovering Cell Mechanisms
Title | Discovering Cell Mechanisms PDF eBook |
Author | William Bechtel |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 346 |
Release | 2006 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9780521812474 |
Bechtel emphasises how mechanisms were discovered by cell biologists and the instruments that made these inquiries possible.
Evaluating Evidence of Mechanisms in Medicine
Title | Evaluating Evidence of Mechanisms in Medicine PDF eBook |
Author | Veli-Pekka Parkkinen |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 131 |
Release | 2018-07-13 |
Genre | Medical |
ISBN | 3319946102 |
This book is open access under a CC BY license. This book is the first to develop explicit methods for evaluating evidence of mechanisms in the field of medicine. It explains why it can be important to make this evidence explicit, and describes how to take such evidence into account in the evidence appraisal process. In addition, it develops procedures for seeking evidence of mechanisms, for evaluating evidence of mechanisms, and for combining this evaluation with evidence of association in order to yield an overall assessment of effectiveness. Evidence-based medicine seeks to achieve improved health outcomes by making evidence explicit and by developing explicit methods for evaluating it. To date, evidence-based medicine has largely focused on evidence of association produced by clinical studies. As such, it has tended to overlook evidence of pathophysiological mechanisms and evidence of the mechanisms of action of interventions. The book offers a useful guide for all those whose work involves evaluating evidence in the health sciences, including those who need to determine the effectiveness of health interventions and those who need to ascertain the effects of environmental exposures.
The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy
Title | The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy PDF eBook |
Author | Stuart Glennan |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
Pages | 495 |
Release | 2017-07-06 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 131755230X |
Scientists studying the burning of stars, the evolution of species, DNA, the brain, the economy, and social change, all frequently describe their work as searching for mechanisms. Despite this fact, for much of the twentieth century philosophical discussions of the nature of mechanisms remained outside philosophy of science. The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into four Parts: Historical perspectives on mechanisms The nature of mechanisms Mechanisms and the philosophy of science Disciplinary perspectives on mechanisms. Within these Parts central topics and problems are examined, including the rise of mechanical philosophy in the seventeenth century; what mechanisms are made of and how they are organized; mechanisms and laws and regularities; how mechanisms are discovered and explained; dynamical systems theory; and disciplinary perspectives from physics, chemistry, biology, biomedicine, ecology, neuroscience, and the social sciences. Essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of science, the Handbook will also be of interest to those in related fields, such as metaphysics, philosophy of psychology, and history of science.