Mechanisms in Science

Auteur

Stavros Ioannidis is Assistant Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is principal investigator of the project MECHANISM, funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation.

Résumé
The current philosophical consensus is that science searches for mechanisms. This book re-evaluates central features of this consensus arguing that 'mechanism' as used in scientific practice is a methodological concept, which implies no deep metaphysical commitments.

Contenu

Introduction; Part I. Ideas of Mechanism: 1. Mechanisms, Then and Now; 2: Extending Mechanism Beyond the two 'Most Catholic Principles of Bodies; Part II. Causation and Mechanism: 3. Mechanisms in Scientific Practice: the Case of Apoptosis; 4. Mechanisms as Causal Pathways; 5: Mechanisms, Causation and Laws; 6: Against Activities; 7: Whither Counterfactuals?; Part III. Beyond New Mechanism: 8. Constitution vs Causation; 9. Multilevel Mechanistic Explanation; 10: Methodological Mechanism.