Mechanisms in Molecular Biology

Explores causation, capacities, organization levels and issues around discovering mechanisms and the clarity of mechanistic representations.

Tudor Baetu (Author)

9781108742306, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 October 2019

100 pages, 5 b/w illus.
23 x 15.2 x 0.5 cm, 0.1 kg

'… philosophers will find a novel experimental perspective to add to the repertoire of characterizations of phenomena and mechanism. The book ends with a helpful recapitulation of the main points.' Lindley Darden, The Quarterly Review of Biology

The new mechanistic philosophy is divided into two largely disconnected projects. One deals with a metaphysical inquiry into how mechanisms relate to issues such as causation, capacities and levels of organization, while the other deals with epistemic issues related to the discovery of mechanisms and the intelligibility of mechanistic representations. Tudor Baetu explores and explains these projects, and shows how the gap between them can be bridged. His proposed account is compatible both with the assumptions and practices of experimental design in biological research, and with scientifically accepted interpretations of experimental results.

1. Mechanisms and their discovery
2. What is a phenomenon?
3. How do mechanisms and phenomena relate to one another?
4. What is the physical nature of biological mechanisms?
A recapitulation and some clarifications.

Subject Areas: Molecular biology [PSD], Philosophy of science [PDA]