Reasoning in Biological Discoveries
Essays on Mechanisms, Interfield Relations, and Anomaly Resolution

This book summarizes the philosophy of discovery and elaborates the role that mechanisms play in biological discovery.

Lindley Darden (Author)

9780521858878, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 June 2006

372 pages, 10 tables
23.4 x 15.6 x 2.9 cm, 0.72 kg

"Overall, this book is useful both as an introduction to the philosophical literature on mechanisms and as an overview of the main themes in Darden's work. It is a good introduction not only because Darden's views have had such an influence on recent work on mechanisms in philosophy of science, but also because she discusses the work of other philosophers throughout the papers and in the final chapter."
Robyn Bluhm, Ph.D, The University of Western Ontario, Metapsychology Online Reviews.

Reasoning in Biological Discoveries brings together a series of essays, which focus on one of the most heavily debated topics of scientific discovery. Collected together and richly illustrated, Darden's essays represent a groundbreaking foray into one of the major problems facing scientists and philosophers of science. Divided into three sections, the essays focus on broad themes, notably historical and philosophical issues at play in discussions of biological mechanism; and the problem of developing and refining reasoning strategies, including interfield relations and anomaly resolution. Darden summarizes the philosophy of discovery and elaborates on the role that mechanisms play in biological discovery. Throughout the book, she uses historical case studies to extract advisory reasoning strategies for discovery. Examples in genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology reveal the process of discovery in action.

Long contents
List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Biological Mechanisms: 1. Thinking about mechanisms Peter Machamer and Carl F. Craver
2. Discovering mechanisms in neurobiology: the case of spatial memory Carl F. Craver
3. Strategies in the interfield discovery of the mechanism of protein synthesis Carl F. Craver
4. Relations among fields: Mendelian, cytological and molecular mechanisms
Part II. Reasoning Strategies: Relating Fields, Resolving Anomalies: 5. Interfield theories Nancy Maull
6. Theory construction in genetics
7. Relations among fields in the evolutionary synthesis
8. Selection type theories Joseph A. Cain
9. Strategies for anomaly resolution: diagnosis and redesign
10. Exemplars, abstractions, and anomalies: representations and theory change in Mendelian and molecular genetics
11. Strategies for anomaly resolution in the case of adaptive mutation
Part III. Discovering Mechanisms: Construction, Evaluation, Revision: 12. Strategies for discovering mechanisms: construction, evaluation, revision
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Cellular biology [cytology PSF], Biochemistry [PSB], Neurosciences [PSAN], Genetics [non-medical PSAK], Philosophy of science [PDA]