An analysis of two heuristic strategies for the development of mechanistic models, illustrated with historical examples from the life sciences.
In Discovering Complexity, William Bechtel and Robert Richardson examine two heuristics that guided the development of mechanistic models in the life sciences: decomposition and localization. Drawing on historical cases from disciplines including cell biology, cognitive neuroscience, and genetics, they identify a number of "choice points" that life scientists confront in developing mechanistic explanations and show how different choices result in divergent explanatory models. Describing decomposition as the attempt to differentiate functional and structural components of a system and localization as the assignment of responsibility for specific functions to specific structures, Bechtel and Richardson examine the usefulness of these heuristics as well as their fallibility -- the sometimes false assumption underlying them that nature is significantly decomposable and hierarchically organized.
When Discovering Complexity was originally published in 1993, few philosophers of science perceived the centrality of seeking mechanisms to explain phenomena in biology, relying instead on the model of nomological explanation advanced by the logical positivists (a model Bechtel and Richardson found to be utterly inapplicable to the examples from the life sciences in their study). Since then, mechanism and mechanistic explanation have become widely discussed. In a substantive new introduction to this MIT Press edition of their book, Bechtel and Richardson examine both philosophical and scientific developments in research on mechanistic models since 1993.
Описание: Individuals are things that everybody knows--or thinks they do. Yet even scholars who practice or analyze the biological sciences often cannot agree on what an individual is and why. One reason for this disagreement is that the many important biological individuality concepts serve very different purposes--defining, classifying, or explaining living structure, function, interaction, persistence, or evolution. Indeed, as the contributors to Biological Individuality reveal, nature is too messy for simple definitions of this concept, organisms too quirky in the diverse ways they reproduce, function, and interact, and human ideas about individuality too fraught with philosophical and historical meaning.
Bringing together biologists, historians, and philosophers, this book provides a multifaceted exploration of biological individuality that identifies leading and less familiar perceptions of individuality both past and present, what they are good for, and in what contexts. Biological practice and theory recognize individuals at myriad levels of organization, from genes to organisms to symbiotic systems. We depend on these notions of individuality to address theoretical questions about multilevel natural selection and Darwinian fitness; to illuminate empirical questions about development, function, and ecology; to ground philosophical questions about the nature of organisms and causation; and to probe historical and cultural circumstances that resonate with parallel questions about the nature of society. Charting an interdisciplinary research agenda that broadens the frameworks in which biological individuality is discussed, this book makes clear that in the realm of the individual, there is not and should not be a direct path from biological paradigms based on model organisms through to philosophical generalization and historical reification.
Название: Scientific Composition and Metaphysical Ground ISBN: 1137562153 ISBN-13(EAN): 9781137562159 Издательство: Springer Рейтинг: Цена: 12577.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: We find “vertical” relations in many different realms, whether between atoms and molecules, words and sentences, neurons and brains, or individuals and societies. This book is the first to bring together, and comparatively assess, the exciting array of philosophical approaches to vertical relations that have independently sprung up in analytic metaphysics, the metaphysics of mind, and the philosophy of science. Analytic metaphysicians have recently focused on a relation of ‘Ground’ that is claimed to be found in aesthetics, ethics, logic, mathematics, science, and semantics. Metaphysicians of mind have focussed on a vertical relation of ‘realization’ between properties, whilst philosophers of science associated with the rise of the ‘New Mechanism’ have renewed interest in vertical relations of scientific composition found in so-called “mechanistic explanations”. This volume analyses the inter-relations between these different approaches to spark a range of new debates, including whether the various frameworks for vertical relations are independent, complementary or in even competition.
Описание: Simulation-Based Engineering and Science (SBE&S) cuts across disciplines, showing tremendous promise in areas from storm prediction and climate modeling. This title concludes that while the US remains the quantitative leader in SBE&S research and development, it is very much in danger of losing that edge to Europe and Asia.
Автор: Mobner, Nicola (aachen University, Germany) Название: Visual representations in science ISBN: 1138089931 ISBN-13(EAN): 9781138089938 Издательство: Taylor&Francis Рейтинг: Цена: 22202.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: In genuine research activities they are used as evidence or as surrogates for research objects which are otherwise cognitively inaccessible. Philosophers of science have more or less neglected visual representations in their analyses of epistemic methods and tools of reasoning in science. This book is meant to fill this gap.
Автор: Salmon Wesley C. Название: The Foundations of Scientific Inference: 50th Anniversary Edition ISBN: 0822964562 ISBN-13(EAN): 9780822964568 Издательство: Mare Nostrum (Eurospan) Рейтинг: Цена: 4712.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: After its publication in 1967, The Foundations of Scientific Inference taught a generation of students and researchers about the problem of induction, the interpretation of probability, and confirmation theory. Fifty years later, Wesley C. Salmon`s book remains one of the clearest introductions to these fundamental problems in the philosophy of science.
Автор: Miller Название: Representing Space in the Scientific Revolution ISBN: 1107624711 ISBN-13(EAN): 9781107624719 Издательство: Cambridge Academ Рейтинг: Цена: 5069.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: Using an integrated historical and philosophical approach, this book explores the origin of modern physics in Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, and others. It analyzes representations of space in the scientific revolution, and will be essential reading for scholars and students of the history and philosophy of science.
Автор: Burguete Maria Et Al Название: All About Science: Philosophy, History, Sociology & Communication ISBN: 9814472921 ISBN-13(EAN): 9789814472920 Издательство: World Scientific Publishing Рейтинг: Цена: 22968.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание:
There is a lot of confusion and misconception concerning science. The nature and contents of science is an unsettled problem. For example, Thales of 2,600 years ago is recognized as the father of science but the word science was introduced only in the 14th century; the definition of science is often avoided in books about philosophy of science. This book aims to clear up all these confusions and present new developments in the philosophy, history, sociology and communication of science. It also aims to showcase the achievement of China's top scholars in these areas. The 18 chapters, divided into five parts, are written by prominent scholars including the Nobel laureate Robin Warren, sociologist Harry Collins, and physicist-turned-historian Dietrich Stauffer.
Описание: Represents the proceedings of the interdisciplinary stream of the international workshop (Part 1) Times of Entanglement, 21 - 22 September 2010 at the Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai, People`s Republic of China.
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