
Contents
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1. Introduction 1. Introduction
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2. Mechanisms 2. Mechanisms
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2.1. The Explanandum Phenomenon 2.1. The Explanandum Phenomenon
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2.2. Component Entities 2.2. Component Entities
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2.3. Activities 2.3. Activities
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2.4. Organization 2.4. Organization
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2.5. Filler Terms and Mechanism Sketches 2.5. Filler Terms and Mechanism Sketches
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2.6. From How‐Possibly to How‐Actually Models 2.6. From How‐Possibly to How‐Actually Models
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2.7. Summary 2.7. Summary
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3. Levels of Mechanisms 3. Levels of Mechanisms
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4. Conclusion 4. Conclusion
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Notes Notes
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References References
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2 Biological Clocks: Explaining with Models of Mechanisms
Get accessSarah K. Robins is currently a senior graduate student in the Philosophy‐Neuroscience‐Psychology Program at Washington University in St. Louis. She has published in both philosophy and psychology. She is co‐organizer of the Future Directions in Biology Series, a graduate student workshop in the philosophy of biology.
Carl F. Craver is Associate Professor in the Philosophy‐Neuroscience‐Psychology Program and the Department of Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis. His research interests include the philosophy of neuroscience, scientific explanation, reduction and the unity of science, the history of electrophysiology, and the cognitive neuroscience of memory. He is the author of Explaining the Brain: Mechanisms and the Mosaic Unity of Science (Oxford University Press) and several articles in journals in history, philosophy, and neuroscience.
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Published:02 September 2009
Cite
Abstract
This article examines the concept of mechanistic explanation by considering the mechanism of circadian rhythm or biological clocks. It provides an account of mechanistic explanation and some common failures of mechanistic explanation and discusses the sense in which mechanistic explanations typically span multiple levels. The article suggests that models that describe mechanisms are more useful for the purposes of manipulation and control than are scientific models that do not describe mechanisms. It comments on the criticism that the mechanistic explanation is far too simple to fully express the complexity of real explanations in neuroscience and that neuroscientific explanations require emergent properties that cannot be explained by decomposition into the parts, activities, and organizational features that constitute the mechanism.
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