Bechtel, William (2012) Understanding Biological Mechanisms: Using Illustrations from Circadian Rhythm Research. [Preprint]

Preview

PDF bechtel.understandingbiologicalmechanisms.pdf Download (980kB)

Abstract

In many fields of biology, researchers explain a phenomenon by characterizing the responsible mechanism. This requires identifying the candidate mechanism, decomposing it into its parts and operations, recomposing it so as to understand how it is organized and its operations orchestrated to generate the phenomenon, and situating it in its environment. Mechanistic researchers have developed sophisticated tools for decomposing mechanisms but new approaches, including modeling, are increasingly being invoked to recompose mechanisms when they involve nonsequential organization of nonlinear operations. The results often are dynamical mechanistic explanations. The steps in mechanistic research are illustrated using research on circadian rhythms.

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Bechtel, William bill@mechanism.ucsd.edu
Keywords:	mechanistic explanation, diagrams, decomposition, recomposition, computational modeling, circadian rhythms
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology > Molecular Biology/Genetics Specific Sciences > Complex Systems General Issues > Explanation General Issues > Science Education
Depositing User:	Professor William Bechtel
Date Deposited:	26 Jul 2012 04:21
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2012 23:32
Item ID:	9255
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology > Molecular Biology/Genetics Specific Sciences > Complex Systems General Issues > Explanation General Issues > Science Education
Date:	25 July 2012
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9255

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item