05.03 Mechansitic Explanation – Beyond Networks: The Evolution of Living Systems
Channel: Johannes Jaeger
Date: 2020-05-09

Module 5 of "Beyond Networks" gets into the nitty-gritty of the course, covering network analysis and mechanistic explanations. This third lecture in the module asks what we actually consider a scientific explanation. Traditionally, scientific explanations where thought to subsume specific phenomena under general laws. I show how this type of explanation is not very useful in biology (or the social sciences). As an alternative, I introduce the notion of mechanistic explanation. This type of explanation does not assume that organisms are machines, but rather explains biological phenomena in terms of the underlying causal structure that produces them. They bear many similarities with the local formal models we've encountered in module 4, but also include representations that are not formalised. I end the lecture by showing that network analysis does not provide mechanistic explanations. In the next lecture, we consider how to move beyond networks to get mechanistic explanations of developmental (or other biological) processes.

There is a vast literature on the topic of scientific explanation. If you are interested in Hempel's covering-law account, read his 1965 essay "Aspects of Scientific Explanation." 

A good starting point for learning about neo-mechanistic philosophy is the Standford Encyclopedia article by Craver and Tabery: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/science-mechanisms. For references to the primary literature, see the lecture.

Dan Nicholson has a very clear explanation of the difference between mechanistic explanation as introduced here and the view of the universe (and organisms) as clockworks or machines ("Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences", Vol. 43: p.152).

Philippe Huneman's "topological explanation" is introduced in his 2010 article in "Synthese" (Vol. 177: p.213).