Mechanistic Constitution in Neurobiological Explanations

Harbecke, Jens

doi:10.1080/02698595.2010.522409

Cited by 43 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Similar intuitions, but without a strong commitment to the problematic idea of spatial overlap, are expressed by philosophers of science who develop regularist notions of constitutive mechanistic explanation (see Couch, 2011;Harbecke, 2010). According to such positions, an activity A of a mechanism's part is constitutive for a phenomenon F if and only if the presence of A is an element of a minimal set of conditions whose joint satisfaction is sufficient for F's occurrence.…”

Section: Minimal Constitutivitymentioning

confidence: 91%

Constitutivity in Flavour Perception

Skrzypulec

2021

Erkenn

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Within contemporary philosophy of perception, it is commonly claimed that flavour experiences are paradigmatic examples of multimodal perceptual experiences. In fact, virtually any sensory system, including vision and audition, is believed to influence how we experience flavours. However, there is a strong intuition, often expressed in these works, that not all of these sensory systems make an equal contribution to the phenomenology of flavour experiences. More specifically, it seems that the activities of some sensory systems are constitutive for flavour perception while others merely influence how we experience flavours. This paper aims to answer the question regarding the constitutive factors of flavour perception in a twofold way. First, a theoretical framework is developed, relying on debates regarding constitutivity in analytic metaphysics and philosophy of science, which defines the stronger and weaker senses in which the activities of sensory systems may be constitutive for flavour perception. Second, relying on empirical results in flavour science, the constitutive status of activities related to distinct sensory systems in the context of flavour perception is investigated.

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Section: Minimal Constitutivitymentioning

confidence: 91%

Constitutivity in Flavour Perception

Skrzypulec

2021

Erkenn

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“…That is, we may turn to the metaphysical question of what constitution actually is . Regularity‐based accounts (e.g., Couch, ; Harbecke, , ; Krickel, forthcoming) aim to illuminate the nature of this relation building on the idea that a mechanism's components are regularly involved in its exhibiting a certain phenomenon. Still, these accounts assume that constitutive relevance is some kind of non‐causal relation.…”

Section: Approaching Fat‐handedness and Underdeterminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intervening into mechanisms: Prospects and challenges

Kästner

Andersen

2018

Philosophy Compass

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In contemporary philosophy of science, the consensus view seems to be that scientific explanations describe mechanisms responsible for the phenomena to be explained.Two kinds of explanatory relevance figure in mechanistic accounts of explanation: causal (etiological) and constitutive.Following prominent accounts, it seems natural to analyze both these relations in terms of systematic interventions into some factor X with respect to another factor Y. However, such interventions are tailored to uncover causal relations only. Construing the constitutive relationship between parts and wholes in terms of interventions thus raises metaphysical, conceptual, and epistemological questions. We here review the barriers that intervention-based inquiry into mechanisms encounters and consider some solutions.

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“…Craver 2001Craver , 2013I llari & Williamson 2010). Not incidentally, mechanistic accounts of constitutive relevance also fail to (explicitly) recognize the distinction between contrastive and common factors (e.g., Craver 2007;Harbecke 2010;Couch 2011;Baumgartner & Gebharter 2015).…”

Section: Making a Difference But To What?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Difference making, explanatory relevance, and mechanistic models.

Eck

Gervais

2016

THEORIA

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In this paper we consider mechanistic explanations for biological malfunctions. Drawing on Lipton's (1993) work on difference making, we offer three reasons why one should distinguish i) mechanistic features that only make a difference to the malfunction one aims to explain, from ii) features that make a difference to both the malfunction and normal functioning. Recognition of the distinction is important for a) repair purposes, b) mechanism discovery, and c) understanding. This analysis extends current mechanistic thinking, which fails to appreciate the distinction. We illustrate our contribution with a case on sleeping disorders as arising from disruptions of circadian rhythms.Keywords: mechanistic explanation; difference making; explanatory relevance; malfunction explanation.RESUMEN: En este artículo tomamos en consideración las explicaciones mecanicistas de las disfunciones biológicas. A partir del trabajo de Lipton (1993) sobre diferenciación (difference making), damos tres razones por las que se debería distinguir entre: i) aspectos mecanicistas que sólo suponen una diferencia para la disfunción que se pretende explicar, y ii) aspectos que suponen una diferencia tanto para la disfunción como para el funcionamiento normal. Reconocer la distinción tiene importancia para: a) fines de reparación, b) el descubrimiento de mecanismos, y c) la comprensión. Este análisis extiende el pensamiento mecanicista actual, que no llega a percibir la distinción. Ilustramos nuestra contribución con un caso de desorden del sueño que surge de disrupciones de los ritmos circadianos.Palabras clave: explicación mecanicista, diferenciación, relevancia explicativa, explicación de las disfunciones.

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Mechanistic Constitution in Neurobiological Explanations

Cited by 43 publications

References 23 publications

Constitutivity in Flavour Perception

Constitutivity in Flavour Perception

Intervening into mechanisms: Prospects and challenges

Difference making, explanatory relevance, and mechanistic models.

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