Mechanistic Explanation: An Extension and Defence
(2019) Mechanistic explanations in physics and beyond — ISBN: [978-3-030-10707-9], published
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- Authors
Ghins, Michel 
- Abstract
- The present paper critically examines the main claims of the new mechanist account of explanation defended by Glennan and Machamer, among others. The two major difficulties of the new mechanism, namely the circularity objection and the bottoming out problem are discussed and addressed. To solve the bottoming out problem, this paper proposes a modification and enlargement of the mechanist account of explanation advocated by Salmon and Dowe. Such extension can then successfully apply to the explanations provided for the global behaviour of complex systems, not only in physics but also in other disciplines such as biology and the social sciences. The proposed enlarged version of Salmon’s and Dowe’s account provides a monistic account of explanation based on causal generalizations or laws which need not be construed as necessary to fulfil their explanatory role. Such change-relating generalizations or laws are characterized by the presence of a term that refers to the variation in time of some property, which is identified to the effect whereas the other terms refer to the causes. Thus, by enlarging the Salmon and Dowe notion of mechanism, I advocate a nomological theory of causation instead of the mechanistic theory of causation proposed by Glennan et alii.
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Citations
Ghins, M. (2019). Mechanistic Explanation: An Extension and Defence. In Brigitte Falkenburg, Gregor Schiemann (ed.), Mechanistic explanations in physics and beyond. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10707-9_6