Abstract
Mill’s methods involve two idealizations (“one cause, one effect” and “no mixing of effects”), but causal relationships in biology usually exhibit a plurality of causes and intermixture of effects. Building explanatory models to capture these relations remains a challenge because similar idealizations occur in contemporary causal reasoning (e.g., difference making). The problem is poignant for formulating integrated models of different types of causes, such as combining physical and genetic causes to understand their joint contribution to anatomical structures in embryogenesis. Standardized periodizations can help in formulating integrated explanatory models within developmental biology that are causal mosaics of reasoning from difference making and production (mechanism) accounts. A consequence of this strategy is a tradeoff between models that yield causal generalizations of wide scope and models that locally integrate different types of causes to comprehensively explain complex phenomena.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | EPSA Philosophy of Science: Düsseldorf 2015. The European Philosophy of Science Association Proceedings |
Editors | M Massimi, J-W Romeijn, G Schurz |
Place of Publication | Dordrecht |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 221-232 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Volume | 5 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 78-3-319-53730-6 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-3-319-53729-0 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2017 |
Publication series
Name | European Studies in Philosophy of Science |
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Volume | 5 |
ISSN (Print) | 2365-4228 |
ISSN (Electronic) | 2365-4236 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgement I am grateful to session participants at the 2015 European Philosophy of Science Association meeting in Düsseldorf and two anonymous referees for helpful feedback and suggestions that improved the final manuscript. I also benefited from comments on related material from audiences at Ottawa University and Yale University. The research and writing of this article was supported in part by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (Integrating Generic and Genetic Explanations of Biological Phenomena; ID 46919).
Funding Information:
I am grateful to session participants at the 2015 European Philosophy of Science Association meeting in D?sseldorf and two anonymous referees for helpful feedback and suggestions that improved the final manuscript. I also benefited from comments on related material from audiences at Ottawa University and Yale University. The research and writing of this article was supported in part by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (Integrating Generic and Genetic Explanations of Biological Phenomena; ID 46919).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, The Author(s).
Keywords
- Developmental biology
- Difference making
- Explanation
- Genetics
- Idealization
- Integration
- Mechanisms
- Physics