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Finale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2022

Stavros Ioannidis
Affiliation:
University of Athens, Greece
Stathis Psillos
Affiliation:
University of Athens, Greece
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Summary

In the Finale we examine to what extent Causal Mechanism can be seen as a descendant of the original notion of mechanism developed in seventeenth century, by examining possible extensions of the seventeenth-century notion of mechanism and discussing whether they can be used to characterise mechanism as a concept-in-use. We identify two conditions that a biological explanation has to satisfy in order to count as mechanistic, both of which were central in Old Mechanism: the condition of intelligibility and the condition of the priority of the parts over the whole. We use these two conditions to distinguish between two notions of mechanism: a more narrow one that incorporates both the intelligibility condition and the condition of the priority of the parts and a broader one that incorporates only the intelligibility condition and is thus a weakened form of mechanism. We claim that an account of mechanism as a concept-in-use requires the weakened notion, which when viewed in terms of Causal Mechanism has nevertheless enough content so that it can be seen as a descendant of the original concept.

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Mechanisms in Science
Method or Metaphysics?
, pp. 247 - 254
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Finale
  • Stavros Ioannidis, University of Athens, Greece, Stathis Psillos, University of Athens, Greece
  • Book: Mechanisms in Science
  • Online publication: 09 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009019668.016
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  • Finale
  • Stavros Ioannidis, University of Athens, Greece, Stathis Psillos, University of Athens, Greece
  • Book: Mechanisms in Science
  • Online publication: 09 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009019668.016
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Finale
  • Stavros Ioannidis, University of Athens, Greece, Stathis Psillos, University of Athens, Greece
  • Book: Mechanisms in Science
  • Online publication: 09 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009019668.016
Available formats
×