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Scale Dependency and Downward Causation in Biology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Sara Green
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Abstract

This article argues that scale dependence of physical and biological processes offers resistance to reductionism and has implications that support a specific kind of downward causation. I demonstrate how insights from multiscale modeling can provide a concrete mathematical interpretation of downward causation as boundary conditions for models used to represent processes at lower scales. The autonomy and role of macroscale parameters and higher-level constraints are illustrated through examples of multiscale modeling in physics, developmental biology, and systems biology. Drawing on these examples, I defend the explanatory importance of constraining relations for understanding the behavior of biological systems.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 85 , Issue 5 , December 2018 , pp. 998 - 1011
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I would like to thank Julia Bursten, Annamaria Carusi, and Robert Batterman for inspiring conversations on this topic, and Julia in particular for organizing the symposium Matters of Scale: Multiscale Modeling across the Sciences at PSA 2017 in Atlanta. William Bechtel provided insightful comments to an earlier version of this article.

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