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Mechanism and Explanation in Cognitive Neuroscience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Barbara Von Eckardt  and
Jeffrey S. Poland
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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the usefulness of the Machamer, Darden, and Craver (2000) mechanism approach to gaining an understanding of explanation in cognitive neuroscience. We argue that although the mechanism approach can capture many aspects of explanation in cognitive neuroscience, it cannot capture everything. In particular, it cannot completely capture all aspects of the content and significance of mental representations or the evaluative features constitutive of psychopathology.

Type
Realization and Explanation in Neuroscience
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 71 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2002 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers , December 2004 , pp. 972 - 984
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

We would like thank Carl Craver for organizing the symposium session at which this paper was originally presented and Carl and Lindley Darden for useful discussion.

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