Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:22:47.197Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Real Patterns in Biological Explanation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Daniel C. Burnston
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In discussion of mechanisms, philosophers often debate about whether quantitative descriptions of generalizations or qualitative descriptions of operations are explanatorily fundamental. I argue that these debates have erred by conflating the explanatory roles of generalizations and patterns. Patterns are types of variations within or between quantities in a mechanism over time or across conditions. While these patterns must often be represented in addition to descriptions of operations in order to explain a phenomenon, they are not equivalent to generalizations because their explanatory role does not depend on any specific facts about their scope or domain of invariance.

Type
Explanation
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 84 , Issue 5 , December 2017 , pp. 879 - 891
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I would like to thank Adele Abrahamsen, William Bechtel, and Benjamin Sheredos for extremely helpful discussion of this material. Research for this article was partially conducted with support from National Science Foundation grant 1127640.

References

Andersen, Holly K. 2011. “Mechanisms, Laws, and Regularities.” Philosophy of Science 78 (2): 325–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baggs, Julie E., Price, Tom S., DiTacchio, Luciano, Panda, Satchidananda, Fitzgerald, Garret A., and Hogenesch, John B. 2009. “Network Features of the Mammalian Circadian Clock.” PLoS Biology 7 (3): 563–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bogen, James. 2005. “Regularities and Causality: Generalizations and Causal Explanations.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science C 36 (2): 397–420.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burnston, Daniel C. 2016. “Data Graphs and Mechanistic Explanation.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science C 57:1–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craver, Carl F., and Kaiser, Marie I. 2013. “Mechanisms and Laws: Clarifying the Debate.” In Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics, 125–45. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Davidson, Alec J., Castanon-Cervantes, Oscar, Leise, Tanya L., Molyneux, Penny C., and Harrington, Mary E. 2009. “Visualizing Jet Lag in the Mouse Suprachiasmatic Nucleus and Peripheral Circadian Timing System.” European Journal of Neuroscience 29 (1): 171–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dennett, Daniel C. 1991. “Real Patterns.” Journal of Philosophy 88 (1): 27–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leuridan, Bert. 2010. “Can Mechanisms Really Replace Laws of Nature?” Philosophy of Science 77 (3): 317–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, Arnon. 2013. “Three Kinds of New Mechanism.” Biology and Philosophy 28 (1): 99–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Machamer, Peter. 2004. “Activities and Causation: The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Mechanisms.” International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 18 (1): 27–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Machamer, Peter, Darden, Lindley, and Craver, Carl F. 2000. “Thinking about Mechanisms.” Philosophy of Science 67 (1): 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakajima, Masato, Imai, Keiko, Ito, Hiroshi, Nishiwaki, Taeko, Murayama, Yoriko, Iwasaki, Hideo, Oyama, Tokitaka, and Kondo, Takao. 2005. “Reconstitution of Circadian Oscillation of Cyanobacterial Kaic Phosphorylation in Vitro.” Science 308 (5720): 414–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tabery, James G. 2004. “Synthesizing Activities and Interactions in the Concept of a Mechanism.” Philosophy of Science 71 (1): 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ueda, H. R., Hayashi, S., Chen, W., Sano, M., Machida, M., Shigeyoshi, Y., Iino, M., and Hashimoto, S. 2005. “System-Level Identification of Transcriptional Circuits Underlying Mammalian Circadian Clocks.” Nature Genetics 37 (2): 187–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ukai-Tadenuma, M., Yamada, R. G., Xu, H., Ripperger, J. A., Liu, A. C., and Ueda, H. R. 2011. “Delay in Feedback Repression by Cryptochrome 1 Is Required for Circadian Clock Function.” Cell 144 (2): 268–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Fraassen, Bas C. 1980. The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Chun, Zhang, Zhi-Ming, Xu, Can-Xin, and Tischkau, Shelley A. 2014. “Interplay between Dioxin-Mediated Signaling and Circadian Clock: A Possible Determinant in Metabolic Homeostasis.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences 15 (7): 11700–11712.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woodward, James. 2010. “Causation in Biology: Stability, Specificity, and the Choice of Levels of Explanation.” Biology and Philosophy 25 (3): 287–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Eric E., and Kay, Steve A. 2010. “Clocks Not Winding Down: Unravelling Circadian Networks.” Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 11 (11): 764–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar