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Strategies for Discovering Mechanisms: Schema Instantiation, Modular Subassembly, Forward/Backward Chaining

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Lindley Darden
Lindley Darden*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
*
Send reprint requests to Lindley Darden, Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 USA; [email protected]; www.inform.umd.edu/PHIL/faculty/LDarden/
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Abstract

Discovery proceeds in stages of construction, evaluation, and revision. Each of these stages is constrained by what is known or conjectured about what is being discovered. A new characterization of mechanism aids in specifying what is to be discovered when a mechanism is sought. Guidance in discovering mechanisms may be provided by the reasoning strategies of schema instantiation, modular subassembly, and forward/backward chaining. Examples are found in mechanisms in molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, and evolutionary biology.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 69 , Issue S3 , September 2002 , pp. S354 - S365
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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