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Synthetic Modeling and Mechanistic Account: Material Recombination and Beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Tarja Knuuttila  and
Andrea Loettgers
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Abstract

Recently, Bechtel and Abrahamsen have argued that mathematical models study the dynamics of mechanisms by recomposing the components and their operations into an appropriately organized system. We will study this claim through the practice of combinational modeling in circadian clock research. In combinational modeling, experiments on model organisms and mathematical/computational models are combined with a new type of model—a synthetic model. We argue that the strategy of recomposition is more complicated than what Bechtel and Abrahamsen indicate. Moreover, synthetic modeling as a kind of material recomposition strategy also points beyond the mechanistic paradigm.

Type
General Philosophy of Science
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 80 , Issue 5 , December 2013 , pp. 874 - 885
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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