0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Industrial applications of scientific research & technological innovation

Buy Now

Discovering Complexity - Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research (Paperback) Loot Price: R444
Discovery Miles 4 440
You Save: R100 (18%)
Discovering Complexity - Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research (Paperback): William Bechtel,...

Discovering Complexity - Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research (Paperback)

William Bechtel, Robert C. Richardson

Series: Discovering Complexity

 (sign in to rate)
List price R544 Loot Price R444 Discovery Miles 4 440 You Save R100 (18%)

Bookmark and Share

Expected to ship within 9 - 15 working days

An analysis of two heuristic strategies for the development of mechanistic models, illustrated with historical examples from the life sciences. In Discovering Complexity, William Bechtel and Robert Richardson examine two heuristics that guided the development of mechanistic models in the life sciences: decomposition and localization. Drawing on historical cases from disciplines including cell biology, cognitive neuroscience, and genetics, they identify a number of "choice points" that life scientists confront in developing mechanistic explanations and show how different choices result in divergent explanatory models. Describing decomposition as the attempt to differentiate functional and structural components of a system and localization as the assignment of responsibility for specific functions to specific structures, Bechtel and Richardson examine the usefulness of these heuristics as well as their fallibility-the sometimes false assumption underlying them that nature is significantly decomposable and hierarchically organized. When Discovering Complexity was originally published in 1993, few philosophers of science perceived the centrality of seeking mechanisms to explain phenomena in biology, relying instead on the model of nomological explanation advanced by the logical positivists (a model Bechtel and Richardson found to be utterly inapplicable to the examples from the life sciences in their study). Since then, mechanism and mechanistic explanation have become widely discussed. In a substantive new introduction to this MIT Press edition of their book, Bechtel and Richardson examine both philosophical and scientific developments in research on mechanistic models since 1993.

General

Imprint: MIT Press
Country of origin: United States
Series: Discovering Complexity
Release date: August 2010
First published: 2010
Authors: William Bechtel (Professor of Philosophy) • Robert C. Richardson
Dimensions: 229 x 152 x 19mm (L x W x T)
Format: Paperback - Trade
Pages: 340
ISBN-13: 978-0-262-51473-6
Categories: Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Industrial applications of scientific research & technological innovation
Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Life sciences: general issues > Bio-ethics
Promotions
LSN: 0-262-51473-7
Barcode: 9780262514736

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!

Partners