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Scientists studying the burning of stars, the evolution of species,
DNA, the brain, the economy, and social change, all frequently
describe their work as searching for mechanisms. Despite this fact,
for much of the twentieth century philosophical discussions of the
nature of mechanisms remained outside philosophy of science. The
Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy is an
outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and
debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its
kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international
contributors, the Handbook is divided into four Parts: Historical
perspectives on mechanisms The nature of mechanisms Mechanisms and
the philosophy of science Disciplinary perspectives on mechanisms.
Within these Parts central topics and problems are examined,
including the rise of mechanical philosophy in the seventeenth
century; what mechanisms are made of and how they are organized;
mechanisms and laws and regularities; how mechanisms are discovered
and explained; dynamical systems theory; and disciplinary
perspectives from physics, chemistry, biology, biomedicine,
ecology, neuroscience, and the social sciences. Essential reading
for students and researchers in philosophy of science, the Handbook
will also be of interest to those in related fields, such as
metaphysics, philosophy of psychology, and history of science.
Scientists studying the burning of stars, the evolution of species,
DNA, the brain, the economy, and social change, all frequently
describe their work as searching for mechanisms. Despite this fact,
for much of the twentieth century philosophical discussions of the
nature of mechanisms remained outside philosophy of science. The
Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy is an
outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and
debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its
kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international
contributors, the Handbook is divided into four Parts: Historical
perspectives on mechanisms The nature of mechanisms Mechanisms and
the philosophy of science Disciplinary perspectives on mechanisms.
Within these Parts central topics and problems are examined,
including the rise of mechanical philosophy in the seventeenth
century; what mechanisms are made of and how they are organized;
mechanisms and laws and regularities; how mechanisms are discovered
and explained; dynamical systems theory; and disciplinary
perspectives from physics, chemistry, biology, biomedicine,
ecology, neuroscience, and the social sciences. Essential reading
for students and researchers in philosophy of science, the Handbook
will also be of interest to those in related fields, such as
metaphysics, philosophy of psychology, and history of science.
The New Mechanical Philosophy argues for a new image of nature and
of science-one that understands both natural and social phenomena
to be the product of mechanisms, and that casts the work of science
as an effort to discover and understand those mechanisms. Drawing
on an expanding literature on mechanisms in physical, life, and
social sciences, Stuart Glennan offers an account of the nature of
mechanisms and of the models used to represent them. A key quality
of mechanisms is that they are particulars - located at different
places and times, with no one just like another. The crux of the
scientist's challenge is to balance the complexity and
particularity of mechanisms with our need for representations of
them that are abstract and general. This volume weaves together
metaphysical and methodological questions about mechanisms.
Metaphysically, it explores the implications of the mechanistic
framework for our understanding of classical philosophical
questions about the nature of objects, properties, processes,
events, causal relations, natural kinds and laws of nature.
Methodologically, the book explores how scientists build models to
represent and understand phenomena and the mechanisms responsible
for them. Using this account of representation, Glennan offers a
scheme for characterizing the enormous diversity of things that
scientists call mechanisms, and explores the scope and limits of
mechanistic explanation.
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