VIII.14

The Concept of Mechanism in Biology

Dan Nicholson
University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

This paper presents a historical and philosophical analysis of the concept of ‘mechanism’ in biology which is used to critically evaluate the new research programme of mechanismic philosophy (often misleadingly called "the new mechanistic philosophy"). I show that the term ‘mechanism’ is used in three different senses which are frequently conflated in contemporary philosophical discussions. Moreover, I argue that what modern-day biologists mean by ‘mechanism’ is an explanatory device whose content is derived from the context in which it is used. The implication of this is that the attempt to provide a unified characterization of mechanisms can only succeed at the expense of sacrificing the substantiality and usefulness of the characterization. Finally, I expose some of the problems underlying the rationale of mechanismic philosophy.