Mechanisms are Real and Local

Phyllis McKay Illari, Jon Williamson

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)

    28 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Mechanisms have become much-discussed, yet there is still no consensus on how to characterise them. In this paper, we start with something everyone is agreed on – that mechanisms explain – and investigate what constraints this imposes on our metaphysics of mechanisms. We examine two widely shared premises about how to understand mechanistic explanation: (1) that mechanistic explanation offers a welcome alternative to traditional laws-based explanation and (2) that there are two senses of mechanistic explanation that we call ‘epistemic explanation’ and ‘physical explanation’. We argue that mechanistic explanation requires that mechanisms are both real and local. We then go on to argue that real, local mechanisms require a broadly active metaphysics for mechanisms, such as a capacities metaphysics.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationCausality in the Sciences
    EditorsPhyllis McKay Illari, Federica Russo, Jon Williamson
    PublisherOxford University Press (OUP)
    Pages818-44
    ISBN (Print)0199574138, 978-0199574131
    Publication statusPublished - 2011

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