Building Integrated Explanatory Models of Complex Biological Phenomena: From Mill’s Methods to a Causal Mosaic

Abstract

Mill’s methods involve two idealizations (“one cause, one effect” and “no mixing of effects”), but causal relationships in biology usually exhibit a plurality of causes and intermixture of effects. Building explanatory models to capture these relations remains a challenge because similar idealizations occur in contemporary causal reasoning (e.g., difference making). The problem is poignant for formulating integrated models of different types of causes, such as combining physical and genetic causes to understand their joint contribution to anatomical structures in embryogenesis. Standardized periodizations can help in formulating integrated explanatory models within developmental biology that are causal mosaics of reasoning from difference making and production (mechanism) accounts. A consequence of this strategy is a tradeoff between models that yield causal generalizations of wide scope and models that locally integrate different types of causes to comprehensively explain complex phenomena.