Processes, Mechanisms, and Mechanistic Models

Abstract

AbstractAmong the philosophical approaches to explanation in the biological and biomedical sciences, the so-called mechanistic approach has doubtless been the subject of the widest, most lively debate. The inevitably incomplete account presented in this chapter will be confined to some of the main philosophical issues addressed, some of the most successful views put forward, and their possible impact on the approach to debating mechanisms in the health sciences, their epistemic import and the limits of the mechanistic approach.