Abstract
New Mechanist philosophical models of "phenomenon reconstitution" understand the process to be driven by explanatory considerations. Here I discuss an episode of phenomenon reconstitution that occurred entirely within an experimental program dedicated to characterizing (rather than explaining) the phenomenon of kinesin motility. Rather than being driven by explanatory considerations, as standard mechanist views maintain, I argue that the phenomenon of kinesin motility was reconstituted to enhance researchers’ primary experimental tool—the single molecule motility assay.
Highlights
Following (Bogen & Woodward, 1988), the New Mechanist philosophy of science tells us that phenomena are targets of explanation in science
A number of philosophers have recently considered the ways in which scientists treat phenomena as objects of investigation in their own right (Colaço, 2018, 2020; Feest, 2011, 2017). Taking cues from this recent work, I analyze a case of phenomenon reconstitution that occurred entirely within an experimental program dedicated to characterizing, rather than explaining, the phenomenon of kinesin movement
Several biochemical studies suggested that a tubulin heterodimer can bind only one kinesin head (Song & Mandelkow, 1993; Walker, 1995; Tucker & Goldstein, 1997)
Summary
Following (Bogen & Woodward, 1988), the New Mechanist philosophy of science tells us that phenomena are targets of explanation in science. Mechanistic explanation consists in specifying the organized parts and operations (entities and activities) constituting the mechanism responsible for generating a phenomenon of interest (Bechtel & Abrahamsen, 2005; Machamer et al, 2000). As (Illari & Williamson, 2012) put it: All mechanistic explanations begin with (a) the identification of a phenomenon or some phenomena to be explained, (b) proceed by decomposition into the entities and activities relevant to the phenomenon, and (c) give the organization of entities and activities by which they produce the phenomenon (123)
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