New mechanism : explanation, emergence and reduction / João L. Cordovil, Gil Santos, Davide Vecchi, editors

Includes bibliographical references and index

Chapter 1. A framework for mapping mechanistic perspectives (João Cordovil, Gil Santos, Davide Vecchi ) -- Chapter 2. Different Types of Mechanistic Explanation and Their Ontological Implications (Beate Krickel ) -- Chapter 3. The Metabolic Theory of Ecology as a Mechanistic Approach (Gonçalo Martins) -- Chapter 4. Causing and composing evolution: lessons from evo-devo mechanisms (Cristina Villegas) -- Chapter 5. Organisms need mechanisms; Mechanisms need organisms (William Bechtel and Leonardo Bich) -- Chapter 6. Searching for protein folding mechanisms: on the insoluble contrast between thermodynamic and kinetic explanatory approaches (Gabriel Vallejos and Davide Vecchi) -- Chapter 7. Mechanisms in Chemistry (Robin Findlay Hendry) -- Chapter 8. A commentary on Robin Hendry's views on molecular structure, emergence and chemical bonding (Eric Scerri) -- Chapter 9. Fundamental Physics and (New-)Mechanistic Ontologies (João L. Cordovil) -- Chapter 10. Mechanistic Explanations in Physics: History, Scope, and Limits (Brigitte Falkenburg) -- Chapter 11. The Mechanisms of Emergence (Stuart Glennan) -- Chapter 12. Emergence, Downward Causation and Interlevel Integrative Explanations (Gil Santos) -- Index

This open access book addresses the epistemological and ontological significance as well as the scope of new mechanism. In particular, this book addresses the issues of what is "new" about new mechanism, the epistemological and ontological reasons underlying the adoption of mechanistic instead of other modelling strategies as well as the possibility of mechanistic explanation to accommodate a non-trivial notion of emergence. Arguably, new mechanism has been particularly successful in making sense of scientific practice in the molecular life sciences. But what about other sciences? This book enlarges the context of analysis, addressing the issue of the putative compatibility between the current ways of conceiving new mechanism and actual scientific practices in quantum physics, chemistry, biochemistry, developmental biology and the cognitive sciences