Mechanisms and Models

Drawing on the work of William Bechtel and RonaldGiere the book outlines an interpretive framework for the study ofthe sciences based on mechanisms and models rather than laws. Thefirst part looks at the history of mathematics and mechanisticexplanation which developed hand in hand in the 17th century andprovided support for the idea that scientific knowledge isepitomized by laws of nature. The second part develops a framework formechanistic explanation that is not based primarily on laws. Thethird part presents a model-based account of scientificexplanation and a naturalized account of reasoning and judgment inwhich scientists are seen as constructing models that are similar tovarious aspects of the real world rather than discovering universalgeneralizations or laws of nature the truth of which can bewarranted by the employment of universal principles of rationalitythat can be justified a priori; and the use of models torepresent the world can only be understood within the context of scientificpractice in which interests and purposes as well as empiricalobservations play a role in determining what models are proposed