Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Mechanisms Versus Causes in Biology
and Medicine
Lindley Darden
Abstract Biologists use knowledge of mechanisms for explanation, prediction,
and control. Philosophers of biology, working in the new mechanistic philosophy
of science, have identified features of an adequate description of a biological
mechanism. The very abstract schema term “cause” may refer to any of various
components of a mechanism, or even conditions needed for it to operate. A case
study of the disease cystic fibrosis illustrates the advantages (and complexities) of
identifying the various stages of the relevant mechanisms. Such knowledge is more
useful than merely claiming that a mutation in the CFTR gene causes the disease,
given the goals of explanation, prediction, and control of disease symptoms.
Knowledge of “mechanism produces phenomenon” is often much more useful for
explanation, prediction, and control than “C causes E.”
1
Introduction
Contemporary biologists often seek to discover mechanisms. Many such
discoveries were major achievements in twentieth-century biology, such as the
mechanism of Mendelian heredity (Morgan et al.
1915
; Darden
1991
), the numer-
ous mechanisms of cellular metabolism (Bechtel
2006
), mechanisms in neurosci-
ence (Craver
2007
), and the mechanisms of DNA replication, protein synthesis, and
gene expression in molecular biology (Watson et al.
2007
; Darden and Craver
2002
). Philosophers of biology are now studying the nature of biological
mechanisms in “the new mechanistic philosophy” (Skipper and Millstein
2005
).
The team of Peter Machamer, Lindley Darden, and Carl Craver characterized
mechanisms and applied that characterization to cases from molecular biology and
L. Darden (
*
)
Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland, 1125A Skinner Building,
College Park 20742, MD, USA
e-mail:
darden@umd.edu
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