Revisiting abstraction and idealization in molecular biology (British Society for Philosophy of Science Annual Conference (BSPS 2019))

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F19%3A10396385" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/19:10396385 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Revisiting abstraction and idealization in molecular biology (British Society for Philosophy of Science Annual Conference (BSPS 2019))

Original language description

Abstraction has been understood as a process by which scientists omit certain features that are deemed irrelevant for the occurence of the studied phenomena. Idealization, on the other hand, is commonly construed as a way of distorting selected features. According to one of the most popular accounts of scientific explanation, the mechanistic account of explanation, scientists attempt to build models that accurately represent all and only the difference-making factors that are responsible for the production of phenomena. However, the common practice in molecular biology modeling is to omit as well as distort various features, or so has been argued. These apparent distortions include the practices of disregarding the role of concentration, treating molecular complexes as if they were single-operating units, and treating the fuzzy process of constant binding and detaching of molecules as if the process was linear. Thus, it seems that the difference-making factors are commonly being distorted. I argue that this line of thinking is misguided as it rests on underdeveloped notions of abstraction and idealization. The analysis I present shows how the objection against the mechanistic account of explanation fails, despite the fact that the objection has gained in popularity.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA19-04236S" target="_blank" >GA19-04236S: Simplifying assumptions and non-causal explanations</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2019

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů