Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2005

Publication Title

Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

First Page

443

Last Page

464

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2005.03.011

Abstract

Philosophers of science increasingly believe that much of science is concerned with understanding the mechanisms responsible for the production of natural phenomena. An adequate understanding of scientific research requires an account of how scientists develop and test models of mechanisms. This paper offers a general account of the nature of mechanical models, discussing the representational relationship that holds between mechanisms and their models as well as the techniques that can be used to test and refine such models. The analysis is supported by study of two competing models of a mechanism of speech perception.

Rights

Permission to post this publication in our archive was granted by the copyright holder, Elsevier Ltd. This copy should be used for educational and research purposes only.

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