Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T13:27:10.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mechanism and Explanation in Cognitive Neuroscience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Barbara Von Eckardt  and
Jeffrey S. Poland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the usefulness of the Machamer, Darden, and Craver (2000) mechanism approach to gaining an understanding of explanation in cognitive neuroscience. We argue that although the mechanism approach can capture many aspects of explanation in cognitive neuroscience, it cannot capture everything. In particular, it cannot completely capture all aspects of the content and significance of mental representations or the evaluative features constitutive of psychopathology.

Type
Realization and Explanation in Neuroscience
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 71 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2002 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers , December 2004 , pp. 972 - 984
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

We would like thank Carl Craver for organizing the symposium session at which this paper was originally presented and Carl and Lindley Darden for useful discussion.

References

American Psychiatric Association (1994), Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association Press.Google Scholar
Bechtel, William (2001), “Cognitive Neuroscience: Relating Neural Mechanisms and Cognition”, in Machamer, Peter K., Grush, Rick, and McLaughlin, Peter (eds.), Theory and Method in the Neurosciences. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Bechtel, William, and Richardson, Robert C. (1993), Discovering Complexity: Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Craver, Carl F. (2001), “Role Functions, Mechanisms, and Hierarchy”, Role Functions, Mechanisms, and Hierarchy 68:53–74.Google Scholar
Craver, Carl F., and Darden, Lindley (2001), “Discovering Mechanisms in Neurobiology: The Case of Spatial Memory”, in Machamer, Peter K., Grush, Rick, and McLaughlin, Peter (eds.), Theory and Method in the Neurosciences. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Cummins, Robert (1975), “Functional Analysis”, Functional Analysis 72:741–765.Google Scholar
Gazzaniga, Michael S. (1989), “Editorial”, Editorial 1: 1.Google Scholar
Glennan, Stuart S. (1996), “Mechanisms and the Nature of Causation”, Mechanisms and the Nature of Causation 44:49–71.Google Scholar
Goodale, Melvyn A., Jakobson, Lorna S., and Servos, Philip ([1996] 2000), “The Visual Pathways Mediating Perception and Prehension”, in Wing, Alan M. et al. (eds.), Hand and Brain: The Neurophysiology and Psychology of Hand Movements. San Diego: Academic Press. Reprinted in Michael S. Gazzaniga (ed.), Cognitive Neuroscience: A Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 106–123.Google Scholar
Goodale, Melvyn A., and Milner, A. David (1992), “Separate Visual Pathways for Perception and Action”, Separate Visual Pathways for Perception and Action 15:20–25.Google ScholarPubMed
Machamer, Peter, Darden, Lindley, and Craver, Carl F. (2000), “Thinking about Mechanisms”, Thinking about Mechanisms 67:1–24.Google Scholar
Milner, A. David, and Goodale, Melvyn A. (1993), “Visual Pathways to Perception and Action”, Visual Pathways to Perception and Action 95:317–338.Google ScholarPubMed
Posner, Michael I., and Raichle, Marcus E. (1994), Images of Mind. New York: Scientific American Library.Google Scholar
Ungerleider, Leslie G., and Mishkin, Mortimer (1982), “Two Cortical Visual Systems”, in Ingle, David J., Goodale, Melvin A., and Mansfield, Richard J. W. (eds.), Analysis of Visual Behavior. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 549–586.Google Scholar
Von Eckardt (Klein), Barbara (1977), “Inferring Functional Localization from Neurological Evidence”, in Walker, Edward (ed.), Explorations in the Biology of Language. Montgomery, VT: Bradford Books.Google Scholar
Von Eckardt (Klein), Barbara (1993), What Is Cognitive Science? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar