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The Importance of Constraints and Control in Biological Mechanisms: Insights from Cancer Research

W. Bechtel

Published 2018 in Philosophia Scientiæ

ABSTRACT

Research on diseases such as cancer reveals that primary mechanisms, which have been the focus of study by the new mechanists in philosophy of science, are often subject to control by other mechanisms. Cancer cells employ the same primary mechanisms as healthy cells but control them differently. I use cancer research to highlight just how widespread control is in individual cells. To provide a framework for understanding control, I reconceptualize mechanisms as imposing constraints on flows of free energy, with control mechanisms operating on flexible constraints in primary mechanisms. I argue that control mechanisms themselves often form complex, integrated networks.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2018

  • Venue

    Philosophia Scientiæ

  • Publication date

    2018-04-01

  • Fields of study

    Biology, Mathematics, Philosophy

  • Identifiers
    DOI 10.1086/699192
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

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