The structure and form of neuroscientific explanations is my main area of interest and I have yet to write about on this blog. That is all about to change. Today, I begin a series on the work of Carl Craver, a philosopher who looks directly at the nature of neuroscientific explanations.
Craver has one of my favourite takes on the subject since he offers a fantastically detailed examination of multi-level mechanistic explanations. If you are intimidated by that phrase now, don't worry it will all make sense at the end.
In forthcoming entries I will go through the majority* of his scholarly articles, offering summaries and comments along the way.
Index to the Series
Index to the Series
1. "Thinking About Mechanisms" by Machamer, Darden and Craver
- Part 1: Introduction to Mechanisms
- Part 2: The Depolarisation Mechanism
- Part 3: Hierarchies, Schemata and Intelligibility
2. "When Mechanistic Models Explain"
3. "Top-down Causation without Top-Down Causes"
4. "Interlevel Experiments and Multilevel Mechanisms in the Neuroscience of Memory"
- Part 1: The LTP Mechanism
- Part 2: The Levels of the LTP Mechanism
- Part 3: Interlevel Experiments and Integration
5. "The Making of a Memory Mechanism"
6. "Role Functions, Mechanism and Hierarchy"
7. "Dissociable Realisation and Kind-Splitting"
*I have included articles which I was able to access online (through university subscription). Craver also has a book published in 2007 by the Oxford University Press, which you can purchase here or here. I have not read this book. I assume there is great overlap between its contents and the contents of these scholarly articles, but I may be wrong.
