Abstract

BARBERIS, Sergio Daniel. Mechanism, Explanatory Pluralism and Efficient Coding Explanation in Neuroscience. Rev Arg Cs Comp. [online]. 2017, vol.9, n.1, pp.09-18. ISSN 1852-4206.

There is a growing debate within the Philosophy community concerning the unity and diversity of explanation in neuroscience. The new Mechanist philosophy claims that neuroscience exhibits a mosaic unity in which models from multiple scientific fields contribute to the collective mechanistic explanation of an explanandum phenomenon φ by setting causal constraints on the space of possible mechanisms for φ. Non-mechanist philosophers acknowledge the relevance (even the centrality) of mechanistic research, but they want to emphasize the plurality and diversity of explanatory research programs in neuroscience. In this paper I argue, first, that the kind of explanatory pluralism many non-mechanist philosophers endorse -which I call 'causally restricted pluralism'- is not a genuine alternative to Mechanism. Then, I present a liberalized interpretation of explanatory pluralism, one according to which there are models in neuroscience that contribute to the collective explanation of some phenomenon φ but that are not intended to set causal constraints on the space of possible mechanisms for φ. Finally, I review an explanatory research program in neuroscience, namely, efficient coding explanation, which is better accounted for by the liberalized interpretation of pluralism.

Keywords : Words; Mechanism; Unity of Science; Explanatory Pluralism; Causality; Efficient Coding Explanation.

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