The new mechanist philosophy: its main contributions to the philosophy of science

Abstract

During the last years the New Mechanistic Philosophy has been acquiring a prominent significance in the philosophy of science. This mode of thought asseverates that a great variety of phenomena in concrete systems are a result of the operation of mechanisms. The present paper analyses some of the more salient topics of NMP: 1) the using of regularities instead of laws; 2) the mechanistic explanation as an alternative model to nomothetic explanations —because their show what is happening, without specifying how—; and 3) the compromise with the notion of causality, which is thought both in terms of production and of counterfactual dependence. An analysis on the ontology of mechanisms (monism vs. dualism) will also be offered.