CAREER: Causal Explanation in Biology and the Diversity of Causal Concepts

职业：生物学中的因果解释和因果概念的多样性

• 批准号: 1945647
• 负责人: Lauren Ross
• 金额: $ 40.34万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1945647&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Causal; Explanation; Biology; Diversity

This award supports a CAREER proposal. Such proposals have a research component, and a closely integrated pedagogical component. The research project is to develop a novel account of scientific explanation that captures the diversity of causal concepts, structures, and reasoning in biology. It will expand on mechanistic views that have dominated the field for the past two decades; it does so in a way that is guided by actual explanatory reasoning in biology. The project will demonstrate how distinct patterns of explanation can be understood within an interventionist account of causation. The theoretical foundation for understanding biological explanation to be developed in this project promises to clarify how biologists understand their work and how this work is communicated to public audiences. The pedagogical component of the project includes plans to create educational opportunities for underrepresented students, to increase diversity in the field of philosophy, and to improve undergraduate student training in the use of historical and philosophical methods to address questions about scientific methodology. There are also plans to develop resources for science communication and guidelines for communication of biological explanation to different audiences. These impacts will be achieved through a summer diversity program for underrepresented groups in philosophy, the development of a biology interest group at UC Irvine, and the implementation of a set of classroom diversity initiatives that reflect consideration of UC Irvine’s minority-serving institution status.In the context of modern biology, the way that scientists describe their research often makes use of a mechanistic framework; biological phenomena are understood as machine-like, having lower-level causal parts that all interact to produce some outcome of interest. As a result, philosophers of science and the general public have come to regard explanations in biology as predominantly mechanistic. However, this view fails to accommodate the diversity of causal concepts in biology that differ from the mechanistic paradigm. For example, biologists appeal to causal concepts that are not well understood with the notion of mechanism including concepts such as pathways, cascades, triggers, and processes. This suggests that causal explanation is more diverse and variegated than the single mechanistic paradigm that is communicated by scientists and supported by philosophers. A view that reduces all biological explanation to mechanisms, obscures the rich and diverse set of causal concepts, reasoning strategies, and experimental techniques that are found in this scientific field. Maintaining our best biological science requires that scientists have an awareness of this diversity, that it is properly characterized in science communication, and that is it appreciated in the philosophy of science literature. This research proposal will use philosophical and historical methods to develop a novel account of biological explanation that accommodates the diversity of causal concepts and causal reasoning in biology. This account will be used to further our understanding of biological explanation and enhance science communication.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项支持一项职业提案，该提案具有研究成分和紧密结合的教学成分，旨在开发一种新颖的科学解释，捕捉生物学中因果概念、结构和推理的多样性。扩展过去二十年主导该领域的机械论观点；它以生物学中的实际解释推理为指导，将展示如何在干预主义的因果关系解释中理解不同的解释模式。理论基础该项目的教学部分包括为代表性不足的学生创造教育机会的计划，以增加该领域的多样性。还计划开发科学传播资源和向不同受众传播生物学解释的指南。通过夏季多元化计划哲学领域代表性不足的群体、加州大学欧文分校生物学兴趣小组的发展，以及一系列课堂多样性倡议的实施，这些倡议反映了加州大学欧文分校为少数族裔服务的机构地位的考虑。在现代生物学的背景下，科学家们描述的方式他们的研究经常使用机械框架；生物现象被理解为类似机器，具有较低层次的因果部分，所有这些部分相互作用产生一些感兴趣的结果，因此，科学哲学家和公众开始关注。生物学上的解释占主导地位然而，这种观点无法适应生物学中与机械范式不同的因果概念的多样性，例如，生物学家诉诸于机制概念尚未被很好理解的因果概念，包括路径、级联、触发器等概念。这表明因果解释比科学家所传达并得到哲学家支持的单一机械范式更加多样化和多样化。这种观点将所有生物学解释简化为机制，掩盖了丰富多样的因果概念和推理。保持我们最好的生物科学需要科学家认识到这种多样性，并在科学传播中正确表征它，并在科学哲学文献研究中赞赏它。该提案将使用哲学和历史方法来发展一种新颖的生物学解释解释，以适应生物学中因果概念和因果推理的多样性。该解释将用于进一步我们对生物学解释的理解并加强科学交流。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定规定。使命，并通过使用评估被认为值得支持基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

项目成果

Causes with material continuity

物质连续性的原因

• DOI: 10.1007/s10539-021-09826-x
• 发表时间: 2021-11-12
• 期刊: Biology & Philosophy
• 影响因子: 2.5
• 作者: Lauren N. Ross

A call for more clarity around causality in neuroscience

呼吁更加明确神经科学中的因果关系

• DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2022.06.003
• 发表时间: 2022-09
• 期刊: Trends in Neurosciences
• 影响因子: 15.9
• 作者: Barack, David L.;Miller, Earl K.;Moore, Christopher I.;Packer, Adam M.;Pessoa, Luiz;Ross, Lauren N.;Rust, Nicole C.
• 通讯作者: Rust, Nicole C.

Causal Approaches to Explanation

因果解释方法

• 发表时间: 2023-03
• 期刊: Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy
• 作者: Ross; Lauren N.
• 通讯作者: Lauren N.

What is social structural explanation? A causal account

什么是社会结构解释？

• DOI: 10.1111/nous.12446
• 发表时间: 2023-01
• 期刊: Noûs
• 作者: Ross; Lauren N.
• 通讯作者: Lauren N.

Cascade versus Mechanism: The Diversity of Causal Structure in Science

级联与机制：科学中因果结构的多样性

• DOI: 10.1086/723623
• 发表时间: 2022-12-05
• 期刊: The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
• 作者: Lauren N. Ross