Mechanistic Information as Evidence in Decision-Oriented Science

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• 作者：José Luis Luján ; Oliver Todt…
• 关键词：Mechanistic information ; Risk assessment ; Mechanistic explanation ; Inference guides ; Standards of evidence
• 刊名：Journal for General Philosophy of Science
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：September 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：47
• 期：2
• 页码：293-306
• 全文大小：419 KB
• 刊物类别：Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
• 刊物主题：Philosophy
  Philosophy of Science
  History
  Philosophy of Education
  Methodology of the Social Sciences
  Social Sciences
  
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1572-8587
• 卷排序：47

文摘

Mechanistic information is used in the field of risk assessment in order to clarify two controversial methodological issues, the selection of inference guides and the definition of standards of evidence. In this paper we present an analysis of the concept of mechanistic information in risk assessment by recurring to previous philosophical analyses of mechanistic explanation. Our conclusion is that the conceptual analysis of mechanistic explanation facilitates a better characterization of the concept of mechanistic information. However, it also shows that the use of this kind of information in risk assessment is heavily influenced by pragmatic factors, which have not been sufficiently taken into account in philosophical analysis. Mechanistic models are like hypothesis that have to be validated empirically. Due to their dependence on the standards of evidence, they are subject to the same pragmatic factors. Therefore, recurring to mechanistic information does not lead to closure of the methodological controversies in risk assessment.