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Discovering Complexity: Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research (Paperback) - Common
Excellent Book
- GenresSciencePhilosophy
340 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 16, 2024
Bastante bueno. Casos de estudio chulos, buena estructura, heurísticas interesantes. Tiene sus carencias también, pero se lo recomendaría a cualquier interesado en filosofía de la ciencia.
January 20, 2014
Though it's about 20 years old now, Bechtel and Richardson's Discovering Complexity is still strikingly relevant to the contemporary discussion in philosophy of science, partly because it hasn't been widely adopted. The discussion of "mechanisms" as an alternative for theory representations helps to shed light on some of the neglect for the biological sciences in the literature during the 90s, and though that part has gotten better, Bechtel and Richardson's points about the history of the biological sciences still remains somewhat lost.
I recommend the book to those who are looking at ways of understanding how we can come to offer substantial and engaging explanations of complex scientific mechanisms; how do we make scientific explanations accessible and comprehensible? This is a problem that is addressed well throughout the book, though many of the answers are (at least for me) unsatisfactory.
There are some interesting choices in the book in terms of case studies, which are no doubt a function of the backgrounds of Bechtel and Richardson. The cases are largely in biology, but even if we restrict ourselves to that domain, some of them seem a bit odd since things like genetics really do have good mathematical modes of explanation that aren't really effectively brought into doubt by the book; the presence of those alternatives seems to suggest that there are moments when Bechtel and Richardson somewhat overplay how much we want the mechanistic account they have in mind to do.
Overall, it is a good read. It is structure and written well, and digestible. I strongly recommend it.
I recommend the book to those who are looking at ways of understanding how we can come to offer substantial and engaging explanations of complex scientific mechanisms; how do we make scientific explanations accessible and comprehensible? This is a problem that is addressed well throughout the book, though many of the answers are (at least for me) unsatisfactory.
There are some interesting choices in the book in terms of case studies, which are no doubt a function of the backgrounds of Bechtel and Richardson. The cases are largely in biology, but even if we restrict ourselves to that domain, some of them seem a bit odd since things like genetics really do have good mathematical modes of explanation that aren't really effectively brought into doubt by the book; the presence of those alternatives seems to suggest that there are moments when Bechtel and Richardson somewhat overplay how much we want the mechanistic account they have in mind to do.
Overall, it is a good read. It is structure and written well, and digestible. I strongly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews