Beyond componential constitution in the brain : starburst amacrine cells and enabling constraints

dc.contributor.authorAnderson, Michael L.
dc.date.accessioned2016-10-24T10:41:49Z
dc.date.available2016-10-24T12:41:49Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.description.abstractComponential mechanism (Craver 2008) is an increasingly influential framework for understanding the norms of good explanation in neuroscience and beyond. Componential mechanism “construes explanation as a matter of decomposing systems into their parts and showing how those parts are organized together in such a way as to exhibit the explanandum phenomenon” (Craver 2008, p. 109). Although this clearly describes some instances of successful explanation, I argue here that as currently formulated the framework is too narrow to capture the full range of good mechanistic explanations in the neurosciences. The centerpiece of this essay is a case study of Starburst Amacrine Cells —a type of motion-sensitive cell in mammalian retina —for which function emerges from structure in a way that appears to violate the conditions specified by componential mechanism as currently conceived. I argue that the case of Starburst Amacrine Cells should move us to replace the notion of mechanistic componential constitution with a more general notion of enabling constraint. Introducing enabling constraints as a conceptual tool will allow us to capture and appropriately characterize a wider class of structure-function relationships in the brain and elsewhere.en_GB
dc.identifier.doihttp://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-660
dc.identifier.urihttps://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/662
dc.identifier.urnurn:nbn:de:hebis:77-publ-550078
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsInC-1.0de_DE
dc.rights.urihttps://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
dc.subject.ddc100 Philosophiede_DE
dc.subject.ddc100 Philosophyen_GB
dc.titleBeyond componential constitution in the brain : starburst amacrine cells and enabling constraintsen_GB
dc.typeBuchbeitragde_DE
jgu.book.editorMetzinger, Thomas
jgu.book.titleOpen MIND
jgu.organisation.departmentFB 05 Philosophie und Philologie
jgu.organisation.nameJohannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
jgu.organisation.number7920
jgu.organisation.placeMainz
jgu.organisation.rorhttps://ror.org/023b0x485
jgu.pages.alternativeKap. 1(T)
jgu.publisher.doi10.15502/9783958570429
jgu.publisher.nameMIND Group
jgu.publisher.placeFrankfurt am Main
jgu.publisher.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.15502/9783958570429
jgu.publisher.year2015
jgu.rights.accessrightsopenAccess
jgu.subject.ddccode100
jgu.type.dinitypeBookPart
jgu.type.resourceText
jgu.type.versionPublished versionen_GB
opus.date.accessioned2016-10-24T10:41:49Z
opus.date.available2016-10-24T12:41:49
opus.date.modified2016-10-31T11:20:24Z
opus.identifier.opusid55007
opus.institute.number0508
opus.metadataonlyfalse
opus.organisation.stringFB 05: Philosophie und Philologie: Philosophisches Seminarde_DE
opus.relation.ispartofcollectionOpen Mindde_DE
opus.subject.dfgcode02-110
opus.type.contenttypeKeinede_DE
opus.type.contenttypeNoneen_GB

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