Dosis sola facit venenum: reconceptualising biological realism

DAVOODY BENI M.

BIOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY, cilt.37, sa.6, 2022 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 37 Sayı: 6
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1007/s10539-022-09884-9
  • Dergi Adı: BIOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, Periodicals Index Online, BIOSIS, Geobase, Philosopher's Index
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Free energy principle, Dynamical causal modelling, Mechanical explanations, Accuracy, Dosage, FREE-ENERGY, STRATEGY, MODELS
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Richard Levins's (Am Sci 54(4):421-431, 1966) paper sets a landmark for the significance of scientific model-making in biology. Colombo and Palacios (Biol Philos 36(5):1-26. 10.1007/S10539-021-09818-X, 2021) have recently built their critique of the explanatory power of the Free Energy Principle on Levins's insight into the relationship between generality, realism, and precision. This paper addresses the issue of the plausibility of biological explanations that are grounded in the Free Energy Principle (FEP) and deals with the question of the realist fortitude of FEP's theoretical framework. It indicates that what is required for establishing the plausibility of the explanation of a target system given a model of that system is the dosage or the harmony between the generality and accuracy of explanatory models. This would also provide a basis for seeing how scientific realism could be a viable option with respect to FEP.