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<p>Philosophical discussions of the biomedical sciences have attracted considerable interest over the past few decades, with much of the debate focusing on causation, complex systems, and explanatory levels, each understood in different ways. Although a wide range of views has emerged, a small number of notions have played a prominent and cross-cutting role in understanding how biological systems function. These notions, i.e., mechanism, pathway, and network, are especially central in molecular biology, the field we focus on in this contribution. More specifically, we aim to provide a comprehensive analysis of the relations among these notions as they are employed in molecular biology, shedding light on the relationship between description and explanation, which we treat as two distinct epistemic activities.</p>

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Mechanisms, Pathways, and Networks: On Their Description and Explanation

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月31日

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  • Giovanni Boniolo,
  • Raffaella Campaner

摘要

Philosophical discussions of the biomedical sciences have attracted considerable interest over the past few decades, with much of the debate focusing on causation, complex systems, and explanatory levels, each understood in different ways. Although a wide range of views has emerged, a small number of notions have played a prominent and cross-cutting role in understanding how biological systems function. These notions, i.e., mechanism, pathway, and network, are especially central in molecular biology, the field we focus on in this contribution. More specifically, we aim to provide a comprehensive analysis of the relations among these notions as they are employed in molecular biology, shedding light on the relationship between description and explanation, which we treat as two distinct epistemic activities.