Definition
An explanation of a characteristic of a system is an account of why that system has that characteristic.
Characteristics
Explanations in biology, unlike those in physics, rarely proceed by filling out the parameters in mathematical equations (laws) that describe the general characteristics of the relevant form of organization. With the notable exception of population genetics and theoretical ecology, biologists typically employ mechanistic, functional, and historical strategies of explanation, rather than mathematical ones. To some scientists, this is a sign of the immaturity of biology, perhaps resulting from the difficulty to take into account the extraordinary high number of parameters and variables relevant to the phenomena that interest biologists. Structuralist biologists such as Brian Goodwin (e.g., 1994) have pointed to the dominance of gene-centered and historical approaches as the main source of immaturity. They hope that in the future, more research, more data,...
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Wouters, A. (2013). Explanation in Biology. In: Dubitzky, W., Wolkenhauer, O., Cho, KH., Yokota, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Systems Biology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9863-7_61
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9863-7_61
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
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