Reply to Cartwright, Pemberton, Wieten: “mechanisms, laws and explanation”

Abstract

Cartwright et al. in European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 10(3) (2020) and the new mechanists agree that regular behaviors described in cp laws are generated by mechanisms. However, there is disagreement with regard to the two questions that Cartwright at al. ask: the epistemological question (“What kind of explanation is involved?”) and the ontological question (“What is going on in the world?”). Most importantly, Cartwright et al. argue that the explanation involved is a CL-explanation, while the new mechanists insist that mechanistic explanation and CL-explanation are competitors. In this reply, I will highlight some worries regarding Cartwright et al.’s analysis of the relationship between mechanisms and cp laws and I will provide alternative answers to the two questions in line with the new mechanistic approach.