Phenomenological Reviews

Book | Chapter

185692

The product guides the process

discovering disease mechanisms

Lindley Darden Lipika PalKunal KunduJohn Moult

pp. 101-117

Abstract

The nature of the product to be discovered guides the reasoning to discover it. Biologists and medical researchers often search for mechanisms. The "new mechanistic philosophy of science" provides resources about the nature of biological mechanisms that aid the discovery of mechanisms. Here, we apply these resources to the discovery of mechanisms in medicine. A new diagrammatic representation of a disease mechanism chain indicates both what is known and, most significantly, what is not known at a given time, thereby guiding the researcher and collaborators in discovery. Mechanisms of genetic diseases provide the examples.

Publication details

Published in:

Danks David, Ippoliti Emiliano (2018) Building theories: heuristics and hypotheses in sciences. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 101-117

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-72787-5_6

Full citation:

Darden Lindley, Pal Lipika, Kundu Kunal, Moult John (2018) „The product guides the process: discovering disease mechanisms“, In: D. Danks & E. Ippoliti (eds.), Building theories, Dordrecht, Springer, 101–117.