Mechanistic Functionalism

2020 ◽  
pp. 89-106
Author(s):  
Gualtiero Piccinini
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Realizability ◽  
Special Sciences ◽  
Functional Mechanisms ◽  
Relevant Level

The first three chapters introduced mechanisms, including functional mechanisms—that is, mechanisms that have teleological functions. This chapter introduces a mechanistic version of functionalism. Functionalism is the view that the nature of something is functional. Mechanistic functionalism embeds this claim in the functions of mechanisms and their components. Mechanistic functions are inseparable from the structures that perform them at the relevant level of organization. Weak (mechanistic) functionalism entails multiple realizability; strong (mechanistic) functionalism entails medium independence. Thus, even if medium independence is closely related to computation, (mechanistic) functionalism about cognition does not entail that cognition is computational. In addition, (mechanistic) functionalism entails neither traditional anti-reductionism nor the autonomy of the special sciences.

New Physical Properties

1998 ◽  
pp. 155-164
Author(s):  
Manuel Liz
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Physical Property ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Downward Causation ◽  
Multiple Realizability ◽  
Special Sciences

Discussions about physicalism, reduction, special sciences, the layered image of reality, multiple realizability, emergence, downward causation, etc., typically make the ontological presupposition that there is no room for new properties in the physical world. The domain of physical properties would thus have been established once and for all. It is my purpose in this paper to explore the alternative hypothesis that there can be, and that in fact there are, new physical properties. In the first section, I propose a brief analysis of the notions of property, physical property, and new physical property. In the second section, I present four general situations in which it would be plausible to speak of the existence of new physical properties. All of this is used to evaluate the content and scope of the hypothesis of physical novelty. Lastly, I examine certain interesting consequences of such a physical novelty in relation to some of the above mentioned topics.

Tubulin structure at intermediate resolution

1995 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 852-853
Author(s):  
K. H. Downing ◽  
S. G. Wolf ◽  
E. Nogales
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Structural Data ◽  
Therapeutic Drug ◽  
Zinc Ions ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Negative Stain ◽  
Functional Mechanisms ◽  
Tubulin Structure

Microtubules are involved in a host of critical cell activities, many of which involve transport of organelles through the cell. Different sets of microtubules appear to form during the cell cycle for different functions. Knowledge of the structure of tubulin will be necessary in order to understand the various functional mechanisms of microtubule assemble, disassembly, and interaction with other molecules, but tubulin has so far resisted crystallization for x-ray diffraction studies. Fortuitously, in the presence of zinc ions, tubulin also forms two-dimensional, crystalline sheets that are ideally suited for study by electron microscopy. We have refined procedures for forming the sheets and preparing them for EM, and have been able to obtain high-resolution structural data that sheds light on the formation and stabilization of microtubules, and even the interaction with a therapeutic drug.Tubulin sheets had been extensively studied in negative stain, demonstrating that the same protofilament structure was formed in the sheets and microtubules. For high resolution studies, we have found that the sheets embedded in either glucose or tannin diffract to around 3 Å.

An empirical test of situational strength's functional mechanisms

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irwin J. Jose ◽  
Rustin D. Meyer ◽  
Richard Hermida ◽  
Vivek Khare ◽  
Reeshad S. Dalal
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Test ◽  
Functional Mechanisms

Developments in 3D Echocardiography

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Luis Zamorano ◽  
Keyword(s):  
3D Echocardiography ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Clinical Tool ◽  
3D Images ◽  
Processing Power ◽  
2D Echocardiography ◽  
Automated Quantification ◽  
Heart Cycle ◽  
Functional Mechanisms ◽  
Full Volume

3D echocardiography (3DE) will gain increasing acceptance as a routine clinical tool as the technology evolves due to advances in technology and computer processing power. Images obtained from 3DE provide more accurate assessment of complex cardiac anatomy and sophisticated functional mechanisms compared with conventional 2D echocardiography (2DE), and are comparable to those achieved with magnetic resonance imaging. Many of the limitations associated with the early iterations of 3DE prevented their widespread clinical application. However, recent significant improvements in transducer and post-processing software technologies have addressed many of these issues. Furthermore, the most recent advances in the ability to image the entire heart in realtime and fully automated quantification have poised 3DE to become more ubiquitous in clinical routine. Realtime 3DE (RT3DE) systems offer further improvements in the diagnostic and treatment planning capabilities of cardiac ultrasound. Innovations such as the ability to acquire non-stitched, realtime, full-volume 3D images of the heart in a single heart cycle promise to overcome some of the current limitations of current RT3DE systems, which acquire images over four to seven cardiac cycles, with the need for gating and the potential for stitch artefacts.

Criticism of D.B Volkov’s Teleofunctional Solution to the Problem of Mental Causation

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-135
Author(s):  
Anton V. Kuznetsov
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Mental Causation ◽  
Physical Factors ◽  
Multiple Realizability ◽  
Causal Relevance ◽  
Relational Properties ◽  
Local Properties ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Mental Properties ◽  
First Editions

The articles examines the teleofunctional solution to the problem of mental causation, presented by Dmitry Volkov in his recently published book Free Will. An Illusion or an Opportunity. D.B. Volkov proposes solutions to three big metaphysical problems – mental causation, personal identity, and free will. Solving the first problem, Volkov creatively combines the advantages of Dennett’s teleofunctional model and Vasilyev’s local interactionism. Volkov’s teleofunctional model of mental causation seeks to prove the causal relevance of mental properties as non-local higher order properties. In my view, its substantiation is based on three points: (a) critics of the exclusion problem and Kim’s model of mental causation, (b) “Library of first editions” argument, (c) reduction of the causal trajectories argument (CTA 1) by Vasilyev to the counterpart argument (CTA 2) by Volkov. Each of these points faces objections. Kim’s criticism is based on an implicit confusion of two types of reduction – reduction from supervenience and from multiple realizability. The latter type does not threaten Kim’s ideas, but Volkov uses this very type in his criticism. The “Library of first editions” argument does not achieve its goal due to compositional features and because non-local relational properties are a type of external properties that cannot be causally relevant. The reduction of CTA 1 to CTA 2 is unsuccessful since, in the case of this reduction, important features of CTA 1 are lost – these are local mental properties, due to which the influence of non-local physical factors occurs. My main objection is that the concept of causally relevant non-local properties is incompatible with the very concept of cause. The set of causally relevant properties of cause can only be local.

New Applications of Oleanolic Acid and its Derivatives as Cardioprotective Agents: A Review of their Therapeutic Perspectives

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (35) ◽  
pp. 3740-3750 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Sun ◽  
Dongli Li ◽  
Xiaoqing Chen ◽  
Panpan Wu ◽  
Yu-Jing Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oleanolic Acid ◽  
Liver Diseases ◽  
Therapeutic Agent ◽  
Heart Diseases ◽  
Pentacyclic Triterpenoids ◽  
Hepatic Drug ◽  
Approved Drugs ◽  
New Applications ◽  
Functional Mechanisms ◽  
Potent Therapeutic Agent

Oleanolic acid is an analogue of pentacyclic triterpenoids. It has been used as a hepatic drug for over 20 years in China. Currently, there are only five approved drugs derived from pentacyclic triterpenoids, including oleanolic acid (liver diseases), asiaticoside (wound healing), glycyrrhizinate (liver diseases), isoglycyrrhizinate (liver disease) and sodium aescinate (hydrocephalus). To understand more about the bioactivity and functional mechanisms of oleanolic acid, it can be developed as a potent therapeutic agent, in particular, for the prevention and treatment of heart diseases that are the leading cause of death for people worldwide. The primary aim of this mini-review is to summarize the new applications of oleanolic acid and its derivatives as cardioprotective agents reported in recent years and to highlight their therapeutic perspectives in cardiovascular diseases.

Ungrounded Dispositions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer McKitrick
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Realizability ◽  
Scientific Explanations ◽  
Mechanistic Explanations

Some dispositions have causal bases or grounding properties. However, ungrounded dispositions do not have causal bases. Ungrounded dispositions are also known as powers, baseless dispositions, and bare dispositions. Ungrounded dispositions are not supplanted by mechanistic explanations, for even mechanistic explanations ultimately reference dispositions. While some argue that citing dispositions does not really explain anything, dispositions can in fact figure in adequate explanations. Furthermore, scientific explanations reference dispositions with no known grounds. This lends some support for the view that ungrounded dispositions are metaphysically possible. Philosophical arguments based on multiple realizability or the demand for truth-makers fail to show that ungrounded dispositions are impossible.

scholarly journals Functional mechanisms of MYRF DNA-binding domain mutations implicated in birth defects

2021 ◽  
Vol 296 ◽  
pp. 100612
Author(s):  
Chuandong Fan ◽  
Hongjoo An ◽  
Mohamed Sharif ◽  
Dongkyeong Kim ◽  
Yungki Park
Keyword(s):  
Dna Binding ◽  
Birth Defects ◽  
Binding Domain ◽  
Dna Binding Domain ◽  
Functional Mechanisms
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