Publication Details

Abstract

Philosophical criticism of mechanism.in biology cannot be successful unless the meaning of the term of mechanism is clearly defined and its vagueness is restricted. The bacis causes of the rise and existence of mechanism in sciences lie in the sphere of scientific knowledge itself. The main signs of the ontological mechanism in biology are as follows: 1. the biological system is considered as an aggregate of components (e. g., cells); 2. it is a static construction, an engine; 3. it is a passive system; 4. biological processes are univocally determined by causally acting factors; 5. only qualitative or only quantitative changes are characteristic of growth, ontogeny and phylogeny. The basis of the ontological mechanism is formed by substantial ontological models. Various ways of unjustified reductions and absolutizations in the construction of scientific theories are typical of the methodological mechanism. The gnoseological causes of biological mechanism follow the relation between subject and object, from the relation of the present'and the historical in knowledge, from the discontinuous nature of language, from the traditions of the analytical way of thinking in biology, from a wide use of analogies and models etc. If a certain solution, opinion or procedure in science is designated as mechanistic, the pronouncement of a normative (evaluating) statement is involved. It is possible to formulate objectively valid evaluating judgments; the ideal of science and scientific quality serves as a starting point. Mechanism in contemporary biology is evaluated negatively; the dialectical solution is a positive one.