Abstract
Philosophers intent upon characterizing the difference between physics and biology often seize upon the purported fact that physical explanations conform more closely to the covering law model than biological explanations. Central to this purported difference is the role of laws of nature in the explanations of these two sciences. However, I argue that, although certain important differences between physics and biology can be highlighted by differences between physical and biological explanations, these differences are not differences in the degree to which those explanations conform to the covering law model, which fits biology about as well as it does physics.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hempel C (1962) Explanation in science and history. In: Colodny RG (ed) Frontiers of Science and Philosophy. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh
Hempel C (1966) Philosophy of natural science. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs
Kitcher P (1985) Darwin’s achievement. In: Rescher N (ed) Reason and rationality in natural science: a group of essays. University Press of America, Pittsburgh
Kitcher P (1999) Explanatory unification. In: Boyd R, Gasper P, Trout JD (eds) The philosophy of science. The MIT Press, Cambridge
Malzkorn W (2001) Defining disposition concepts: a brief history of the problem. Stud Hist Philos Sci 32:335–353
Rosenberg A (2001a) How is biological explanation possible? Br J Philos Sci 52(4):735–760
Rosenberg A (2001b) Reductionism in a historical science. Philos Sci 68(2):135–163
Sober E (1996) Some comments on Rosenberg’s review. Philos Sci 63(3):465–469
Sober E (2000) Philosophy of biology, 2nd edn. Westview Press, Boulder
Waters K (1998) Causal regularities in the biological world of contingent distributions. Biol Philos 13:5–36
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Press, J. Physical explanations and biological explanations, empirical laws and a priori laws. Biol Philos 24, 359–374 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-007-9096-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-007-9096-4