ABSTRACT
Philosophical explorations of mechanisms and mechanistic explanation have grown dramatically over the past two decades and encompass a wide variety of sciences. The explanatory generality of molecular genetic mechanisms (MGMs) is constitutive of much contemporary developmental biology. This chapter first provides a framework of interpretive categories and characterizes examples of MGMs and cellular-physical mechanisms (CPMs). Then it probes what is involved in claims about the phylogenetic conservation of MGMs, as well as the difference between the explanatory generality of MGMs compared with the potential explanatory completeness derived from integrating these with CPMs. The element of organization appears crucial to building integrated explanatory models of how an effect is produced by genetic and physical mechanisms during development. In closing, the chapter identifies one further conceptual issue–the dynamic constitution and organization of MGMs–and provisionally concludes with few broad lessons derived from the author's analysis of developmental mechanisms.
