ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines and defends a mechanistic interpretation of David Marr's account of explanation in cognitive science and thereby attempts to resolve the ambiguities that remain in this account, as well as to extend its scope. It addresses a number of philosophical debates concerning for example the role of idealization in cognitive modelling. The chapter discusses the role of abstraction in mechanistic explanation and the nature of the realization-relationship that obtains between functional processes in the mind and physical structures in the brain. Marr's algorithmic level of analysis is defined by questions about "the representation for the input and output", and about the "algorithm by which the transformation may actually be accomplished". Insofar as researchers across cognitive science answer questions about the what, why, how, and where of behavior and cognition, they are all in the business of mechanistic explanation.
