ABSTRACT
According to a view popular among philosophers of science, neuroeconomics is a mechanistic science trying to discover the multilevel mechanisms that are responsible for our decision-making behavior. Neuroscientists, psychologists and economists contribute to building mechanistic models by focusing on different levels, placing different constraints on the space of possible mechanisms behind a phenomenon. In Craver (2007)’s well-known metaphor of the mosaic unity of science, each discipline is contributing one tile to the overall mosaic. Though appealing, this view of neuroeconomics ignores frictions in integration due to the systematic variation, across fields, of key concepts and of norms about explanation, modelling and evidence. This chapter abates the ideal of mechanistic integration to accommodate the role of these systematic differences across fields while retaining its capacity to explain why the interactions between the models of economics, psychology and neuroscience contributes to progress.
