ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the defining attributes of the mechanist model and indicate how a mechanist model may be translated into a theory of development. It deals with a discussion of the implications of philosophical models for the future development of developmental science. The chapter also discusses the relation between the ideas in a mechanist and organismic model and issues of development. It provides the connection between contextualism and the concept of probabilistic epigenesis, and describes the concept of development involved in probabilistic epigenesis. The chapter examines probabilistic epigenesis as a concept that integrates other world views and its link to relational developmental systems-based theories of development. It explains the meaning of "past reinforcement history" may be such as to preclude any strong view of the potential for developmental change beyond the earliest periods of life. The chapter argues that many of the problems can be usefully addressed by adopting a probabilistic-epigenetic, rather than a predetermined-epigenetic, view of organicism.
