Explaining the Brain

Preface

Chapter 1. Introduction: Starting With Neuroscience 1: Introduction 2: Explanations in Neuroscience Describe Mechanisms. 3: Explanations in Neuroscience are Multilevel 4: Explanations in Neuroscience Integrate Multiple Fields 5: Criteria of Adequacy for an Account of Explanation

Chapter 2. Explanation and Causal Relevance 1: Introduction 2: How Calcium Explains Neurotransmitter Release 3: Explanation and Representation 4: The Covering-Law Model 5: The Unification Model 6: But What About the Hodgkin and Huxley Model? 7: Conclusion

Chapter 3. Causal Relevance and Manipulation 1: Introduction 2: The Mechanism of Long-Term Potentiation 3: Causation as Transmission 3.1: Transmission and Causal Relevance 3.2: Omission and Prevention 4: Causation and Mechanical Connection 5: Manipulation and Causation 5.1: Ideal Interventions 5.2: Invariance, Fragility, and Contingency 5.3: Manipulation and Criteria for Explanation 5.4: Manipulation, Omission, and Prevention 6: Conclusion

Chapter 4. The Norms of Mechanistic Explanation 1: Introduction 2: Two Normative Distinctions 3: Explaining the Action Potential 4: The Explanandum Phenomenon 5: Components 6: Activities 7: Organization 8: Constitutive Relevance 8.1: Relevance and the Boundaries of Mechanisms 8.2: Interlevel Experiments and Constitutive Relevance 8.21: Interference Experiments 8.22: Stimulation Experiments 8.23: Activation Experiments 8.3: Constitutive Relevance as Mutual Manipulability 9: Conclusion

Chapter 5. A Field-Guide to Levels 1: Introduction 2: Levels of Spatial Memory 3: A Field-Guide to Levels 3.1: Levels of Science (Units and Products) 3.2: Levels of Nature 3.21: Causal Levels (Processing and Control) 3.22: Levels of Size 3.23: Levels of Composition 3.231: Levels of Mereology 3.232: Levels of Aggregativity 3.233: Levels of Mere Material/Spatial Containment 3.3: Levels of Mechanisms 4: Conclusion

Chapter 6 Nonfundamental Explanation 1: Introduction 2: Causal Relevance and Making a Difference 3: Contrasts and Switch-Points 4: Causal Powers at Higher Levels of Mechanisms 5: Causal Relevance among Realized Properties 6: Conclusion

Chapter 7. The Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience 1: Introduction 2: Reduction and the History of Neuroscience 2.1: LTP's Origins: Not a Top-Down Search but Intralevel Integration 2.2: The Mechanistic Shift 2.3: Mechanism as a Working Hypothesis 3: Intralevel Integration and the Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience 3.1: The Space of Possible Mechanisms 3.2: Specific Constraints on the Space of Possible Mechanisms 3.21: Componency Constraints 3.22: Spatial Constraints 3.23: Temporal Constraints 3.24: Active Constraints 3.3: Reduction and the Intralevel Integration of Fields 4: Interlevel Integration and the Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience 4.1: What is Interlevel Integration? 4.2: Constraints on Interlevel Integration 4.21: Accommodative Constraints 4.22: Spatial and Temporal Interlevel Constraints 4.23: Interlevel Manipulability Constraints 4.3: Mosaic Interlevel Integration 5: Conclusion: The Epistemic Function of the Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience