Informational flows, mechanisms and models in protein synthesis

Abstract

This paper starts with an emphasis on the increasing importance of diagrams in philosophy of science, highlighting their capacity for heuristic evocation, their usefulness for representation and calculus, and their power of synthesis. Next, we present how diagrams are important and have been well received within the new Mechanistic philosophy of science, which contrasts with this school’s rejection of approaches centered on laws and models. Finally, We propose an interpretation of laws and mechanistic explanations that conciliates the concepts of mechanism and law. The mechanism of protein synthesis is used as an illustrative case