Are topological explanations really free of mechanisms?

Abstract

Topological explanations in biology have been largely assumed to be free of mechanisms. However, by examining two classic topological explanations in the philosophical literature, this article has identified mechanisms in the corrected and complete formulations of both explanations. This constitutes the major work of this article. The minor work of this article is to address a follow-up question: given that these two topological explanations contain mechanisms, would this significantly blur the widely assumed boundary between topological and mechanistic explanations? My answer to this question is negative and the argument I have developed is that although these two topological explanations contain mechanisms, these mechanisms are explanatorily irrelevant to the target properties, which is in stark contrast to the situation in mechanistic explanations.