Stavros Ioannidis is Assistant Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is principal investigator of the project MECHANISM, funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation. Stathis Psillos is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Metaphysics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is the author of Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth (1999) and Causation and Explanation (2002), and editor (with Henrik Lagerlund and Ben Hill) of Reconsidering Causal Powers (2021).
'As the 'New mechanical philosophy' grows bigger by the day, it is very difficult to make a significant contribution to the field. But this book is an extremely well researched, timely, and interesting piece of work. It offers compelling (philosophical and historical) arguments for the idea that mechanisms in science are to be understood as a methodological stance, which no doubt will spark debate in philosophy of science.' Federica Russo, University of Amsterdam 'Ioannidis and Psillos provide comprehensive arguments for taking a deflationary or metaphysically neutral approach to understanding mechanism, especially in biology … Highly recommended.' J. A. Hewlett, Choice