Philosophy of neuroscience and options of systems science

Abstract

Molecular biology as a research approach in psychiatry has gathered a huge amount of data that can hardly be used for explanation of mental disorders by cellular dysfunctions. In a philosophical sense "explanation" means the application of general laws on specific cases. This is more than description. Most findings of molecular biology only help to describe these processes more in detail. On contrary, systems biology aims to create a computer-based model of the cell. For this project mathematics plays a crucial role. In that respect systems biology also provides tools for data analysis.