From molecules to systems: the importance of looking both ways
Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 40 (1):54-64 (2009)
| Abstract |
Although molecular biology has meant different things at different times, the term is often associated with a tendency to view cellular causation as conforming to simple linear schemas in which macro-scale effects are specified by micro-scale structures. The early achievements of molecular biologists were important for the formation of such an outlook, one to which the discovery of recombinant DNA techniques, and a number of other findings, gave new life even after the complexity of genotype–phenotype relations had become apparent. Against this background we outline how a range of scientific developments and conceptual considerations can be regarded as enabling and perhaps necessitating contemporary systems approaches. We suggest that philosophical ideas have a valuable part to play in making sense of complex scientific and disciplinary issues. |
|||||||||
| Keywords | molecular biology systems biology reductionism emergence mechanism networks | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,875 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesJames Elser & Andrew Hamilton (2007). Stoichiometry and the New Biology: The Future Is Now. PLoS Biology 5:181-183.
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (1993). Experiment Und Orientierung: Frühe Systeme der in Vitro Proteinbiosynthese. NTM International Journal of History and Ethics of Natural Sciences, Technology and Medicine 1 (1):237-253.
Darrell P. Rowbottom (2011). Approximations, Idealizations and 'Experiments' at the Physics-Biology Interface. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 42 (2):145-154.
Tudor Baetu (forthcoming). Mechanism Schemas and the Relationship Between Biological Theories. In J. Williamson P. McKay (ed.), Causality in the Sciences.
Alexander Powell, Maureen A. O'Malley, Staffan Mueller-Wille, Jane Calvert & John Dupré (2007). Disciplinary Baptisms: A Comparison of the Naming Stories of Genetics, Molecular Biology, Genomics and Systems Biology. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 29 (1):5-32.
Alexander Powell (2009). Molecules, Cells and Minds: Aspects of Bioscientific Explanation. Dissertation, University of Exeter
Alexander Rosenberg (2006). Darwinian Reductionism, or, How to Stop Worrying and Love Molecular Biology. University of Chicago Press.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2010-05-06Total downloads39 ( #30,446 of 556,837 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #64,847 of 556,837 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
