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Comments on Complexity and Experimentation in Biology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Richard M. Burian
Richard M. Burian*
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
*
†Center for the Study of Science in Society and Department of Philosophy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0247.
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Abstract

Biology deals, notoriously, with complex systems. In discussing biological methodology, all three papers in this symposium honor the complexity of biological subject matter by preferring models and theories built to reflect the details of complex systems to models based on broad general principles or laws. Rheinberger's paper, the most programmatic of the three, provides a framework for the epistemology of discovery in complex systems. A fundamental problem is raised for Rheinberger's epistemology, namely, how to understand the referential continuity of the theoretical terms and concepts employed in typical case studies involving complex systems.

Type
Symposium: Complexity and Experimentation in Molecular Biology
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 64 , Issue S4: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers Dec., 1997 , 1997 , pp. S279 - S291
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1997

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Footnotes

‡

I am grateful to Paul Siegel for discussions regarding the interactions between MHC genotypes and resistance to Marek's disease, to Anne McNabb for help with the testosterone example, and to the symposiasts and symposium audience for discussion.

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