The structure of biological science / Alexander Rosenberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rosenberg, Alexander, 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biology--Philosophy.

Biology.

Physical Description:

xi, 281 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Summary:

This book provides a comprehensive guide to the conceptual, methodological, and epistemological problems of biology, and treats in depth the major developments in molecular biology and evolutionary theory that have transformed both biology and its philosophy in recent decades. At the same time the work is a sustained argument for a particular philosophy of biology that unifies disparate issues and offers a framework for expectations about the future directions of the life sciences. The argument explores differences between autonomist and antiautonomist views of biology. The result is a vindication of reductionism, but one that is unexpectedly hollow. For it leaves the exponents of the autonomy of biology from physical science with as much as their view of biology really requires -- and rather more than the reductionist might comfortably concede.

Professor Rosenberg shows how the problems of the philosophy of biology are interconnected and how their solutions are interdependent. However, this book focuses more on the direct concerns of biologists, rather than the traditional agenda of philosophers' problems about biology. This departure from earlier books on the subject results both in greater understanding and relevance of the philosophy of science to biology as a whole.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Biology and Its Philosophy 2

1.1 The Rise of Logical Positivism 2

1.2 The Consequences for Philosophy 4

1.3 Problems of Falsifiability 6

1.4 Philosophy of Science Without Positivism 8

1.5 Speculation and Science 10

Chapter 2 Autonomy and Provincialism 13

2.1 Philosophical Agendas versus Biological Agendas 13

2.2 Motives for Provincialism and Autonomy 18

2.3 Biological Philosophies 21

2.4 Tertium Datur? 25

2.5 The Issues in Dispute 30

2.6 Steps in the Argument 34

Chapter 3 Teleology and the Roots of Autonomy 37

3.1 Functional Explanations in Molecular Biology 39

3.2 The Search for Functions 43

3.3 Functional Laws 47

3.4 Directively Organized Systems 52

3.5 The Autonomy of Teleological Laws 59

3.6 The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Functional Explanation 62

3.7 Functional Explanation Will Always Be with Us 65

Chapter 4 Reductionism and the Temptation of Provincialism 69

4.1 Motives for Reductionism 69

4.2 A Triumph of Reductionism 73

4.3 Reductionism and Recombinant DNA 84

4.4 Antireductionism and Molecular Genetics 88

4.5 Mendel's Genes and Benzer's Cistrons 93

4.6 Reduction Obstructed 97

4.7 Qualifying Reductionism 106

4.8 The Supervenience of Mendelian Genetics 11

4.9 Levels of Organization 117

Chapter 5 The Structure of Evolutionary Theory 121

5.1 Is There an Evolutionary Theory? 122

5.2 The Charge of Tautology 126

5.3 Population Genetics and Evolution 130

5.4 Williams's Axiomatization of Evolutionary Theory 136

5.5 Adequacy of the Axiomatization 144

Chapter 6 Fitness 154

6.1 Fitness Is Measured by Its Effects 154

6.2 Fitness As a Statistical Propensity 160

6.3 The Supervenience of Fitness 164

6.4 The Evidence for Evolution 169

6.5 The Scientific Context of Evolutionary Theory 174

Chapter 7 Species 180

7.1 Operationalism and Theory in Taxonomy 182

7.2 Essentialism

For and Against 187

7.3 The Biological Species Notion 191

7.4 Evolutionary and Ecological Species 197

7.5 Species Are Not Natural Kinds 201

7.6 Species As Individuals 204

7.7 The Theoretical Hierarchy of Biology 212

7.8 The Statistical Character of Evolutionary Theory 216

7.9 Universal Theories and Case Studies 219

Chapter 8 New Problems of Functionalism 226

8.1 Functionalism in Molecular Biology 228

8.2 The Panglossian Paradigm 235

8.3 Aptations, Exaptations, and Adaptations 243

8.4 Information and Action Among the Macromolecules 246

8.5 Metaphors and Molecules 255.

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 266-271.

ISBN:

052125566X

OCLC:

10724195