Revisiting Generality in Biology: Systems Biology and the Quest for Design Principles (2015)
Due to the variation, contingency and complexity of living systems, biology is often taken to be a science without fundamental theories, laws or general principles. I revisit this question in light of the quest for design principles in systems biology and show that different views can be reconciled if we distinguish between different types of generality. The philosophical literature has primarily focused on (the lack of) generality of specific models or explanations, or on the heuristic role of abstraction. This paper takes a different approach in emphasizing a theory-constituting role of general principles. Design principles signify general dependency-relations between structures and functions, given a set of formally defined constraints. I contend that design principles increase our understanding of living systems by relating specific models to general types. The categorization of types is based on a delineation of the scope of biological possibilities, which serves to identify and define the generic features of classes of systems. To characterize the basis for general principles through generic abstraction and reasoning about possibility spaces, I coin the term constraint-based generality. I show that constraint-based generality is distinct from other types of generality in biology, and argue that general principles play a unifying role that does not entail theory reduction.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Sansom, Roger;
Brandon, Robert N;
(2007)
Integrating Evolution and Development: From Theory to Practice
Article
Carlson, Charles Royal;
(2013)
The Return of Experience: Reinterpreting Dewey for Contemporary Evolutionary Biology
Book
Riccardo Mona;
(2023)
Oltre il meccanicismo. La causalità della teoria dell'evoluzione
Article
Morange, Michel;
(2013)
From Experimental Systems to Evolutionary Biology: An Impossible Journey?
Article
Hull, David L.;
(2011)
Defining Darwinism
Thesis
Love, Alan Christopher;
(2005)
Explaining Evolutionary Innovation and Novelty: A Historical and Philosophical Study of Biological Concepts
Chapter
Laubichler, Manfred D.;
Maienschein, Jane;
(2007)
Embryos, Cells, Genes, and Organisms: Reflections on the History of Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Article
William J. Talbott;
(2014)
How Could a “Blind” Evolutionary Process Have Made Human Moral Beliefs Sensitive to Strongly Universal, Objective Moral Standards?
Article
Giuliano Pancaldi;
(2019)
Darwin’s Technology of Life
Article
Brandon A. Conley;
(2019)
Mayr and Tinbergen: disentangling and integrating
Article
Douglas H. Erwin;
(2017)
Eric Davidson and Deep Time
Article
Hoßfeld, Uwe;
Olsson, Lennart;
(2003)
The Road from Haeckel: The Jena Tradition in Evolutionary Morphology and the Origins of “Evo-Devo”
Book
Caporael, Linnda R.;
Griesemer, James R.;
Wimsatt, William C.;
(2014)
Developing Scaffolds in Evolution, Culture, and Cognition
Article
Kutschera, Ulrich;
Niklas, Karl J.;
(2004)
The Modern Theory of Biological Evolution: An Expanded Synthesis
Article
Kutschera, Ulrich;
(2005)
Predator-Driven Macroevolution in Flyingfishes Inferred from Behavioural Studies: Historical Controversies and a Hypothesis
Article
Depew, David J.;
(2011)
Adaptation as Process: The Future of Darwinism and the Legacy of Theodosius Dobzhansky
Chapter
Jablonka, Eva;
(2011)
Lamarckian Problematics in Biology
Article
J. H. van Hateren;
(2014)
Intrinsic estimates of fitness affect the causal structure of evolutionary change
Chapter
Gliboff, Sander;
(2012)
Monism and Morphology at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Chapter
Aldo Fasolo;
Davide Lovisolo;
(2015)
"The Cell in Development and Inheritance", centoventi anni dopo. E.B. Wilson, la teoria cellulare e il tassello mancante: la membrana plasmatica
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly
Annals of the History and Philosophy of Biology
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Be the first to comment!