Beyond Reductionism and Emergence: A Study of the Epistemic Practices in Gene Expression Research (2016)
Racine, Valerie (Author)
Maienschein, Jane A. (Advisor)
Laubichler, Manfred Dietrich (Advisor)
Arizona State University
Maienschein, Jane A.
Laubichler, Manfred Dietrich
Physical Details: 169 pp.
Language: English
A central task for historians and philosophers of science is to characterize and analyze the epistemic practices in a given science. The epistemic practice of a science includes its explanatory goals as well as the methods used to achieve these goals. This dissertation addresses the epistemic practices in gene expression research spanning the mid-twentieth century to the twenty-first century. The critical evaluation of the standard historical narratives of the molecular life sciences clarifies certain philosophical problems with respect to reduction, emergence, and representation, and offers new ways with which to think about the development of scientific research and the nature of scientific change. The first chapter revisits some of the key experiments that contributed to the development of the repression model of genetic regulation in the lac operon and concludes that the early research on gene expression and genetic regulation depict an iterative and integrative process, which was neither reductionist nor holist. In doing so, it challenges a common application of a conceptual framework in the history of biology and offers an alternative framework. The second chapter argues that the concept of emergence in the history and philosophy of biology is too ambiguous to account for the current research in post-genomic molecular biology and it is often erroneously used to argue against some reductionist theses. The third chapter investigates the use of network representations of gene expression in developmental evolution research and takes up some of the conceptual and methodological problems it has generated. The concluding comments present potential avenues for future research arising from each substantial chapter. In sum, this dissertation argues that the epistemic practices of gene expression research are an iterative and integrative process, which produces theoretical representations of the complex interactions in gene expression as networks. Moreover, conceptualizing these interactions as networks constrains empirical research strategies by the limited number of ways in which gene expression can be controlled through general rules of network interactions. Making these strategies explicit helps to clarify how they can explain the dynamic and adaptive features of genomes.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg;
(2010)
An Epistemology of the Concrete
(/isis/citation/CBB001023158/)
Article
Darden, Lindley;
(2005)
Relations among Fields: Mendelian, Cytological and Molecular Mechanisms
(/isis/citation/CBB000770694/)
Chapter
Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg;
(2007)
Note sur une épistémologie de la biologie contemporaine
(/isis/citation/CBB001022516/)
Article
Victor Petit;
(2019)
Jean Gayon (1949-2018): Itinéraire d’un darwinien
(/isis/citation/CBB150653875/)
Book
Huneman, Philippe;
Lambert, Gérard;
Silberstein, Marc;
(2015)
Classification, Disease, and Evidence: New Essays in the Philosophy of Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001510440/)
Article
Christopher Hill;
Carlotta Pavese;
(2021)
A Tribute to Karen Neander (1954–2020)
(/isis/citation/CBB570916773/)
Article
Russell, Doug;
(2015)
Toward a Pragmatist Epistemology: Arthur O. Lovejoy's and H. S. Jennings's Biophilosophical Responses to Neovitalism, 1909--1914
(/isis/citation/CBB001422099/)
Book
Burian, Richard M.;
(2005)
The Epistemology of Development, Evolution, and Genetics: Selected Essays
(/isis/citation/CBB000550822/)
Essay Review
Griffiths, Paul E.;
(2002)
Lost: One Gene Concept. Reward to Finder
(/isis/citation/CBB000200474/)
Article
Laurent Loison;
(2018)
Un enthousiasme paradoxal? Georges Canguilhem et la biologie moléculaire (1966-1973)
(/isis/citation/CBB182581136/)
Article
O'Malley, Maureen A.;
Elliott, Kevin C.;
Burian, Richard M.;
(2010)
From Genetic to Genomic Regulation: Iterativity in MicroRNA Research
(/isis/citation/CBB001023979/)
Article
M. Polo Camacho;
(2020)
What’s All the Fuss About? The Inheritance of Acquired Traits Is Compatible with the Central Dogma
(/isis/citation/CBB631370808/)
Book
Hull, David L.;
(2001)
Science and Selection: Essays on Biological Evolution and the Philosophy of Science
(/isis/citation/CBB000100243/)
Book
Martins, Lilian A.-C. Pereira;
Regner, Anna Carolina K. P.;
Lorenzano, Pablo;
(2006)
Ciências da Vida: Estudos Filosóficos e Históricos
(/isis/citation/CBB000820180/)
Article
Laurent Loison;
(2018)
Introduction: Biologie, philosophie de la biologie et histoire de la biologie chez Georges Canguilhem (1904-1995)
(/isis/citation/CBB248480451/)
Article
Isabel Gabel;
(2018)
La biologie, la réflexivité et l’histoire: Réinscrire Canguilhem dans son milieu
(/isis/citation/CBB085805175/)
Book
Gayon, Jean;
de Ricqlès, Armand;
(2010)
Les fonctions: des organismes aux artifacts
(/isis/citation/CBB001023153/)
Article
Elliott, Kevin C.;
(2012)
Epistemic and Methodological Iteration in Scientific Research
(/isis/citation/CBB001221695/)
Article
Tarquin Holmes;
(2017)
The wild type as concept and in experimental practice: A history of its role in classical genetics and evolutionary theory
(/isis/citation/CBB016897194/)
Article
Pierre-Olivier Méthot;
(2022)
An Epistemology of Scientific Practice: Positioning Hans-Jörg Rheinberger in Twentieth-Century History and Philosophy of Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB538733869/)
Be the first to comment!