Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-9rk55 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-26T19:19:16.784Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reduction in Genetics—Biology or Philosophy?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

David L. Hull
David L. Hull*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A belief common among philosophers and biologists alike is that Mendelian genetics has been or is in the process of being reduced to molecular genetics, in the sense of formal theory reduction current in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to show that there are numerous empirical and conceptual difficulties which stand in the way of establishing a systematic inferential relation between Mendelian and molecular genetics. These difficulties, however, have little to do with the traditional objections which have been raised to reduction.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , December 1972 , pp. 491 - 499
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 by The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

[1] Carlson, E. A. The Gene: A Critical History. London: W. B. Saunders & Co., 1966.Google Scholar
[2] Dobzhansky, T. Genetics of the Evolutionary Process. New York: Columbia University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
[3] Feyerabend, P. K. “Explanation, Reduction, and Empiricism.” Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. III. Edited by H. Feigl and G. Maxwell. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1962.Google Scholar
[4] Hanson, N. R. Patterns of Discovery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958.Google Scholar
[5] Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.Google Scholar
[6] Mayr, E. “Scientific Explanation and Conceptual Framework.” Journal of the History of Biology 2 (1969): 123–128.10.1007/BF00137270CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[7] Nagel, E. “Commentary.” Journal of the History of Biology 2 (1969): 128–134.Google Scholar
[8] Pontecorvo, G. Trends in Genetic Analysis. New York: Columbia University Press, 1958.Google Scholar
[9] Popper, K. Conjectures and Refutations. New York: Harper & Row, 1962.Google Scholar
[10] Ruse, M. “Two Biological Revolutions.” Dialectica 25 (1971): 39–72.10.1111/j.1746-8361.1971.tb00591.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
[11] Ruse, M. “Reduction, Replacement, and Molecular Biology.” Dialectica 25 (1971): 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[12] Schaffner, K. “Approaches to Reduction.” Philosophy of Science 34 (1967): 137–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[13] Schaffner, K. “The Watson-Crick Model and Reductionism.” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 20 (1969): 325–348.10.1093/bjps/20.4.325CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[14] Schaffner, K. “Theories of Explanation in Biology.” Journal of the History of Biology 2 (1969): 19–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[15] Simon, M. A. The Matter of Life. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1971.Google Scholar