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Heroic Antireductionism and Genetics: A Tale of One Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Russell E. Vance
Russell E. Vance*
Affiliation:
University of California at Berkeley
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Abstract

In this paper I provide a novel argument against the claim that classical genetics is being reduced to molecular genetics. Specifically, I demonstrate that reductionists must subscribe to the unargued and problematic thesis that molecular genetics is ‘independent’ of classical genetics. I also argue that several standard antireductionist positions can be faulted for unnecessarily conceding the Independence Thesis to the reductionists. In place of a ‘tale of two sciences’, I offer a ‘heroic’ stance that denies classical genetics is being reduced, yet sees classical and molecular genetics as fundamentally unified.

Type
Philosophy of Biology
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 63 , Issue S3: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers Sep., 1996. , 1996 , pp. S36 - S45
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1996

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Footnotes

†

Financial support for this work was provided in part by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program, the Department of Philosophy at Queen's University at Kingston, the Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute, and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley. I would like to thank David Bakhurst, Lindley Darden, Peeter Piegaze, Rob Wilson, Katherine Wynne-Edwards, and especially Sergio Sismondo for their insightful comments on earlier drafts.

‡

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, 485 Life Science Addition, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720.

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