Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-55tpx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-13T19:18:24.075Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Insights and Oversights of Molecular Genetics: The Place of the Evolutionary Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

John Beatty
John Beatty*
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. (Dobzhansky 1973)

Along with the notion that DNA is at the bottom of things biological, goes the notion that molecular genetics is on top. That is, along with the notion that DNA is the informational basis of life, goes the notion that the deepest explanations in biology are molecular-genetic. But even if the former notion is correct, the latter is not. More specifically; the molecular-genetic perspective alone is inappropriate for explaining those biological generalities that call out instead for an evolutionary account. Moreover, the molecular-genetic accounts that are brought to bear upon biological generalities are often themselves subject to evolutionary scrutiny in the final analysis. I cannot entirely rule out the possibility of an explanation of a biological generality that is, in the final analysis, molecular-genetic and nonevolutionary. I am, in this regard, in somewhat the position of the natural historian.

Type
Part VIII. Levels of Explanation in Biology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1982 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1982 , 1982 , pp. 341 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1982

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.)

Footnotes

1

Thanks to Lindley Darden, Ernst Mayr, Nancy Maull, Alexander Rosenberg, Mary Williams, and especially Philip Kitcher for valuable help with earlier drafts of this paper.

References

Beatty, J. (1981). “What's Wrong with the Received View of Evolutionary Theory?” In PSA 1980. Volume Two. Edited by Asquith, P.D. and Giere, R.N.. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association. Pages 397–426.Google Scholar
Dobzhansky, T. (1973). “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution.” American Biology Teacher 35: 125–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, L.C. (1953). “Variations in the Segregation Ratio as Causes of Variations of Gene Frequency.” Aota Genetioa et Statistics Medica 4: 139–147.Google ScholarPubMed
Dunn, L.C. (1957). “Evidence of Evolutionary Forces Leading to the Spread of Lethal Genes in Wild Populations of House Mice.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 43: 158–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, A.W.F. (1977). Foundations of Mathematical Genetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gould, S.J. and Lewontin, R.C. (1979). “The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B205: 581–598.Google Scholar
Gowen, J.W. (1933). “Meiosis as a Genetic Character in Drosophila Melanogaster.” Journal of Experimental Zoology 65: 83—106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, D.L. (1982). “Philosophy and Biology.” In Contemporary Philosophy: A New Survey, Volume Two. Hague: Nijhoff. Pages 281–316.Google Scholar
Loeb, J. (1916). The Organism as a Whole. New York: Putnam.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. (1961). “Cause and Effect in Biology.” Soienoe 134: 1501–1506.Google ScholarPubMed
Muller, H.J. (1922). “Variation Due to Change in the Individual Gene.” American Naturalist 56: 32–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munson, R. (1975). “Is Biology a Provincial Science.” Philosophy of Science 42: 428–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, A. (1979). “Genetics and the Theory of Natural Selection: Synthesis or Sustinance.” Nature and System 1: 3–15.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. (1973). The Philosophy of Biology. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Schaffner, K.F. (1969). “The Watson-Crick Model and Reductionism.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 20: 325–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaffner, K.F. (1974). “The Peripherality of Reductionism in the Development of Molecular Biology.” Journal of the History of Biology 7: 111–139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaffner, K.F. (1980). “Theory Structure in the Biomedical Sciences.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 5: 57–97;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shapere, D. (1974a). “Scientific Theories and Their Domains.” In The Structure of Scientific Theories. Edited by Suppes, F. Drbana: University of Illinois Press. Pages 518–565.Google Scholar
Shapere, D. (1974b). “On the Relations Between Compositional and Evolutionary Theories.” In Studies in the Philosophy of Biology. Edited by Ayala, F.J. and Dobzhansky, T.. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages 187–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Fraassen, B.C. (1980). The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, J.D. and Crick, F.H.C. (1953a). “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids.” Mature 171: 737–738.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watson, J.D. and Crick, F.H.C. (1953b). “Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid.” Nature 171: 964–967.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watson, J.D. and Crick, F.H.C. (1965). Molecular Biology of the Gene. New York: Benjamin.Google Scholar
Watson, J.D. and Crick, F.H.C. (1968). The Double Helix. New York: Atheneum.Google Scholar
White, M.J.D. (1973). Animal Cytology and Evolution. London: Clowes.Google Scholar
Williams, M.B. (1970). “Deducing the Consequences of Evolution: A Mathematical Model.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 29: 343–385.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, M.B. (1973). “The Logical Status of Natural Selection and Other Evolutionary Controversies.” In The Methodological Unity of Science. Edited by Bunge, M.. Dordrecht: Reidel. Pages 84–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, M.B. (1970). (Manuscript). The Structure of Evolutionary Theory.Google Scholar