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Other key ideas such as the Reduction of all life processes to Biochemical reactions as well as the incorporation of Psychology into a broader Neuroscience are also addressed. OVERVIEW Philosophy of biology today has become a very visible, well-organized discipline -- with its own journals, conferences, and professional organizations. Generally, these authors could be seen as following an Empiristic tradition, favoring Naturalistic and Physicalistic theories over their counterparts. Many contemporary philosophers of biology have largely avoided traditional questions about the distinction between life and nonlife. Instead, they have examined the practices, theories, and concepts of biologists with a view toward better understanding biology as a scientific discipline (or group of scientific fields). Scientific ideas are handled as philosophical ones and the consequences are explored. Thus, it is sometimes difficult to delineate genuine biophilosophical works from Popular Scientific accounts of Biological Research . A few of the questions philosophers of biology have attempted to answer, for example, include:
A subset of these philosophers with a more explicitly philosophical, less empirical, orientation hope that biology is able to provide Scientifc answers to such fundamental problems of Epistemology , Ethics , Aesthetics , Anthropology and even Metaphysics . Furthermore, progress in biology urges modern societies to rethink traditional values concerning all aspects of Human Life . The possibility of Genetic modification of human Stem Cells , for example, has led to an ongoing controversy on how certain biological techniques could infringe upon ethical consensus (see Bioethics ). Some more explicitly philosophical questions are addressed by some philosophers of biology including:
REDUCTIONISM, HOLISM, AND VITALISM One subject within philosophy of biology deals with the relationship between reductionism and holism, contending views with Epistemological and methodological significance, but also with ethical and metaphysical connotations.
Some philosophers of biology have attempted to explain the rise and fall of reductionism, vitalism, and holism throughout the history of biology. For example, these philosophers claim that the ideas of Charles Darwin ended the last remainders of Teleological views from biology. Debates in these areas of philosophy of biology turn on how one views reductionism. AN AUTONOMOUS PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY All processes in organisms obey physical laws, the difference from inanimate processes lying in their organisation and their being subject to control by coded information. This has led some biologists and philosophers (for example, Ernst Mayr and David Hull ) to return to the strictly philosophical reflections of Charles Darwin to resolve some of the problems which confronted them when they tried to employ a philosophy of science derived from Classical Physics . This latter, Positivist approach emphasised a strict determinism (as opposed to high probability) and to the discovery of universally applicable laws, testable in the course of experiment. It was difficult for biology, beyond a basic microbiological level, to live up to these strictures - Karl Popper for example said in 1974 that "''Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research programme''." Standard philosophy of science seemed to leave out a lot of what characterised living organisms - namely, a historical component in the form of an inherited genotype. Biologists with philosophic interests responded, emphasing the dual nature of the living organism. On the one hand there was the genetic programme (represented in nucleic acids) - the '' Genotype ''. On the other there was its extended body or ''soma'' - the '' Phenotype ''. In accommodating the more probablistic and non-universal nature of biological generalisations, it helped that standard philosophy of science was in the process of accommodating similar aspects of 20th century Physics . This led to a distinction between ''proximate'' causes and explanations - "how" questions dealing with the phenotype; and ''ultimate causes'' - "why" questions, including evolutionary causes, focused on the genotype. This clarification was part of the great reconciliation, by Ernst Mayr , among others, in the 1940s, between Darwinian Evolution by Natural Selection and the Genetic model of inheritance. A commitment to conceptual clarification has characterised many of these philosophers since. Trivially, this has reminded us of the scientific basis of all biology, while noting its diversity - from microbiology to ecology. A complete philosophy of biology would need to accommodate all these activities. Less trivially, it has unpacked the notion of " Teleology ". Since 1859, scientists have had no need for a notion of cosmic teleology - a programme or a law that can explain and predict evolution. Darwin provided that. But teleological explanations (relating to purpose or function) have remained stubbornly useful in biology - from the structural configuration of Macromolecules to the study of co-operation in social systems. By clarifying and restricting the use of the term to describe and explain systems controlled strictly scientifically by genetic programmes, or other physical systems, teleological questions can be framed and investigated while remaining committed to the physical nature of all underlying organic processes. Similar attention has been given to the concepts of '' Natural Selection '' (what is the target of natural selection? - the individual? the genome? the species?); '' Adaptation ; Diversity and Classification ; Species and Speciation ''; and '' Macroevolution ''. Just as Biology has developed as an autonomous discipline in full conversation with the other sciences, there is a great deal of work now being carried on by biologists and philosophers to develop a dedicated philosophy of biological science which, while in full conversation with all other philosophic disciplines, attempts to give answers to the real questions raised by scientific investigations in biology. SEE ALSO
Philosophers using biological ideas as a basis of their work
Biologists who have attempted to give a philosophic account of biological thought BIBLIOGRAPHY
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