On the meaning of chance in biology.
On the meaning of chance in biology.
复制标题
论生物学中机会的含义。
DOI：
10.1007/s12304-014-9206-z
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发表时间：
2014
期刊：
影响因子：
1.6
通讯作者：
Coffman,JamesA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Coffman,JamesA
机会在不同的语境中有不同的含义，可以被认为是本体论的（如量子不确定性）或认识论的（如随机不确定性）。在这里，我认为，无论它是否源于物理的不确定性，机会是一个基本的生物现实，是毫无意义的知识背景之外。说某事偶然发生意味着它不是有意发生的。这当然是达尔文进化论的基石：随机的、无方向的变异是创造性的源泉，自然选择在此基础上塑造了生物体的功能形式（从而形成了外观设计）。雅克·莫诺（Jacques Monod）在他的论文《机会与必然》（Chance & Necessity）中指出，要在理智上诚实地致力于客观性，就需要我们在机械生物学中雅阁机会一个核心角色，并建议这样做很可能会将生命的起源置于科学可处理的领域之外。虽然这可能是真的，但正在进行的关于生命起源问题的研究表明，在原始地球上存在的条件下，生物起源可能是可能的，甚至是可能的。在其他人之后，我认为世界应该被视为因果开放的，即原始不确定或模糊的。因此，机会应该是起源的默认科学解释，一个普遍的“零假设”，直到被推翻。在这个框架中，任何新事物的创造都体现了自由（允许偶然性），而因果关系则体现了限制，其发展性的出现建立了可能性的空间，这些可能性可能会偶然实现。
Chance has somewhat different meanings in different contexts, and can be taken to be either ontological (as in quantum indeterminacy) or epistemological (as in stochastic uncertainty). Here I argue that, whether or not it stems from physical indeterminacy, chance is a fundamental biological reality that is meaningless outside the context of knowledge. To say that something happened by chance means that it did not happen by design. This of course is a cornerstone of Darwin’s theory of evolution: random undirected variation is the creative wellspring upon which natural selection acts to sculpt the functional form (and hence apparent design) of organisms. In his essayChance & Necessity, Jacques Monod argued that an intellectually honest commitment to objectivity requires that we accord chance a central role in an otherwise mechanistic biology, and suggested that doing so may well place the origin of life outside the realm of scientific tractability. While that may be true, ongoing research on the origin of life problem suggests that a biogenesis may have been possible, and perhaps even probable, under the conditions that existed on primordial earth. Following others, I argue that the world should be viewed as causally open, i.e. primordially indeterminate or vague. Accordingly, chance ought to be the default scientific explanation for origination, a universal ‘null hypothesis’ to be assumed until disproven. In this framework, creation of anything new manifests freedom (allowing for chance), and causation manifests constraint, the developmental emergence of which establishes the space of possibilities that may by chance be realized.