Why do we need theories?
Why do we need theories?
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2016.06.005
复制
发表时间：
2016-10
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Soto AM
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Longo G;Soto AM
理论通过构建观察和实验来组织知识和构建客观性。理论原理的阐述是根据物理学和数学之间丰富的相互作用来研究的。这两门学科在概念的构建和正确的研究对象方面有着共同的原则。物理学中的理论构建依赖于数学对称性，这种对称性保留了这种理论所观察和提出的关键不变量；这些不变量支持这样一种观点，即物理对象是通用的，因此可以互换，它们沿着特定的轨迹运动，这些轨迹在经典物理学和相对论物理学中都是唯一确定的。与物理学相反，生物学是一门历史科学，主要研究生物体在经历个体发生和系统发生时所经历的变化。生物对象，即有机体，不是一般的，而是特定的；他们是个体。它们经历的不断变化代表了对称性的破坏，因此与物理理论的中心组成部分对称守恒相反。这种不稳定性与环境和表型的变化相对应。受伽利略的惯性原理（惰性物质的“默认状态”）的启发，我们提出了生物动力学的“默认状态”，遵循达尔文的第一原则，即“随修改而下降”，我们将其转化为“随变异和运动而增殖”，作为一种跨越生命的属性，包括生物体中的细胞。惰性理论和生物学理论之间的这些不同之处也适用于因果关系：生物因果关系应该被理解为约束在这一学科中所扮演的独特角色。因此，在活动的限制被视为生物分析的核心组成部分的背景下，原因的概念将被重新定义。最后，我们断言，生命的根本物质性排除了诸如“软件vs硬件”之类的区别。
Theories organize knowledge and construct objectivity by framing observations and experiments. The elaboration of theoretical principles is examined in the light of the rich interactions between physics and mathematics. These two disciplines share common principles of construction of concepts and of the proper objects of inquiry. Theory construction in physics relies on mathematical symmetries that preserve the key invariants observed and proposed by such theory; these invariants buttress the idea that the objects of physics are generic and thus interchangeable and they move along specific trajectories which are uniquely determined, in classical and relativistic physics. In contrast to physics, biology is a historical science that centers on the changes that organisms experience while undergoing ontogenesis and phylogenesis. Biological objects, namely organisms, are not generic but specific; they are individuals. The incessant changes they undergo represent the breaking of symmetries, and thus the opposite of symmetry conservation, a central component of physical theories. This instability corresponds to the changes of the environment and the phenotypes. Inspired by Galileo’s principle of inertia, the “default state” of inert matter, we propose a “default state” for biological dynamics following Darwin’s first principle, “descent with modification” that we transform into “proliferation with variation and motility” as a property that spans life, including cells in an organism. These dissimilarities between theories of the inert and of biology also apply to causality: biological causality is to be understood in relation to the distinctive role that constraints assume in this discipline. Consequently, the notion of cause will be reframed in a context where constraints to activity are seen as the core component of biological analyses. Finally, we assert that the radical materiality of life rules out distinctions such as “software vs. hardware.”
影响因子：
2.9
作者：
Longo G;Montevil M;Sonnenschein C;Soto AM
通讯作者：
Soto AM
影响因子：
2.9
作者：
Gilbert, SF
通讯作者：
Gilbert, SF