"Reductionism and the Reduction of Mendelian Genetics"

“还原论和孟德尔遗传学的还原”

• 批准号: 8912221
• 负责人: C. Kenneth Waters
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1989
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1989-07-01 至 1991-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8912221&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Reductionism; Reduction; Mendelian; Genetics

Philosophers of biology are among the most vocal critics of the view that scientific theories can be treated as sets of sentences. Many of them have taken up a rival view, the semantic view of theories, which holds that theories should be treated as collections of abstract models. Philosophers of biology have also challenged the idea that Mendelian genetics is being reduced by molecular biology. These anti-reductionist arguments are nearly always developed by treating theories as sets of sentences. Dr. Waters, under this research grant, will develop what is long overdue: a new conception of theoretical reduction based on the semantic view of theories. This new conception of reduction will be based on the idea that reducing entails providing deeper, but not necessarily simpler explanations. Dr. Waters will use this new conception to show how Mendelian genetics is being reduced by molecular theory. Thus, this project entails presenting new accounts of the theories of Mendelian and molecular genetics explicitly in terms of the semantic view, developing a new conception of theoretical reduction, diffusing standing objections to reductionism about genetics, and applying these results to show how molecular biology is improving and deepening our understanding of Mendelian genetics.

生物学哲学家是对生物学最直言不讳的批评者之一。 认为科学理论可以被视为一套 句子. 他们中的许多人采取了一种对立的观点，语义学 理论的观点，认为理论应该被视为 抽象模型的集合。 生物学哲学家们 也挑战了孟德尔遗传学被削弱的观点， 通过分子生物学。 这些反还原论的论点是 几乎总是通过将理论视为 句子. 沃茨博士，在这项研究资助下， 早该有的东西：理论还原的新概念 基于理论的语义观。 这种新的概念， 减少将基于这样的想法，即减少需要 提供更深入但不一定更简单的解释。 博士 沃茨将用这个新概念来说明孟德尔 遗传学正被分子理论所简化。 因此，这 项目需要提出新的帐户的理论， 孟德尔遗传学和分子遗传学明确地根据 语义观，发展了一种新的理论概念， 还原论，散布对还原论的长期反对意见， 遗传学，并应用这些结果来展示分子 生物学正在改善和加深我们对孟德尔遗传的理解 遗传学