Post-doctoral/graduate research and training program in philosophy of biology

本建议寻求STS在培训及研究小额补助金类别下提供支持。杜克大学生物哲学中心将在一个结构化的项目中使用这笔资金，为生物学和科学哲学交叉领域的一系列博士后研究员和高级研究生提供资助。本中心将从年轻的研究者和学者中招募并支持一年的博士后，他们提出一个本中心认为有前途的研究课题，并可以提供适当的支持。生物学哲学是当代知识分子兴趣最丰富、最令人兴奋的领域之一。在过去的两代中，进化生物学和分子生物学都经历了巨大的发酵和进步。两者都提出了深刻的认识论和方法论问题，其答案对生物学和哲学都有影响。因此，生物学哲学是生物学家和哲学家都作出重大贡献的研究领域。中心成员研究了这两个学科交叉领域的各种问题。目前，他们特别关注进化生物学和发育生物学结合所引起的问题。一个PI的工作需要将进化对变异的概念和理论依赖与发展对个体和避免变异的不懈关注结合起来。另一个PI正在探索功能生物学的因果和解释自主性的替代方案，并检查生物和化学过程为分子发育生物学现象提供相互竞争的解释的领域。第三个PI的理论工作是塑造实际陆地进化的制约因素，现在需要确定高级个体中控制出现和组织部分的一般规则。最后一个PI对发展和进化模块之间关系的持续兴趣与刚才确定的所有三个主题有关。因此，预计在赠款期间，将根据其资格选择博士后和研究生参加有关进化和发育生物学的基础和综合的这些相关研究。获得博士后奖学金的候选人将在奖学金期间对其申请中确定的主题进行研究。博士后将参加中心的研究研讨会，在选定的主题上举办研究生研讨会，并与三位研究生研究员合作，他们也将在奖学金年度内研究选定的研究主题。博士后和研究生的工作，除其他事项外，最终将在一个生物学家和哲学家会议上完成，该会议由中心组织，讨论选定的主题。还将邀请博士后积极参加杜克基因组伦理法律和政策中心以及三角研究区内其他机构举办的研讨会、座谈会和其他活动，以提高公众对生物学进步对研究和实验、保健政策和工业监管等规范性问题的影响的认识。生物哲学中心将与杜克大学研究生事务办公室密切合作，积极招募少数民族学生参加该项目。本项目的预期科学成果和基础设施成果包括：a)在哲学和生物学交叉领域的前沿研究取得进展，特别是在发展、进化及其相互关系方面；B)提高博士后从事这项研究的技能，并在研究生阶段教授这项研究；C)加强对高级研究生在研究领域的准备，他们将在这些领域进行论文研究，从而更及时地取得学位；d)通过与博士后和研究生的合作，使中心的生物学和哲学教师的研究项目受益。提案中描述的研究主题的许多特征（以及中心可能处理的其他特征）对相当大的公共利益问题具有潜在的重要性。例如，在致力于澄清发展与进化之间关系的工作中，可能得到的回报之一是更有效地诊断出智能设计理论的缺陷。同样，如果多核苷酸序列能够被证明在遗传和发育中具有独特和不可替代的作用，那么随之而来的“围绕它们进行发明创造”的不可能性将使多核苷酸序列的专利申请（即使是功能注释）难以证明是合理的。通过与杜克大学基因组伦理法律与政策中心、北卡罗来纳大学科学与数学学院、北卡罗来纳生物技术中心的积极合作，生物哲学中心将努力交流并将哲学与生物学交叉的研究置于背景中。

This proposal seeks support from STS under the category of small grants for training and research (SGTR). The Duke Center for Philosophy of Biology will employ the grant in a structured program for a series of post-doctoral fellows and advanced graduate students in selected areas of inquiry at the intersection of biology and the philosophy of science. The Center will recruit and support one-year post-doctoral fellows from among young investigators and scholars who propose a research topic the Center considers promising and for which it can provide appropriate support. The philosophy of biology is one of the most fertile and exciting areas of contemporary intellectual interest. Both evolutionary and molecular biology have been subject to great ferment and advance over the last two generations. Both have raised profound epistemological and methodological questions, with answers that have implications for both biology and philosophy. As a result the philosophy of biology is an area of inquiry in which biologists and philosophers are both making significant contributions. Center members have worked on a variety of problems on the intersection of these two disciplines. At present they are particularly concerned with issues raised by the integration of evolutionary and developmental biology. One PI's work requires the articulation of evolution' conceptual and theoretical reliance on variation with development's assiduous focus on the individual and avoidance of variation. Another PI is exploring alternatives to the causal and explanatory autonomy of functional biology, and examining areas in which biological and chemical processes provide competing explanations of phenomena in molecular developmental biology. A third PI's theoretical work on constraints shaping actual terrestrial evolution now demand an identification of general rules governing the emergence of, and organization of parts, in higher level individuals. A final PI's continuing interest in the relationship between developmental and evolutionary modules bears on all three of the topics just identified. It is therefore anticipated that over the period of the grant, post-docs and graduate students will be selected for their qualifications to participate in these related lines of research on the foundations and integration of evolutionary and developmental biology. Candidates chosen for the post-doctoral fellowship will spend the fellowship period pursuing research on the topic identified in their application. The post-doc will participate in the Center's Research Seminar, offer a graduate seminar in the selected topic, and collaborate with the three graduate student fellows who will also devote the fellowship year to the selected topic of research. The work of the post-doc and the graduate students will eventuate, among other things, in a conference for biologists and philosophers, organized by the Center on the topic selected. Post-doctoral fellows will also be invited actively to participate in the seminars, colloquia and other activities of the Duke Center for Genome Ethics Law and Policy, and other institutions in the Research Triangle in order to enhance public awareness of the implications of biological advances for normative issues in research and experimentation, health-care policy, and industrial regulation. The Center for Philosophy of Biology will work closely with the Duke Office of Graduate Student Affairs to actively recruit minorities for participation in this program. Expected scientific and infrastructural outcomes of this project include a) the advancement of the research frontier at the intersection of philosophy and biology, particularly concerning development, evolution, and their interrelation; b) the improved skills of post-docs to pursue this research, and to teach it at the graduate level; c) enhanced preparation of advanced graduate students in areas of inquiry on which they will be expected to pursue their dissertation-research, and therefore more timely progress towards degree; d) benefits to research-programs of biology and philosophy faculty-members of Center through collaboration with post-docs and graduate students. Many features of the research topics described in the proposal (and others the Center may treat) have potential importance to issues of considerable public interest. For example, among the likely pay-offs of work devoted to clarifying the relation between development and evolution is a more effective diagnosis of the defects of intelligent design theory. Similarly, if polynucleotide sequences can be shown to have a distinctive and irreplaceable role in heredity and development, then the consequent impossibility of "inventing around them" will make patenting (even functionally annotated) polynucleotide sequences difficult to justify. Through active collaboration with the Duke Center for Genome Ethics Law and Policy, with the NC School of Science and Math, the North Carolina Biotech Center, the Center for Philosophy of Biology will strive to communicate and contextualize research on the intersection of philosophy and biology.