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

生物学哲学博士后/研究生研究和培训项目

• 批准号: 0338124
• 负责人: Alexander Rosenberg
• 金额: $ 29.63万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-07-01 至 2008-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0338124&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Post; doctoral; graduate; research; training

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.

该提案寻求STS在培训和研究小额赠款（SGTR）类别下的支持。 杜克生物学哲学中心将在生物学和科学哲学交叉点的选定研究领域为一系列博士后研究员和高级研究生提供结构化计划。该中心将从年轻的研究人员和学者中招募和支持为期一年的博士后研究员，他们提出了中心认为有前途的研究课题，并为此提供适当的支持。 生物学哲学是当代知识界最丰富、最令人兴奋的领域之一。 进化生物学和分子生物学在过去的两代人中经历了巨大的酝酿和发展。 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，生物学哲学是一个生物学家和哲学家都做出重大贡献的研究领域。 中心成员研究了这两个学科交叉的各种问题。目前，他们特别关注进化生物学和发育生物学的整合所提出的问题。 一个PI的工作需要阐明进化的概念和理论依赖于变异与发展的勤奋专注于个人和避免变异。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，并研究生物和化学过程对分子发育生物学中的现象提供竞争性解释的领域。 第三PI的理论工作的限制，塑造实际的地球进化现在需要确定的一般规则，管理的出现，组织的部分，在更高层次的个人。 最后一个PI对发展和进化模块之间关系的持续兴趣与刚刚确定的所有三个主题有关。因此，预计在赠款期间，博士后和研究生将根据其资格被选中参加这些有关进化和发育生物学基础和整合的研究。 被选为博士后奖学金的候选人将在奖学金期间就其申请中确定的主题进行研究。博士后将参加该中心的研究研讨会，在选定的主题提供研究生研讨会，并与三名研究生研究员谁也将致力于奖学金年的研究选定的主题合作。博士后和研究生的工作将在生物学家和哲学家的会议上结束，由中心就选定的主题组织。 还将积极邀请博士后研究员参加杜克基因组伦理法律和政策中心以及三角研究区其他机构的研讨会、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、保健政策和工业管制中的规范性问题的影响的认识。 生物学哲学中心将与研究生事务的杜克办公室密切合作，积极招募少数民族参与这一计划。 这一项目的预期科学和基础设施成果包括：（a）推进哲学和生物学交叉领域的研究前沿，特别是关于发展、进化及其相互关系的研究前沿;（B）提高博士后从事这一研究的技能，并在研究生一级教授这一研究;（c）加强高级研究生在研究领域的准备工作，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系成员的研究项目受益。 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，致力于澄清发展与进化之间关系的工作可能带来的回报之一是对智能设计理论缺陷的更有效诊断。类似地，如果多核苷酸序列可以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”的不可能性将使多核苷酸序列的专利（即使是功能注释）难以证明。通过与杜克中心基因组伦理法律和政策，与科学和数学的NC学校，北卡罗来纳州生物技术中心的积极合作，生物学哲学中心将努力沟通和情境化哲学和生物学的交叉研究。