Doctoral Dissertation Research: Historical and Philosophical Analysis of the Genetic Maps in Seymour Benzer's Research on Genetic Fine Structure

前言模型是生物学研究中广泛使用的工具，但生物学家在日常研究活动中对模型的使用还不是很清楚。模型在日常研究中扮演什么角色？我们应该认为模型是服务于科学的各种目标，还是服务于某个总体目标，尽管它们的用途明显不同？这个项目将通过开发西摩·本泽在20世纪50年代和60年代对基因精细结构的研究中使用基因图谱的案例研究来解决这些问题。智力价值该项目分析本泽的研究笔记本和加州理工大学档案馆的信件，扩展了本泽研究的现有工作。利用档案研究产生的科学实践的详细说明，该项目将探索关于模型目标的可能的哲学观点，并确定一个受到对遗传图谱使用的详细分析很好激发的观点。因此，该项目将丰富一般科学哲学中关于科学目的立场的长期辩论。潜在的更广泛的影响该项目将解决历史、认知科学和哲学研究人员的不同关切。首先，通过对本泽基因图谱的历史分析，历史学家将能够详细了解这些图谱在遗传史上关键人物之一的日常研究中所做的工作。其次，由于基因图谱是在纸上绘制的图表模型，那些对其他科学中类似工具感兴趣的历史学家可能会从自己的工作中获得新的视角。第三，对本泽笔记本的研究还可能发现新的认知现象，这些现象可能成为认知科学未来研究的主题。最后，通过将关于模型的哲学辩论牢牢地建立在生物学家实践的细节上，这个项目有可能改变科学哲学中的这场辩论。

IntroductionModels are widely used tools in biological research, but their uses by biologists in their day-to-day research activities are not well understood. What roles do models play in everyday research? Should we think of models as serving various aims in science or as serving some overarching aim despite the apparent diversity of their uses? This project will address these questions by developing a case study of Seymour Benzer's uses of genetic maps, meaning diagrammatic models of genes, in his research during the 1950s and 1960s on the fine scale structure of genes.Intellectual MeritThe project analyzes Benzer's research notebooks and correspondence at the Caltech Archives, extending the existing work on Benzer's research. Using the detailed account of scientific practice generated from the archival research, the project will explore possible philosophical perspectives on the aims of models and identify a perspective that is well motivated by the detailed analysis of the uses of genetic maps. The project will thus enrich a long-standing debate in general philosophy of science over positions regarding the aims of science.Potential Broader ImpactsThe project will address diverse concerns of researchers in history, cognitive science, and philosophy. First, from the historical analysis of Benzer's genetic maps, historians will be able to gain a detailed understanding of what the maps did in the everyday research of one of the key figures in the history of genetics. Second, since genetic maps are diagrammatic models drawn on paper, those historians interested in similar tools in other sciences may gain a new perspective on their own work. Third, the study of Benzer's notebooks may also uncover novel cognitive phenomena that may become the subject of future studies in cognitive science. Finally, by firmly grounding a philosophical debate over models in the details of a biologist's practice, this project has the potential to transform this debate in philosophy of science.