Abstract:

William Paley (Natural Theology, 1802) developed the argument-from-design. The complex structure of the human eye evinces that it was designed by an intelligent Creator. The argument is based on the irreducible complexity (“relation”) of multiple interacting parts, all necessary for function. Paley adduces a wealth of biological examples leading to the same conclusion; his knowledge of the biology of his time was profound and extensive. Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species is an extended argument demonstrating that the “design” of organisms can be explained by natural selection. Moreover, the dysfunctions, defects, waste, and cruelty that prevail in the living world are incompatible with an intelligent designer, although they are compatible with a designer who is incompetent or malicious. The flaws, oddities, and sloppiness of the living world come about by a process that incorporates chance and necessity, mutation and natural selection.

Suggested Readings:

Ayala, F.J. 1999. Adaptation and Novelty: Teleological Explanations in Evolutionary Biology. Hist. Phil. Life Sci. 21:3-33.

Ayala, F.J. 2000. Arguing for Evolution. The Science Teacher 67:30-32.

Ayala, F.J. 2003. Intelligent Design: The Original Version. Theology and Science 1:9-32.

Ayala, F.J. 2004. In William Paleys Shadow: Darwins Explanation of Design. In: F.J.Ayala ,ed. Ernst Mayr 1904. Ludus Vitalis, Vol. XII:53-66.

 

James Griesemer: Chemical Autonomy and Stoichiometric Freedom

Abstract:

What are the basic kinds of entities to which the laws and principles of biology apply? Two philosophical traditions in the last 30 years, structuralism and functionalism, addressed this question for evolutionary theory, which plays a fundamental interpretive role across the biological sciences. Structuralism describes a hierarchy of structural levels from molecules to species over which evolutionary processes range, while functionalism describes a general replicator and interactor function of units of heredity and selection. Both traditions take for granted the chemical basis of contemporary living things, a practice that limits what evolutionary theory can say about the origin of life and about evolutionary transitions producing new levels of organization. I describe the theoretical biology of Tibor Gánti and his “chemoton” (chemical automaton) model of living organization and argue that it offers new possibilities for characterizing genetic units and a fresh mechanistic approach to philosophy of biology.

Suggested Readings:

Griesemer, James (in press), "The Informational Gene and the Substantial Body: On the Generalization of Evolutionary Theory by Abstraction", Biology & Philosophy.

William Bechtel: From Non-Biological to Biological Mechanisms

Abstract:

Descartes championed the mechanical worldview in the 17 th century for understanding the physical universe, which for him included living organisms. Although is assumed less prominence in the development of modern physics, by triumphing over vitalism mechanism became the predominant framework for biological explanation in the 19 th and 20 th centuries. Philosophers, however, have tended to approach biology by seeking laws, and finding few, have faulted biology. A better strategy is to focus on how biologists explain phenomena by identifying responsible mechanisms. I will describe the account of mechanistic explanation that several recent philosophers of biology including myself have advanced. According to it, mechanistic explanation explains phenomena in terms of the orchestrated operation of component parts. I will argue that to be adequate to biology, mechanistic accounts need to focus in particular on how parts of mechanisms are organized and how modes of organization differentiate biological from non-biological mechanisms.

Suggested Readings:

Bechtel, W. and Abrahamsen, A. (in press). Explanation: A Mechanistic Alternative. Studies in History of Philosophy of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences. Available at http://mechanism.ucsd.edu/~bill/Explanation.pdf

Darden, Lindley and Carl Craver (2002), "Strategies in the Interfield Discovery of the Mechanism of Protein Synthesis," Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 33: 1-28.

 

Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Biology and the Minority Access to Research Careers Program (NIH), at California State University Northridge.

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