Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T08:50:22.630Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Why Does It Matter That Many Biology Concepts Are Metaphors?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2020

By
Kostas Kampourakis
Edited by
Kostas Kampourakis  and
Tobias Uller
Kostas Kampourakis
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
Tobias Uller
Affiliation:
Lunds Universitet, Sweden
Get access

Summary

What does scientific knowledge consist of? At the most basic level it is structured by concepts. Scientific concepts have important representational and heuristic roles in the acquisition and justification of scientific knowledge because they both represent natural entities, properties, and processes and also make their investigation possible (Arabatzis 2019; see also Nersessian 2008; MacLeod 2012). This is why concepts and their meanings have long been the focus of philosophical studies (see for instance the concepts analyzed in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu; or those biology concepts in edited collections such as Keller & Lloyd 1992; Hull & Ruse 1998; Hall & Olson 2003; Hull & Ruse 2007). This chapter deals with a central feature of scientific concepts: their metaphorical nature.

Type
Chapter
Information
Philosophy of Science for Biologists , pp. 102 - 122
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arabatzis, T. (2019). What Are Scientific Concepts? In McCain, K. & Kampourakis, K. (eds.), What Is Scientific Knowledge? An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology of Science. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Avise, J. C. (2001). Evolving Genomic Metaphors: A New Look at the Language of DNA. Science 294(5540): 86–87.Google Scholar
Black, M. (1955). Metaphor. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 55: 273–294.Google Scholar
Blancke, S., Schellens, T., Soetaert, R., Van Keer, H., & Braeckman, J. (2014). From Ends to Causes (and Back Again) by Metaphor: The Paradox of Natural Selection. Science & Education 23(4): 793–808.Google Scholar
Boudry, M. & Pigliucci, M. (2013). The Mismeasure of Machine: Synthetic Biology and the Trouble with Engineering Metaphors. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 44: 660–668.Google Scholar
Bradie, M. (1998). Explanation as Metaphorical Redescription. Metaphor and Symbol 13(2): 125–139.Google Scholar
Bradie, M. (1999). Science and Metaphor. Biology and Philosophy 14: 159–166.Google Scholar
Brigandt, I. (2013). Intelligent Design and the Nature of Science: Philosophical and Pedagogical Points. In Kampourakis, K. (ed.), The Philosophy of Biology: A Companion for Educators. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Brown, T. L. (2003). Making Truth: Metaphor in Science. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Cuddington, K. (2001). The “Balance of Nature” Metaphor and Equilibrium in Population Ecology. Biology and Philosophy 16: 463–479.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. R. (1859). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1st ed.). London: John Murray (available at http://darwin-online.org.uk)Google Scholar
Darwin, C. R. (1861). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (3rd ed.). London: John Murray (available at http://darwin-online.org.uk)Google Scholar
Darwin, C. R. (1869). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (5th ed.). London: John Murray (available at http://darwin-online.org.uk)Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (2006 [1986]). The Blind Watchmaker. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Depew, D. (2013). Conceptual Change and the Rhetoric of Evolutionary Theory: “Force Talk” as a Case Study and Challenge for Science Pedagogy. In Kampourakis, K. (ed.), The Philosophy of Biology: A Companion for Educators. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Fusco, G., Carrer, R., & Serrelli, E. (2014). The Landscape Metaphor in Development. In Minelli, A. & Pradeu, T. (eds.), Towards a Theory of Development, pp. 114–128. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gould, S. J. & Lewontin, R. C. (1979). The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B. Biological Sciences 205(1161): 581–598.Google Scholar
Griffiths, P. E. (2001). Genetic Information: A Metaphor in Search of a Theory. Philosophy of Science 68(3): 394–412.Google Scholar
Hall, B. K. & Olson, W. M. (2003). Keywords & Concepts in Evolutionary Developmental Biology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hesse, M. B. (1966). Models and Analogies in Science. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Hull, D. L. & Ruse, M. (eds.) (1998). The Philosophy of Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hull, D. L. & Ruse, M. (eds.) (2007). The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kampourakis, K. (2014). Understanding Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kampourakis, K. (2017). Making Sense of Genes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kampourakis, K. (2019). Genetics Makes More Sense in the Light of Development. In Fusco, Giuseppe (ed.), Perspectives on Evolutionary and Developmental Biology: Essays for Alessandro Minelli, pp. 115–122. Padova: University of Padova Press.Google Scholar
Kaplan, J. (2008). The End of the Adaptive Landscape Metaphor? Biology and Philosophy 23: 625–638.Google Scholar
Kay, L. (2000). Who Wrote the Book of Life? A History of the Genetic Code. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Keller, E. F. (1995). Refiguring Life: Metaphors of Twentieth Century Biology. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Keller, E. F. & Lloyd, E. A. (1992). Keywords in Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kohn, D. (2009). Darwin’s Keystone: The Principle of Divergence. In Ruse, M. and Richards, R. J. (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to the “Origin of Species,” pp. 87–108. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (2003 [1980]). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lewontin, R. C. (2000). The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, and Environment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lewontin, R. (2010). Not So Natural Selection. The New York Review of Books, www.nybooks.com/articles/2010/05/27/not-so-natural-selection/, accessed April 3, 2019.Google Scholar
MacLeod, M. (2012). Rethinking Scientific Concepts for Research Contexts: The Case of the Classical Gene. In Feest, Uljana & Steinle, Friedrich (eds.), Scientific Concepts and Investigative Practice, pp. 47–74. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. (2002). What Evolution Is. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Mindell, D. P. (2013). The Tree of Life: Metaphor, Model, and Heuristic Device. Systematic Biology 62(3): 479–489.Google Scholar
Morange, M. (2002). The Misunderstood Gene. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nersessian, N. (2008). Creating Scientific Concepts. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Nicholson, D. J. (2013). Organisms ≠ Machines. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 44: 669–678.Google Scholar
Nicholson, D. J. (2014). The Machine Conception of the Organism in Development and Evolution: A Critical Analysis. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 48: 162–174.Google Scholar
Nicholson, D. J. (2018). Reconceptualizing the Organism: From Complex Machine to Flowing Stream. In Feest, D. J. & Dupré, J. (eds.), Everything Flows, pp. 139–166. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nicholson, D. J. (2019). Is the Cell Really a Machine? Journal of Theoretical Biology 477: 108–126.Google Scholar
Ouzounis, C. & Mazière, P. (2006). Maps, Books and Other Metaphors for Systems Biology. BioSystems 85: 6–10.Google Scholar
Pigliucci, M. (2010). Genotype–Phenotype Mapping and the End of the “Genes as Blueprint” Metaphor. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 365: 557–566.Google Scholar
Pigliucci, M. & Boudry, M. (2011). Why Machine-Information Metaphors are Bad for Science and Science Education. Science & Education 20(5–6): 453–471.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, A. & McShea, D. W. (2008). Philosophy of Biology: A Contemporary Introduction. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Reynolds, A. S. (2018). The Third Lens: Metaphor and the Creation of Modern Cell Biology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. (2000). Metaphor in Evolutionary Biology. Revue Internationale de Philosophie 54, 214(4): 593–619.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. (2005). Darwinism and Mechanism: Metaphor in Science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological & Biomedical Sciences 36: 285–302.Google Scholar
Thompson, N. S. (2000). Shifting the Natural Selection Metaphor to the Group Level. Behavior and Philosophy 28(1–2): 83–101.Google Scholar
Waters, C. K. (2009). The Arguments in The Origin of Species. In Hodge, J. & Radick, G. (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Darwin (2nd ed.), pp. 120–143. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×