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-669899f699-cf6xr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-27T18:32:33.675Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Exemplars, Abstractions, and Anomalies: Representations and Theory Change in Mendelian and Molecular Genetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2009

Lindley Darden
Lindley Darden
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Get access

Summary

INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses representation of scientific theories and reasoning in theory change. A scientific theory may be represented by a set of concrete exemplary problem solutions. Or, alternatively, a theory may be depicted in an abstract pattern, which when its variables are filled with constants becomes a particular explanation. The exemplars and abstractions may be depicted diagrammatically, as they are in the cases from Mendelian and molecular genetics to be discussed. One way that a theory grows is by adding new types of exemplars to its explanatory repertoire. Model anomalies show the need for a new exemplar; they turn out to be examples of a typical, normal pattern that had not been included in the previous stage of theory development. A special-case anomaly indicates the need for a new exemplar or abstraction, but it has a small scope of applicability. Thus, our subjects here are exemplars, abstractions, diagrammatic representations, and anomalies and the roles they play in the representation of explanatory theories and in the change of such theories. Examples will be taken from Mendelian and molecular genetics.

EXEMPLARS, ABSTRACTIONS, AND DIAGRAMS

Thomas Kuhn (1970, 1974) discussed the importance of “exemplars,” which he characterized as concrete problem solutions in which a formalism is applied and given empirical grounding. Kuhn said that exemplars are taught by the use of problems in textbooks.

Type
Chapter
Information
Reasoning in Biological Discoveries
Essays on Mechanisms, Interfield Relations, and Anomaly Resolution
 , pp. 229 - 247
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

,Anonymous (1970a), “Central Dogma Reversed,” News and Views, Nature 226: 1198–1199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,Anonymous (1970b), “Cancer Viruses: More of the Same,” Nature 227: 887–888.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baltimore, David (1970), “Viral RNA-dependent DNA Polymerase,” Nature 226: 1209–1211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baltimore, David (1977), “Viruses, Polymerases and Cancer,” in Nobel Lectures in Molecular Biology, 1933–1975. [no editor] New York: Elsevier, pp. 495–508. Presented December 12, 1975.Google Scholar
Bateson, William (1902), Mendel's Principles of Heredity – A Defense. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Bateson, William, E. R. Saunders, and R. C. Punnett (1905), “Further Experiments on Inheritance in Sweet Peas and Stocks: Preliminary Account,” Proceedings of the Royal Society, B, LXXVII. Reprinted in Punnett, R. C. (ed.) (1928), Scientific Papers of William Bateson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, v. 2, pp. 139–141.Google Scholar
Bechtel, William and Richardson, Robert C. (1993), Discovering Complexity: Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Berg, Paul and Singer, Maxine (1992), Dealing with Genes: The Language of Heredity. Mill Valley, CA: University Science Books.Google Scholar
Crick, Francis (1958), “On Protein Synthesis,” Symposium of the Society of Experimental Biology 12: 138–167.Google ScholarPubMed
Crick, Francis (1970), “Central Dogma of Molecular Biology,” Nature 227: 561–563.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Darden, Lindley (1990), “Diagnosing and Fixing Faults in Theories,” in Shrager, J. and Langley, P. (eds.), Computational Models of Scientific Discovery and Theory Formation. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, pp. 319–346.Google Scholar
Darden, Lindley (1991), Theory Change in Science: Strategies from Mendelian Genetics. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Darden, Lindley (1992), “Strategies for Anomaly Resolution,” in Giere, R. (ed.), Cognitive Models of Science, Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, v. 15. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 251–273.Google Scholar
Darden, Lindley and Cain, Joseph A. (1989), “Selection Type Theories,” Philosophy of Science 56: 106–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darden, Lindley and Maull, Nancy (1977), “Interfield Theories,” Philosophy of Science 44: 43–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darden, Lindley, Moberg, Dale, Nagarajan, Satish, and Josephson, John (1991), “Anomaly Driven Redesign of a Scientific Theory: The TRANSGENE.2 Experiments,” Technical Report 91-LD-TRANSGENE. Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence Research, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.Google Scholar
Gallo, Robert (1991), Virus Hunting, Aids, Cancer, and the Human Retrovirus: A Story of Scientific Discovery. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Basic Books.Google Scholar
Karp, Peter (1990), “Hypothesis Formation as Design,” in Shrager, J. and Langley, P. (eds.), Computational Models of Scientific Discovery and Theory Formation. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, pp. 275–317.Google Scholar
Kettler, Brian and Lindley Darden (1993), “Protein Sequencing Experiment Planning Using Analogy,” in Hunter, L., Searls, D., and Shavlik, J. (eds.), ISMB-93, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology. Menlo Park, CA: AAAI Press, pp. 216–224.Google Scholar
Kitcher, Philip (1981), “Explanatory Unification,” Philosophy of Science 48: 507–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, Philip (1989), “Explanatory Unification and the Causal Structure of the World,” in Kitcher, Philip and Salmon, Wesley (eds.), Scientific Explanation. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, v. 13. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 410–505.Google Scholar
Kitcher, Philip (1993), The Advancement of Science: Science without Legend, Objectivity without Illusions. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas (1970), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2nd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas (1974), “Second Thoughts on Paradigms,” in Frederick Suppe (ed.), The Structure of Scientific Theories. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 459–482.Google Scholar
Mendel, Gregor ([1865] 1966), “Experiments on Plant Hybrids,” in Stern, Curt and Sherwood, Eva (eds.), The Origin of Genetics, A Mendel Source Book. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, pp. 1–48.Google Scholar
Morgan, Thomas H. (1910b), “Sex-Limited Inheritance in Drosophila,” Science 32: 120–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, Thomas H. (1911a), “An Attempt to Analyze the Constitution of the Chromosomes on the Basis of Sex-Limited Inheritance in Drosophila,” Journal of Experimental Zoology 11: 365–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, Thomas H. (1926), The Theory of the Gene. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, Thomas H., Sturtevant, A. H., Muller, H. J., and Bridges, C. B. (1915), The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity. New York: Henry Holt and Company.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olby, Robert (1970), “Francis Crick, DNA, and the Central Dogma,” reprinted in G. Holton (ed.), The Twentieth Century Sciences. New York: W. W. Norton, pp. 227–280.Google Scholar
Schaffner, Kenneth (1986b), “Exemplar Reasoning About Biological Models and Diseases: A Relation Between the Philosophy of Medicine and Philosophy of Science,” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 11: 63–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schank, Roger C. (1986), Explanation Patterns: Understanding Mechanically and Creatively. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Strickberger, Monroe (1985), Genetics. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Studer, Kenneth E. and Chubin, Daryl E. (1980), The Cancer Mission: Social Contexts of Biomedical Research. Sage Library of Social Research, v. 103. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Temin, Howard M. (1963), “The Effects of Actinomycin D on Growth of Rous Sarcoma Virus in Vitro,” Virology 20: 577–582.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Temin, Howard M. (1964a), “The Participation of DNA in Rous Sarcoma Virus Production,” Virology 23: 486–494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Temin, Howard M. (1964b), “Homology between RNA from Rous Sarcoma Virus and DNA from Rous Sarcoma Virus-infected Cells,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 52: 323–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Temin, Howard M. (1964c), “Nature of the Provirus in Rous Sarcoma,” National Cancer Institute Monograph 17: 557–570.Google Scholar
Temin, Howard M. (1971), “Guest Editorial. The Protovirus Hypothesis: Speculations on the Significance of RNA-directed DNA Synthesis for Normal Development and Carcinogenesis,” Journal of the National Cancer Institute 46: III–VIII.Google Scholar
Temin, Howard M. (1977), “The DNA Provirus Hypothesis: The Establishment and Implications of RNA-directed DNA Synthesis,” in Nobel Lectures in Molecular Biology, 1933–1975. [no editor] New York: Elsevier, pp. 509–529. Presented December 12, 1975.Google Scholar
Temin, Howard M. and Mizutani, Satoshi (1970), “RNA-dependent DNA Polymerase in Virions of Rous Sarcoma Virus,” Nature 226: 1211–1213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vries, Hugo de ([1900] 1966), “Das Spaltungsgesetz der Bastarde,” Berichte der deutschen botanischen Gesellschaft 18: 83–90. English translation: “The Law of Segregation of Hybrids,” in Stern, C. and Sherwood, E. (eds.), The Origin of Genetics, A Mendel Source Book. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, pp. 107–117.Google Scholar
Watson, James D. (1968), The Double Helix. New York: New American Library.Google Scholar
Watson, James D. (1970), Molecular Biology of the Gene. 2nd ed. New York: W. A. Benjamin.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
×