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-rg895 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-27T22:45:24.694Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Interfield Theories with Nancy Maull

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2009

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

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Interactions between different areas or branches or fields of science have often been obscured by current emphasis on the relations between different scientific theories. Although some philosophers have indicated that different branches may be related, the actual focus has been on the relations between theories within the branches. For example, Ernest Nagel has discussed the reduction of one branch of science to another (1961, Ch. 11). But the relation that Nagel describes is really nothing more than the derivational reduction of the theory or experimental law of one branch of science to the theory of another branch.

We, in contrast to Nagel, are interested in the interrelations between the areas of science that we call fields. For example, cytology, genetics, and biochemistry are more naturally called fields than theories. Fields may have theories within them, such as the classical theory of the gene in genetics; such theories we call intrafield theories. In addition, and more important for our purposes here, interrelations between fields may be established via interfield theories. For example, the fields of genetics and cytology are related via the chromosome theory of Mendelian heredity. The existence of such interfield theories has been obscured by analyses such as Nagel's that erroneously conflate theories and fields and see interrelations as derivational reductions.

The purpose of this chapter is, first, to draw the distinction between field and intrafield theory, and, then, more importantly, to discuss the generation of heretofore unrecognized interfield theories and their functions in relating two fields.

Type
Chapter
Information
Reasoning in Biological Discoveries
Essays on Mechanisms, Interfield Relations, and Anomaly Resolution
 , pp. 127 - 148
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

Bourgeois, S., Cohen, M., and Orgel, L. (1965), “Suppression of and Complementation among Mutants of the Regulatory Gene of the Lactose Operon of Escherichia coli,” Journal of Molecular Biology 14: 300–302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boveri, Theodor ([1902] 1964), “On Multipolar Mitosis as a Means of Analysis of the Cell Nucleus,” in Willier, B. H. and Oppenheimer, J. (eds.), Foundations of Experimental Embryology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 75–97.Google Scholar
Boveri, Theodor (1904), Ergebnisse über die Konstitution der chromatischen Substanz des Zellkerns. Jena: G. Fischer.Google Scholar
Bridges, Calvin B. (1916), “Non-disjunction as Proof of the Chromosome Theory of Heredity,” Genetics 1: 1–52, 107–163.Google ScholarPubMed
Carothers, E. E. (1913), “The Mendelian Ratio in Relation to Certain Orthopteran Chromosomes,” The Journal of Morphology 24: 487–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, William (1965), “Cell, Nucleus, and Inheritance: A Historical Study,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 109: 124–158.Google Scholar
Coleman, William (1970), “Bateson and Chromosomes: Conservative Thought in Science,” Centaurus 15: 228–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darden, Lindley (1974), Reasoning in Scientific Change: The Field of Genetics at Its Beginnings. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Dienert, F. (1900), “Sur la Fermentation du Galactose et sur l'Accoutamance des levures à ce Sucre,” Annales de l'Institute Pasteur 14: 138–189.Google Scholar
Dunn, L. C. (1965), A Short History of Genetics. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Fischer, E. (1894), “Einfluss der Konfiguration auf die Wirkung der Enzyme,” Berichte der deutschen chemische Gesellschaft 27: 2985–2993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fruton, J. S. (1972), Molecules and Life: Historical Essays on the Interplay of Chemistry and Biology. New York: Wiley-Interscience.Google Scholar
Gilbert, W. and Müller-Hill, B. (1966), “Isolation of the Lac Repressor,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 56: 1891–1898.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilbert, W. and Müller-Hill, B. (1967), “The Lac Operator is DNA,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 58: 2415–2421.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughes, Arthur (1959), A History of Cytology. New York: Abelard-Schuman.Google Scholar
Jacob, Francois and Monod, Jacques (1961), “Genetic Regulatory Mechanisms in the Synthesis of Proteins,” Journal of Molecular Biology 3: 318–356.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koshland, D. E. (1973), “Protein Shape and Biological Control,” Scientific American 229: 52–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas (1970), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2nd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakatos, Imre (1970), “Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes,” in Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave (eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 91–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maull Roth, Nancy (1974), Progress in Modern Biology: An Alternative to Reduction. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Maull, Nancy (1977), “Unifying Science Without Reduction,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 8: 143–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monod, Jacques, Changeux, J-P., and Jacob, Francois (1963), “Allosteric Proteins and Cellular Control Systems,” Journal of Molecular Biology 6: 306–329.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monod, Jacques, Wyman, J., and Changeux, J-P. (1965), “On the Nature of Allosteric Transitions: A Plausible Model,” Journal of Molecular Biology 12: 88–118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morgan, Thomas Hunt (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 Hunt (1926), The Theory of the Gene. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, Thomas Hunt, Sturtevant, A. H., Muller, H. J., and Bridges, C. B. (1915), The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity. New York: Henry Holt and Co.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, Ernest (1961), The Structure of Science. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc.Google Scholar
Oppenheim, Paul and Hilary Putnam (1958), “Unity of Science as a Working Hypothesis,” in Feigl, H., Scriven, M. and Maxwell, G. (eds.), Concepts, Theories and the Mind-Body Problem. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, v. 2. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3–36.Google Scholar
Pardee, Arthur, Jacob, Francois, and Monod, Jacques (1959), “The Genetic Control and Cytoplasmic Expression of ‘Inducibility’ in the Synthesis of β–galatosidase by E. coli,” Journal of Molecular Biology 1: 165–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaffner, Kenneth (1974a), “Logic of Discovery and Justification in Regulatory Genetics,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 4: 349–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaffner, Kenneth (1974b), “The Peripherality of Reduction in the Development of Molecular Biology,” Journal of the History of Biology 7: 111–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaffner, Kenneth (1974c), “The Unity of Science and Theory Construction in Molecular Biology,” in Seeger, R. J. and Cohen, R. S. (eds.), Philosophical Foundations of Science: Proceedings of Section L, AAAS 1969. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, v. 11. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing, pp. 497–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapere, Dudley (1973), Unpublished MS. Presented at IUHPS-LMPS Conference on Relations Between History and Philosophy of Science. Jyväskylä, Finland.
Shapere, Dudley (1974a), “Scientific Theories and Their Domains,” in Suppe, Frederick (ed.), The Structure of Scientific Theories. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 518–565.Google Scholar
Stent, G. (1964), “The Operon: On Its Third Anniversary,” Science 144: 816–820.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suppe, Frederick (1974), The Structure of Scientific Theories. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Sutton, Walter ([1903] 1959), “The Chromosomes in Heredity,” Biological Bulletin 4: 231–251. Reprinted in Peters, J. A. (ed.), Classic Papers in Genetics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 27–41.Google Scholar
Toulmin, Stephen (1972), Human Understanding. v. 1. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Weismann, August (1892), The Germ-Plasm, A Theory of Heredity. Translated by W. N. Parker and H. Röonfeldt. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.Google Scholar
Wilson, Edmund B. (1900), The Cell in Development and Inheritance. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan.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
×