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Is Biology a Provincial Science?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Ronald Munson
Ronald Munson*
Affiliation:
University of Missouri–St. Louis
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Abstract

My thesis is that biology is most plausibly regarded as a universal, as distinct from a provincial, science. First, I develop the general notion of a provincial science, formulate three criteria for applying the concept, and present brief examples illustrating their use. Second, I argue that a consideration of population genetics as a characteristic example of a basic biological theory strengthens the prior presumption that biology is not a provincial science. Finally, I examine two arguments to the effect that biology is a provincial science. The first concerns biology's exclusively terrestrial evidence base, the second the logical character of its laws. I introduce considerations that weaken the persuasiveness of the first argument and then show that the second one rests upon a false premise and so should be rejected.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , December 1975 , pp. 428 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I gratefully acknowledge the help and suggestions of David Conway, David Hull, Ernest Mayr, Kenneth Schaffner, and James Walters.

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