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More Philosophical Aspects of Molecular Biology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

S. Wendell-Waechtler  and
E. Levy
S. Wendell-Waechtler
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
E. Levy
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
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Extract

In his [1], David Berlinski explores, among other things, both what could be called a “sophisticated” and a “basic” analogy between languages and the genetic code. The basic analogy stems from the observation that the relationship between English and “Morse” appears to be formally similar to the relationship between DNA and protein. That is, just as sentences of the English language can be encoded into Morse, sequences of bases within strands of DNA are “transcribed” into polypeptides. (See Table 1.) To some, this “basic” analogy

(NB: There is no isomorphism between B″ and P′ since some codons do not code for amino acids; these codons appear to act as signals, e.g. for terminating polypeptide chains. Also note that the code is degenerate and thus G is not an embedding.)

Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , June 1975 , pp. 180 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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References

REFERENCES

Berlinski, D. “Philosophical Aspects of Molecular Biology.” Journal of Philosophy 69 (1972): 319–335.10.2307/2024776CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1965.Google Scholar
Hull, D. “Reduction in Genetics—Biology or Philosophy?” Philosophy of Science 39 (1972): 491–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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