Reducing the dauer larva: molecular models of biological phenomena in Caenorhabditis elegans research

• Autores: Michal Arciszewski
• Localización: Synthese, ISSN-e 1573-0964, Vol. 190, Nº. 18, 2013, págs. 4155-4179
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • One important aspect of biological explanation is detailed causal modeling of particular phenomena in limited experimental background conditions. Recognising this allows one to appreciate that a sufficient condition for a reduction in biology is a molecular model of (1) only the demonstrated causal parameters of a biological model and (2) only within a replicable experimental background. These identities�which are ubiquitous in biology and form the basis of ruthless reductions (Bickle, Philosophy and neuroscience: a ruthlessly reductive account, 2003)�are criticised as merely �local� (Sullivan, Synthese 167:511�539, 2009) or �fragmentary� (Schaffner, Synthese, 151(3):377�402, 2006). However, in an instructive case, a biological model is preserved in molecular terms, demonstrating a complex phenomenon that has been successfully reduced