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Reducing the dauer larva
molecular models of biological phenomena in caenorhabditis elegans research
pp. 4155-4179
Abstrakt
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.
Publication details
Published in:
(2013) Synthese 190 (18).
Seiten: 4155-4179
DOI: 10.1007/s11229-013-0254-8
Referenz:
Arciszewski Michal (2013) „Reducing the dauer larva: molecular models of biological phenomena in caenorhabditis elegans research“. Synthese 190 (18), 4155–4179.