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  1. Global idealism/local materialism.Koichiro Matsuno & Stanley N. Salthe - 1995 - Biology and Philosophy 10 (3):309-337.
    We are concerned with two modes of describing the dynamics of natural systems. Global descriptions require simultaneous global coordination of all dynamical operations. Global dynamics, including mechanics, remain invariant in the absence of external perturbation. But, failing impossible global coordination, dynamical operations could actually become coordinated only locally. In local records, as in global ones, the law of the excluded middle would be strictly observed, but without global coordination it could only be fullfilled sequentially by passing causative factors forward onto (...)
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  • A semiotical reflection on biology, living signs and artificial life.Claus Emmeche - 1991 - Biology and Philosophy 6 (3):325-340.
    It is argued, that theory sf signs, especially in the tradition of the great philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) can inspire the study of central problems in the philosophy of biology. Three such problems are considered: (1) The nature of biology as a science, where a semiotically informed pluralistic approach to the theory of science is introduced. (2) The peculiarity of the general object of biology, where a realistic interpretation of sign- and information-concepts is required to see sign-processes as immanent (...)
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  • Darwin's causal pluralism.Stephen T. Asma - 1996 - Biology and Philosophy 11 (1):1-20.
    Traditionally, Darwin has been grouped with the functionalists because natural selection (an adaptational mechanism) plays the prominent role in shaping organic form. In this paper, I sketch the dichotomy of functionalism versus structuralism and then argue that Darwin cannot be characterized adequately with this dichotomy. I argue that Darwin can incorporate both causal stories because he makes two important modifications to the traditional metaphysical presuppositions. I then offer some brief reflections on the import of Darwin's causal pluralism for the Philosophy (...)
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  • Life’s organization between matter and form: Neo-Aristotelian approaches and biosemiotics.Çağlar Karaca - 2021 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 43 (2):1-40.
    In this paper, I discuss the neo-Aristotelian approaches, which usually reinterpret Aristotle’s ideas on form and/or borrow the notion of formal cause without engaging with the broader implications of Aristotle’s metaphysics. In opposition to these approaches, I claim that biosemiotics can propose an alternative view on life’s form. Specifically, I examine the proposals to replace the formal cause with gene-centrism, functionalism, and structuralism. After critically addressing these approaches, I discuss the problems of reconciling Aristotelianism with the modern view of life’s (...)
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  • On the necessity of an archetypal concept in morphology: With special reference to the concepts of “structure” and “homology”. [REVIEW]Bruce A. Young - 1993 - Biology and Philosophy 8 (2):225-248.
    Morphological elements, or structures, are sorted into four categories depending on their level of anatomical isolation and the presence or absence of intrinsically identifying characteristics. These four categories are used to highlight the difficulties with the concept of structure and our ability to identify or define structures. The analysis is extended to the concept of homology through a discussion of the methodological and philosophical problems of the current concept of homology. It is argued that homology is fundamentally a similarity based (...)
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  • (1 other version)Philosophy of Biology Beyond Evolution: Philosophie der Biologie. Eine Einführung Ulrich Krohs and Georg Toepfer, eds Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2005. [REVIEW]Staffan Mueller-Wille - 2007 - Biological Theory 2 (1):111-112.
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  • (1 other version)The Power of Mathematical Modeling in Developmental Biology: Biological Physics of the Developing Embryo Gabor Forgacs and Stuart A. Newman Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 (337 pp; $ 64 hbk; ISBN 0-521-78337-2). [REVIEW]Diego Rasskin-Gutman - 2007 - Biological Theory 2 (1):108-111.
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  • Homology of process: developmental dynamics in comparative biology.James DiFrisco & Johannes Jaeger - forthcoming - Interface Focus.
    Comparative biology builds up systematic knowledge of the diversity of life, across evolutionary lineages and levels of organization, starting with evidence from a sparse sample of model organisms. In developmental biology, a key obstacle to the growth of comparative approaches is that the concept of homology is not very well defined for levels of organization that are intermediate between individual genes and morphological characters. In this paper, we investigate what it means for ontogenetic processes to be homologous, focusing specifically on (...)
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  • (1 other version)The Power of Mathematical Modeling in Developmental Biology.Diego Rasskin-Gutman - 2007 - Biological Theory 2 (1):108-111.
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  • Dangerous Habits: Examining the Philosophical Baggage of Biological Research.Massimo Pigliucci - 2003 - Dissertation, The University of Tennessee
    Science is about conceptualizing the natural world in a way that can be understood by human beings while at the same time reflecting as much as possible what we can empirically infer about how the world actually is. Among the crucial tools that allow scientists to formulate hypotheses and to contribute to a progressive understanding of nature are the use of imagery and metaphors, on the one hand, and the ability to assume certain starting points on which to build new (...)
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