Boem F, Ratti E, Andreoletti M, Boniolo G
Dipartimento di Oncologia ed Emato-oncologia, Università di Milano, Italy.
Center for Theology, Science and Human Flourishing, University of Notre Dame, USA.
Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci. 2016 Jun;57:88-95. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2016.04.005. Epub 2016 May 4.
In the last few years, the lack of a unitary notion of gene across biological sciences has troubled the philosophy of biology community. However, the debate on this concept has remained largely historical or focused on particular cases presented by the scientific empirical advancements. Moreover, in the literature there are no explicit and reasonable arguments about why a philosophical clarification of the concept of gene is needed. In our paper, we claim that a philosophical clarification of the concept of gene does not contribute to biology. Unlike the question, for example, "What is a biological function?", we argue that the question "What is a gene?" could be answered by means of empirical research, in the sense that biologists' labour is enough to shed light on it.
在过去几年里,生物学各学科缺乏统一的基因概念这一情况困扰着生物学哲学界。然而,关于这一概念的争论在很大程度上仍停留在历史层面,或者聚焦于科学实证进展所呈现的特定案例。此外,文献中没有关于为何需要对基因概念进行哲学阐释的明确且合理的论证。在我们的论文中,我们认为对基因概念进行哲学阐释对生物学并无助益。与诸如“什么是生物学功能?”这类问题不同,我们认为“什么是基因?”这个问题可以通过实证研究来回答,从这个意义上说,生物学家的工作足以阐明这一问题。