Deichmann Ute
Jacques Loeb Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, 84105, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Hist Philos Life Sci. 2017 Oct 16;39(4):33. doi: 10.1007/s40656-017-0160-3.
The concepts of hierarchical organization, genetic determinism and biological specificity (for example of species, biologically relevant macromolecules, or genes) have played a crucial role in biology as a modern experimental science since its beginnings in the nineteenth century. The idea of genetic information (specificity) and genetic determination was at the basis of molecular biology that developed in the 1940s with macromolecules, viruses and prokaryotes as major objects of research often labelled "reductionist". However, the concepts have been marginalized or rejected in some of the research that in the late 1960s began to focus additionally on the molecularization of complex biological structures and functions using systems approaches. This paper challenges the view that 'molecular reductionism' has been successfully replaced by holism and a focus on the collective behaviour of cellular entities. It argues instead that there are more fertile replacements for molecular 'reductionism', in which genomics, embryology, biochemistry, and computer science intertwine and result in research that is as exact and causally predictive as earlier molecular biology.
自19世纪作为一门现代实验科学诞生以来，层次组织、遗传决定论和生物特异性（例如物种、生物相关大分子或基因的特异性）的概念在生物学中发挥了至关重要的作用。遗传信息（特异性）和遗传决定的概念是20世纪40年代发展起来的分子生物学的基础，当时大分子、病毒和原核生物是主要研究对象，该学科常被贴上“还原论”的标签。然而，在20世纪60年代末开始额外关注使用系统方法对复杂生物结构和功能进行分子化的一些研究中，这些概念已被边缘化或摒弃。本文对“分子还原论”已被整体论以及对细胞实体集体行为的关注成功取代这一观点提出了质疑。相反，本文认为分子“还原论”有更富有成效的替代方案，在这些方案中，基因组学、胚胎学、生物化学和计算机科学相互交织，产生的研究与早期分子生物学一样精确且具有因果预测性。
