Instructor: Alan Love
Office: 734 Heller Hall
Phone: (612) 625-4510 (on campus: x5-4510)
Class Time: R 3:50pm-5:50pm Location: 731 Heller Hall
Office Hours: By appointment
Reductionism continues to be one of the central issues in philosophy of science and has been especially important in philosophical discussion of the life sciences. This seminar will survey the core philosophical literature on reductionism in the context of biology with two main goals: (1) identifying the major contours of different approaches to the meaning and nature of reductionism; and, (2) isolating outstanding issues deserving of more research and analysis. We will begin with the classic discussion of reduction in Nagel’s Structure of Science. Then we will canvas the key works of different philosophers of biology who have considered reductionism with respect to genetics, evolution, and development (e.g. Hull, Schaffner, Kitcher, Rosenberg, Wimsatt, and Sarkar). Along the way we will also include a number of recent, important papers relevant to our topic. Seminar participants will gain a broad perspective on reductionism in the biological sciences that is pertinent to literature in other areas of philosophy (e.g. philosophy of mind), as well as being oriented to pursue further research in this domain.
Nagel, E. (1979)[1961], The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
Sarkar, S. (1998), Genetics and Reductionism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schaffner, K.F. (1993), Discovery and Explanation in Biology and Medicine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Each student is expected to read the articles or chapters assigned for the week in order for us to jointly discuss the relative merits of the arguments being offered (10%). (Reading ‘advice’ will be given at the end of each session in order to facilitate concentrating on key aspects of the articles.) Once during the semester each student will be responsible for opening the discussion for the day’s topic by giving a 20-30 minute presentation on one or two of the papers (20%). At the end of the course each student is required to submit a ~25 page research paper exploring one or more of the topics from the readings in detail (60%). In order to make these research papers more focused and polished, a detailed outline of the paper is due in advance of the final submission (10%). (All due dates are indicated in the class schedule.) The aim is for students to have a draft of a potentially publishable paper at the end of the course. Each student will bring a different background to this course, with a varying mix of philosophy and/or biology. Grading is purely a function of performance during the semester and I do not expect all participants to know or have mastered (in advance) the topics we will be considering.
Readings Legend: * = PDF; ^ Photocopy; - = Required Text
9/7: Week 1 – Course Introduction and Overview
*Mayr, E. (1988), “The limits of reductionism”, Nature 331: 475.
*Polanyi, Michael (1968), “Life's Irreducible Structure”, Science 160:1308-1312.
9/14: Week 2 – A Logical Empiricist Perspective
- Nagel 1979: ch. 2-3 (scan/review), ch. 11 (carefully), 12 (scan)
9/20: Week 3 – Schaffner’s Reductionism (early) + Hull’s Response (Alternate Day/Time/Location: Wednesday/1-3pm/830 Heller Hall)
*Schaffner, K. (1967), “Approaches to Reduction”, Philosophy of Science 34: 137-47.
*---. (1969), “The Watson-Crick model and reductionism”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 20: 325-48.
*---. (1976), “Reductionism in Biology: Prospects and Problems”, PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1974: 613-632.
^Hull, David L. (1974), Philosophy of Biological Science. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (ch. 1, 5)
*Hull, David L. (1976), “Informal Aspects of Theory Reduction”, PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1974: 653-670.
9/28: Week 4 – Kitcher’s Antireductionism +
*Kitcher, P. (1984), “1953 and all that: A Tale of Two Sciences “, Philosophical Review 93: 335-373.
*Culp, S, and P. Kitcher (1989), “Theory structure and theory change in contemporary molecular biology”, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 40:459-483.
*Kitcher, P. (1999), “The Hegemony of Molecular Biology”, Biology and Philosophy 14:195-210. (scan)
*Gasper, Philip (1992), “Reductionism and Instrumentalism in Genetics”, Philosophy of Science 59 (4): 655-670.
^Fodor, J. A (1974), “Special sciences “, Synthese 28:77-115. (scan/review only)
10/4: Week 5 – Rosenberg (early) (Alternate Day/Time/Location: Wednesday/1-3pm/830 Heller Hall) Optional Readings
*Rosenberg, A. (1978), “The supervenience of biological concepts”, Philosophy of Science 45: 368-386.
^---. (1985), The Structure of Biological Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (ch. 4)
^---. (1994), Instrumental Biology or The Disunity of Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (ch. 2-3)
10/12: Week 6 – Wimsatt’s Methodological Emphasis
*Wimsatt, William C. (1976), “Reductive Explanation: a Functional Account”, in R.S Cohen (ed.), Proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association, 1974, Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 671-710.
^---. (1980), “Reductionistic Research Strategies and Their Biases in the Units of Selection Controversy”, in T. Nickles (ed.) Scientific Discovery: Case Studies. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 213-259.
^---. (1986), “Forms of aggregativity”, in A. Donagan, A.N. Perovich, Jr. and M.V. Wedin (eds.), Human Nature and Natural Knowledge, Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 259-291.
*---. (1997), “Aggregativity: Reductive Heuristics for Finding Emergence”, Philosophy of Science 64(Proceedings): S372-S384.
10/19: Week 7 – Schaffner (later)
- Schaffner 1993 – ch. 3, 6-8 (scan), ch. 9 (carefully)
^--- (1996), “Theory structure and knowledge representation in molecular biology”, in S Sarkar (ed.), The Philosophy and History of Molecular Biology: New Perspectives, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 27-46.
10/26: Week 8 – Rosenberg (later)
*Rosenberg, A. (1997), “Reductionism redux: computing the embryo”, Biology and Philosophy 12: 445-470.
*---. (2001), “Reductionism in a Historical Science”, Philosophy of Science 68 (2): 135-163.
*Rosenberg, A, and D.N. Kaplan (2005), “How to Reconcile Physicalism and Antireductionism about Biology”, Philosophy of Science 72:43-68.
^---. (2006) Darwinian Reductionism: Or, How to Stop Worrying and Love Molecular Biology. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press (selections).
11/1: Week 9 – Sarkar (Alternate Day/Time/Location: Wednesday/1-3pm/830 Heller Hall)
- Sarkar 1998: ch. 1-3, ch. 6 (scan)
^Sarkar, S. (2005 [1991]), “Reductionism and Functional Explanation in Molecular Biology” in Molecular Models of Life: Philosophical Papers in Molecular Biology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 117-143.
11/9: Week 10 – Waters+: Reductionism and the Molecularization of the Gene
*Waters, C.K., 1990. “Why the Antireductionist Consensus Won't Survive the Case of Classical Mendelian Genetics”, PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990: 125-139.
*---. (1994), “Genes made molecular”, Philosophy of Science 61: 163-185. (scan)
*--- . (2000), “Molecules Made Biological”, Revue Internationale de Philosophie 4: 539-564.
*Vance, R.E. (1996), “Heroic antireductionism and genetics - a tale of one science”, Philosophy of Science 63(3): S36 - S45.
^Weber, M (2005) Philosophy of Experimental Biology. New York: Cambridge University Press. (ch. 2)
11/16: Week 11 – Antireductionism/Nonreductionism (broadly conceived) (Research Paper Outline Due) Optional Reading
^Brandon, R. (1996), “Reductionism versus Holism versus Mechanism”, in Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 179-204.
^Dupré, J. (1993), The Disorder of Things: Metaphysical Foundations of the Disunity of Science. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. (selections)
^Maull, N. L. (1977), “Unifying Science Without Reduction”, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 8 (2): 143-162.
*Machamer, P., L. Darden, and C.F. Craver (2000), “Thinking About Mechanisms”, Philosophy of Science 67:1-25.
*Lange, M. (2004), “The autonomy of functional biology: a reply to Rosenberg”, Biology and Philosophy 19: 93-109.
11/23: Week 12 – Thanksgiving Holiday – NO CLASS
11/30: Week 13 – ‘Complex Systems’ Optional Reading
*Kauffman, S. A (1971), “Articulation of Parts Explanations in Biology and the Rational Search for Them”, PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1970: 257-272.
^Wimsatt, W. C (1976), “Complexity and organization”, in M Grene and E Mendelsohn (eds.), Topics in Philosophy of Biology, Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 174-193.
^Bechtel, W. and R. Richardson (1993), Discovering Complexity. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (selections)
^Mitchell, S.M. (2003) Biological Complexity and Integrative Pluralism. New York: Cambridge University Press. (selections)
12/7: Week 14 – Thinking About Development
*Laubichler, M.D. and G.P. Wagner (2001), “How Molecular is Molecular Developmental Biology? A Reply to Alex Rosenberg's Reductionism Redux: Computing the Embryo”, Biology and Philosophy 16: 53-68.
*Frost-Arnold, G. (2004), “How to be an anti-reductionist about developmental biology: Response to Laubichler and Wagner”, Biology and Philosophy 19: 75-91.
*Delehanty, M. (2005), “Emergent properties and the context objection to reduction”, Biology and Philosophy 20(4): 715-734.
^Robert, J.S. (2004), Embryology, Epigenesis, and Evolution: Taking Development Seriously. New York: Cambridge University Press. (ch. 1)
12/13: Week 15 – More Development + Protein Folding (Alternate Day/Time/Location: Wednesday/1-3pm/830 Heller Hall)
*Love, A.C. (manuscript) “Reductionism and the Epistemology of Time in Developmental Biology”
*Hüttemann, A. and A. C. Love (manuscript) “Physical Reductionism and Molecular Biology: Causation, Dispositions, and Protein Folding”
Research Paper due (via email) by midnight of December 18th.
Optional readings: ^Beatty, J. (1990), “Evolutionary Anti-Reductionism: Historical Reflections”, Biology and Philosophy 5 (2): 197-210. *Waters, K. (1990) “Rosenberg’s Rebellion”, Biology and Philosophy 5 (2): 225-239. *Sober, E. (1999), “The Multiple Realizability Argument Against Reduction”, Philosophy of Science 66: 542-564.