Open AccessJournal Article
Causal democracy and causal contributions in Developmental Systems Theory : Philosophy and Biology, Psychology, and Neuroscience
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The authors showed that causal symmetry is neither a platitude about multiple influences nor a denial of useful distinctions, but a powerful way of exposing hidden assumptions and opening up traditional formulations to fruitful change.Abstract:
In reworking a variety of biological concepts, Developmental Systems Theory (DST) has made frequent use of parity of reasoning. We have done this to show, for instance, that factors that have similar sorts of impact on a developing organism tend nevertheless to be invested with quite different causal importance. We have made similar arguments about evolutionary processes. Together, these analyses have allowed DST not only to cut through some age-old muddles about the nature of development, but also to effect a long-delayed reintegration of development into evolutionary theory. Our penchant for causal symmetry, however (or 'causal democracy', as it has recently been termed), has sometimes been misunderstood. This paper shows that causal symmetry is neither a platitude about multiple influences nor a denial of useful distinctions, but a powerful way of exposing hidden assumptions and opening up traditional formulations to fruitful change.read more
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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Genomic Programs as Mechanism Schemas: A Non-Reductionist Interpretation
TL;DR: It is argued that genomic programs are not substitutes for multi-causal molecular mechanistic explanations of inheritance, but abstract representations of the same sort as mechanism schemas already described in the philosophical literature.
Book ChapterDOI
Philosophy of Experimental Biology: Developmental Biology and the Genetic Program: Explaining Ontogeny
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Three Kinds of Constructionism: The Role of Metaphor in the Debate over Niche Constructionism
TL;DR: This work proposes a three-tier categorization of constructionism (literal, analogical, and figurative) based on the analysis of the metaphor of construction itself and shows metaphors are not a mere rhetorical device but represent an instrument through which theories evolve and introduce new elements.
Book ChapterDOI
Philosophy of Experimental Biology: Reference and Conceptual Change: Out of Mendel's Garden?
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The dispositional genome: primus inter pares
TL;DR: This paper argues that, if the genome is conceptualised as realising dispositional properties that are “directed toward” phenotypic traits, the parity of ‘causal roles’ between genetic and extra-genetic factors is no longer apparent, and further, that the causal primacy of the genomes is both plausible and defensible.