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Science 11 August 1967:
Vol. 157. no. 3789, pp. 644 - 647
DOI: 10.1126/science.157.3789.644
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Articles

Antireductionism and Molecular Biology

Though the antireductionist thesis is unwarranted, research in classical biology may well be of value

Kenneth F. Schaffner 1

1 Department of Philosophy and the Division of Physical Sciences (College) at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

My general conclusion, then, is that, given the current state of biological science, there may be good heuristic reasons for not attempting in all possible areas to develop physicochemical explanations of biological phenomena, and good reasons for attempting to formulate specifically biological theories. This, however, is an argument which supports an irreducibility thesis for methodological reasons. Any attempt to twist this into a claim of real irreducibility for all time is, in the light of recent work in molecular biology, logically untenable, empirically unwarranted, and heuristically useless.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Whence Philosophy of Biology?.
J. M. Byron (2007)
Brit J Philos Sci 58, 409-422
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