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HIV/AIDS: Immunochemistry, Reductionism and Vaccine Design pp 87–102Cite as

The Rational Design of Biological Complexity: A Deceptive Metaphor

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Abstract

Biologists often claim that they follow a rational design strategy when their research is based on molecular knowledge of biological systems. This claim implies that their knowledge of the innumerable causal connections present in biological systems is sufficient to allow them to deduce and predict the outcome of their experimental interventions. The design metaphor is shown to originate in human intentionality and in the anthropomorphic fallacy of interpreting objects, events, and the behavior of all living organisms in terms of goals and purposes. Instead of presenting rational design as an effective research strategy, it would be preferable to acknowledge that advances in biomedicine are nearly always derived from empirical observations based on trial and error experimentation. The claim that rational design is an effective research strategy was tested in the case of current attempts to develop synthetic vaccines, in particular against human immunodeficiency virus. It was concluded that in this field of biomedicine, trial and error experimentation is more likely to succeed than a rational design approach. Current developments in systems biology are described that may eventually give us a better understanding of the immune system and this may enable us in the future to develop improved vaccines.

Proteomics, 2007, 7, 965–975.

Marc H V Van Regenmortel

Copyright © 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

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    Marc H V Van Regenmortel

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Van Regenmortel, M.H.V. (2019). The Rational Design of Biological Complexity: A Deceptive Metaphor. In: HIV/AIDS: Immunochemistry, Reductionism and Vaccine Design. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32459-9_8

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