Abstract
Discussions of reduction in the philosophy of science have had little to say about the role played by modes of representation in scientific discourse. Once we admit that modes of representation are conceptually essential, and not merely decorative, features of scientific thought and discourse, the question of what happens to modes of representation when scientific fields are brought into a novel alignment (involving various partial integrations and subordinations) becomes compelling. The case discussed in this essay presupposes the “reduction” of biology to chemistry that produced molecular biology, and studies in particular the effect of translating problems that arose in genetics into the idiom of molecular biology, that is, a specific “reduction” of genetics to molecular biology. I try to show that this novel alignment of fields is accompanied by an important shift in modes of representation, and that the latter play a central role in the clarification and solution of the engendering problems.
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Grosholz, E. (2001). Fedoroff’s Translation of Mcclintock: The Uses of Chemistry in the Reorganization of Genetics. In: Klein, U. (eds) Tools and Modes of Representation in the Laboratory Sciences. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 222. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9737-1_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9737-1_12
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