Instrumental Biology, or The Disunity of Science

Instrumental Biology, or The Disunity of Science

by Alexander Rosenberg
ISBN-10:
0226727262
ISBN-13:
9780226727264
Pub. Date:
11/01/1994
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
ISBN-10:
0226727262
ISBN-13:
9780226727264
Pub. Date:
11/01/1994
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
Instrumental Biology, or The Disunity of Science

Instrumental Biology, or The Disunity of Science

by Alexander Rosenberg
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Overview

Do the sciences aim to uncover the structure of nature, or are they ultimately a practical means of controlling our environment?

In Instrumental Biology, or the Disunity of Science, Alexander Rosenberg argues that while physics and chemistry can develop laws that reveal the structure of natural phenomena, biology is fated to be a practical, instrumental discipline. Because of the complexity produced by natural selection, and because of the limits on human cognition, scientists are prevented from uncovering the basic structure of biological phenomena. Consequently, biology and all of the disciplines that rest upon it—psychology and the other human sciences—must aim at most to provide practical tools for coping with the natural world rather than a complete theoretical understanding of it.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780226727264
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication date: 11/01/1994
Series: Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series
Edition description: 1
Pages: 204
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Alex Rosenberg is the R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy and Biology at Duke University and the author of many books, including Economics—Mathematical Politics or Science of Diminishing Returns? and Instrumental Biology, or The Disunity of Science, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Biology as an Instrumental Science
Chapter 2: Whatever Happened to Reductionism, and Why?
Chapter 3: Reductionism and Explanation in Molecular Biology
Chapter 4: Evolution, Drift, and Subjective Probability
Chapter 5: Biological Instrumentalism and the Levels of Selection
Chapter 6: Theories and Models, Replicators and Interactors
Chapter 7: Instrumental Biology and Intentional Psychology
Chapter 8: Biology and the Behavioral Sciences
Bibliography
Index
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