Description
Book SynopsisExplores the debate on the biological significance and cultural meaning of genes in the development of organisms - the molecular paradigm
Trade Review“The rich scientific knowledge about the genetic basis of life and it complex involvement in the life of individuals and populations is highly relevant to our worldview.
Genes in Development helps to bring understandings of the conceptual and philosophical implications of molecular genetics up to date.”—Werner Arber, Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Emeritus Professor of Molecular Microbiology, University of Basel
“Together the essays in
Genes in Development give lively voice to many of the current alternatives to genetic reductionism. Well-known figures from the debates of the past two decades are represented alongside a good number of emerging scholars.”—Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
Table of ContentsIntroduction / Eva M. Neumann-Held and Christoph Rehmann-Sutter 1
I. Empirical Approaches
1. Genome Analysis and Developmental Biology: The Nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans as a Model System / Thomas R. Burglin 15
2. Genes and Form: Inherency in the Evolution of Developmental Mechanisms / Stuart A. Newman and Gerd B. Muller 38
II. Looking Back into History
3. From Genes as Determinants to DNA as Resource: Historical Notes on Development and Genetics / Sahotra Sarkar 77
III. Theorizing Genes
4. The Origin of Species: A Structuralist Approach / Gerry Webster and Brian C. Goodwin 99
5. On the Problem of the Molecular versus the Organismic Approach in Biology / Ulrich Wolf 135
6. Genes, Development, and Semiosis / Jesper Hoffmeyer 152
7. The Fearless Vampire Conservator: Philip Kitcher, Genetic Determinism, and the Informational Gene / Paul E. Griffiths 175
8. Genetics from an Evolutionary Process Perspective / James Griesemer 199
9. Genes-Causes-Codes: Deciphering DNA’s Ontological Privilege / Eva M. Newmann-Held 238
10. Boundaries and (Constructive) Interaction / Susan Oyama 272
11. Beyond the Gene but Beneath the Skin / Evelyn Fox Keller 290
12. Poiesis and Praxis: Two Modes of Understanding Development / Christoph Rehmann-Sutter 313
IV. Social and Ethical Implications
13. Developmental Emergence, Genes, and Responsible Science / Brian C. Goodwin 337
14. Nothing Like a Gene / Jackie Leach Scully 349
Contributors 365
Index 369
