“Models, Representations, and Principles in Classical Genetics”

LORENZANO, PABLO

Chicago, USA

Congreso; One Hundred Second Anual Meeting; 2005

Central Division of the American Philosophical Asociation

Taking as starting point the book of Sinnott, E.W. and L.C. Dunn, Principles of Genetics: An Elementary Text, with Problems (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1925; 2nd ed., 1932; 3rd ed., 1939; with T. Dobzhansky as co-author, 4th ed., 1950; 5th ed., 1958), that may be considered the first textbook of classical genetics in the Kuhnian sense, and the analyses of the structure of biomedical and/or biological theories carried out by Darden (1991) and Schaffner (1980, 1986, 1993), I will discuss the problem of the existence of fundamental laws or guide-principles in biology, in the light of the examination of classical genetics accomplished with the instruments of the structuralist conception of theories.