"Erotetic Aspects of the History of Classical Genetics"

LORENZANO, PABLO

Praga (online)

Congreso; 26th International Congress of History of Science and Technology; 2021

Division of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology

According to the so-called "traditional account" (Olby 1979), "orthodox image" (Bowler 1989) or "official story" (Lorenzano 1997), "classical" genetics developed in a continuous, cumulative and linear way. Critics of this interpretation emphasize the discontinuities, losses and ruptures of this process.In other works (Lorenzano 2007, 2008) I tried to analyze the relationship between the proposals of Mendel, of the "rediscoverers" -de Vries, Correns and Tschermak-, of Bateson and collaborators and of Morgan and disciples, e.g. the history of "classical" genetics, in such a way as to capture and specify both the idea that among these there are certain discontinuities and ruptures (of the type pointed out by the detractors of the "official story" of genetics) and that these have ?something? to do with each other in some way (and which would allow us to understand the existence of this "official story"), focusing basically on its conceptual aspects.In this communication, I continue this analysis, but focusing now on its erotetic aspects, that is, on the aspects related to the questions they intend to answer with their research, as well as the answers they consider admissible.To this end, I will use a modified version of the proposal made by Matti Sintonen (1985, 1996) to specify the problem-solving approach (Laudan 1977, among others) by means of the "structuralist view of theories", through which a more precise characterization of the theoretical context in which the problems are posed and, thus, of their individualization, is achieved.