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Explanatory Integration and Integrated Explanations in Darwinian Medicine and Evolutionary Medicine

Kranke, Nina (2021) Explanatory Integration and Integrated Explanations in Darwinian Medicine and Evolutionary Medicine. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Recently, two research traditions that bring together evolutionary biology and medicine, i.e., Darwinian medicine and evolutionary medicine, have been identified. In this paper, I analyse these two research traditions with respect to explanatory and interdisciplinary integration. My analysis shows that Darwinian medicine does not integrate medicine and evolutionary biology in any strong sense but incorporates evolutionary concepts into medicine. I also show that backward-looking explanations in Darwinian medicine are not integrated proximate-and-ultimate explanations but functional explanations that include reference to evolutionary concepts. Nevertheless, explanations in Darwinian medicine have heuristic roles as they potentially contribute to conceptual change and tie pieces of knowledge from different fields of medical research together. I argue that Darwinian medicine is an interfield that fosters cross-disciplinary exchange between evolutionary biologists and medical researchers and practitioners based on division of labour and separation rather than unity. Research in evolutionary medicine, on the other hand, happens at the intersection of evolutionary biology and medicine where the two disciplines are already integrated and is designed to produce entangled proximate-evolutionary explanations. My analysis thus adds another important aspect to the philosophical discussion of the distinction between Darwinian medicine and evolutionary medicine.

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Item Type: Preprint
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Kranke, Ninanina.kranke@uni-muenster.de
Keywords: Darwinian medicine, interdisciplinary integration, evolutionary medicine, explanatory integration, old friends hypothesis, experimental evolution, antibiotic resistance
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Medicine
Depositing User: Nina Kranke
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2021 06:06
Last Modified: 19 Dec 2021 06:06
Item ID: 20024
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Medicine
Date: 13 December 2021
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20024

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