Suárez, Javier (2023) What is the Nature of Stem Cells? A Unified Dispositional Framework. [Preprint]

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Abstract

This paper presents an account of the nature of stem cells based on the philosophical concept of disposition. It is argued that stem cells can be conceived as dispositional objects, and adopting this attitude allows overcoming some of the controversies surrounding the nature of stemness (most notably, the state vs. entity debate) because it offers a framework that accommodates the lessons from different theories. Additionally, the account is simultaneously useful for interpreting stem cell experiments and guiding potential interventions. The account shows how different levels, both molecular and emergent network-level, play the primary causal role in explaining some empirical results, and hence they suggest that the explanations can be mechanistic or topological, respectively. The realization that any of these levels may play a more prominent causal role than another allows suggesting interventions at the genetic, molecular and population levels.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Suárez, Javier javier.suarez@uniovi.es 0000-0001-5851-2277
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Function/Teleology General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Medicine General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Depositing User:	Dr Javier Suárez
Date Deposited:	08 Sep 2023 20:49
Last Modified:	08 Sep 2023 20:49
Item ID:	22521
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Function/Teleology General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > Explanation Specific Sciences > Medicine General Issues > Reductionism/Holism
Date:	8 September 2023
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/22521

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