Green, Sara
(2015)
Can biological complexity be reverse engineered?
pp. 73-83.
Abstract
Concerns with the use of engineering approaches in biology have recently been raised. I examine two
related challenges to biological research that I call the synchronic and diachronic underdetermination
problem. The former refers to challenges associated with the inference of design principles underlying
system capacities when the synchronic relations between lower-level processes and higher-level systems
capacities are degenerate (many-to-many). The diachronic underdetermination problem regards the
problem of reverse engineering a system where the non-linear relations between system capacities and
lower-level mechanisms are changing over time. Braun and Marom argue that recent insights to biological
complexity leave the aim of reverse engineering hopeless - in principle as well as in practice.
While I support their call for systemic approaches to capture the dynamic nature of living systems, I take
issue with the conflation of reverse engineering with naïve reductionism. I clarify how the notion of
design principles can be more broadly conceived and argue that reverse engineering is compatible with a
dynamic view of organisms. It may even help to facilitate an integrated account that bridges the gap
between mechanistic and systems approaches.
| Item Type: |
Published Article or Volume
|
| Creators: |
| Creators | Email | ORCID  |
|---|
| Green, Sara | | |
|
| Keywords: |
Reverse engineering
Design principles
Diachronic underdetermination
Systems biology
Engineering approaches
Dynamical systems theory |
| Depositing User: |
Dr. Sara Green
|
| Date Deposited: |
08 Jun 2016 20:08 |
| Last Modified: |
08 Jun 2016 20:08 |
| Item ID: |
12168 |
| Date: |
2015 |
| Page Range: |
pp. 73-83 |
| Volume: |
53 |
| URI: |
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12168 |
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