Dorato, Mauro (2012) Mathematical biology and the existence of biological laws. Probabilities, Laws and Structure. pp. 109-121.

Preview

PDF doratolawspitt.pdf Download (311kB)

Abstract

An influential position in the philosophy of biology claims that there are no biological laws, since any apparently biological generalization is either too accidental, fact-like or contingent to be named a law, or is simply reducible to physical laws that regulate electrical and chemical interactions taking place between merely physical systems.
In the following I will stress a neglected aspect of the debate that emerges directly from the growing importance of mathematical models of biological phenomena. My main aim is to defend, as well as reinforce, the view that there are indeed laws also in biology, and that their difference in stability, contingency or resilience with respect to physical laws is one of degrees, and not of kind

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Dorato, Mauro dorato@uniroma3.it
Keywords:	Laws, Mathematical biology, Contingency Dynamical systems, Reducibility
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology General Issues > Laws of Nature
Depositing User:	Dr Mauro Dorato
Date Deposited:	20 Mar 2012 20:58
Last Modified:	20 Mar 2012 20:58
Item ID:	9058
Journal or Publication Title:	Probabilities, Laws and Structure
Publisher:	Springer
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology General Issues > Laws of Nature
Date:	March 2012
Page Range:	pp. 109-121
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9058

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item