Genes in Development

In light of scientific advances such as genomics, predictive diagnostics, genetically engineered agriculture, nuclear transfer cloning, and the manipulation of stem cells, the idea that genes carry pre-determined molecular programs or blueprints is pervasive. Yet new scientific discoveries--such as RNA transcripts of single genes that can lead to the production of different compounds from the same pieces of DNA--challenge the concept of the gene alone as the dominant factor in biological development. Increasingly aware of the tension between certain empirical results and interpretations of those results based on the orthodox view of genetic determinism, a growing number of scientists are urging a rethinking what a gene is and how it works. In this collection, a group of internationally renowned scientists present some of the most prominent alternative approaches to understanding the role of DNA in the construction and function of biological organisms. Contributors discuss alternatives to the programmatic view of DNA, including the developmental systems approach, methodological culturalism, the molecular process conception of the gene, the hermeneutic theory of description, and process structuralist biology. None of the approaches put forth casts doubt on the notion that DNA is tremendously important to biological life on earth; rather, they present different ideas of how DNA should be represented, evaluated, and explained. Just as ideas of genetic codes have reached far beyond the realms of science, these re-conceptualizations of genetic theory have broad implications for ethics, philosophy, and the social sciences. Contributors: Thomas Burglin, Brian C. Goodwin, James Griesemer, Paul Griffiths, Jesper Hoffmeyer, Evelyn Fox Keller, Gerd B. Muller, Eva M. Neumann-Held, Stuart A. Newman, Susan Oyama, Christoph Rehmann-Sutter, Sahotra Sarkar, Jackie Leach Scully, Gerry Webster, Ulrich Wolf Eva M. Neumann-Held is Research Assistant and Lecturer in Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Dortmund in Germany. Christoph Rehmann-Sutter is Assistant Professor for Ethics in Biosciences and Biotechnology at the University of Basel in Switzerland.