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From Biological Determination to Entangled Causation.

Davide Vecchi1,2, Paul-Antoine Miquel3, Isaac Hernández3

  • 1Centro de Filosofia das Ciências, Departamento de História e Filosofia das Ciências, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal. davide.s.vecchi@gmail.com.

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study clarifies developmental determination, arguing that structural determination is feasible while occurrence determination is problematic. It highlights how causal entanglement challenges reductionist, molecular views in developmental biology.

Keywords:
Biological determinationBiological reductionismCausal entanglementDevelopmental causationDevelopmental determinantManipulationism

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Biology
  • Philosophy of Science
  • Causal Inference

Background:

  • The concept of determination is frequently used in developmental biology, often with reductionist implications.
  • A common view posits DNA as a primary developmental determinant, playing a special explanatory role.
  • Existing accounts of determination in development often lack nuance and struggle with complex biological interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To critically analyze the notion of developmental determination using a manipulationist approach.
  • To distinguish between and evaluate two theses of developmental determination: determination of occurrence and structural determination.
  • To explore the limitations of reductionist, molecular, and intra-level causal analyses in developmental biology.

Main Methods:

  • Adopting a manipulationist framework to define developmental determinants as causal.
  • Articulating and assessing two distinct theses of developmental determination: determination of occurrence and structural determination.
  • Analyzing biological causation by examining causal entanglement and its implications for reductionist models.

Main Results:

  • The notion of a developmental determinant is fundamentally causal.
  • Determination of occurrence is deemed problematic, whereas structural determination is considered feasible when appropriately qualified.
  • Causal entanglement, a form of interactive causation across organizational levels, reveals limitations in purely reductionist, molecular explanations.

Conclusions:

  • Structural determination offers a more viable framework for understanding developmental phenomena than determination of occurrence.
  • A nuanced understanding of biological causation requires moving beyond reductionist, intra-level analyses to accommodate causal entanglement.
  • Developmental biology explanations must account for interactive causation across multiple levels of biological organization to fully capture ontogenetic outcomes.