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Reductionism, Organicism, and Causality in the Biomedical Sciences: A Critique
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
|January 8, 2019
Summary
Biology faces a crisis due to flawed philosophical approaches. Adopting organicism, which embraces emergence and organism-level function, offers a path forward for biomedical sciences.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Sciences
- Philosophy of Biology
Background:
- Current biological research faces a crisis, with technical innovations failing to resolve complex phenomena.
- This crisis may stem from philosophical stances and theoretical frameworks rather than technological limitations.
Observation:
- Reductionism, focused on bottom-up causation and physicalism, struggles to explain emergent phenomena.
- Organicism views biological entities by their form-function relationship, allowing for emergence and novel properties.
Findings:
- Organicism acknowledges agency and normativity in biological processes.
- Unlike reductionism, organicism recognizes that only organisms experience health and illness.
Implications:
- Adopting an organicist perspective can help resolve the current crisis in biomedical research.
- This philosophical shift may lead to more effective explanations of complex biological phenomena.
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