Thinking about Life The History and Philosophy of Biology and Other
Our previous book, About Life, concerned modern biology. We used our present-day understanding of cells to ‘define’ the living state, providing a basis for exploring several general-interest topics: the origin of life, extraterrestrial life, intelligence,
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Paul S. Agutter • Denys N. Wheatley
Thinking about Life The History and Philosophy of Biology and Other Sciences
Paul S. Agutter Theoretical and Cell Biology Consultancy 26 Castle Hill Glossop, Derbyshire United Kingdom SK13 7RR
ISBN 978-1-4020-8865-0
Denys N. Wheatley Director, BioMedES Leggat House, Whiterashes Road Keithhall, Inverurie AB51 OLX United Kingdom
e-ISBN 978-1-4020-8866-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008933269 © 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
Preface
Our previous book, About Life, concerned modern biology. We used our present-day understanding of cells to ‘define’ the living state, providing a basis for exploring several general-interest topics: the origin of life, extraterrestrial life, intelligence, and the possibility that humans are unique. The ideas we proposed in About Life were intended as starting-points for debate – we did not claim them as ‘truth’ – but the information on which they were based is currently accepted as ‘scientific fact’. What does that mean? What is ‘scientific fact’ and why is it accepted? What is science – and is biology like other sciences such as physics (except in subject matter)? The book you are now reading investigates these questions – and some related ones. Like About Life, it may particularly interest a reader who wishes to change career to biology and its related subdisciplines. In line with a recommendation by the British Association for the Advancement of Science – that the public should be given fuller information about the nature of science – we present the concepts underpinning biology and a survey of its historical and philosophical basis. In the first chapter of About Life we defined science, provisionally, as a way of satisfying our curiosity by formulating questions about what we observe and answering them dispassionately, without making value judgements. That definition seemed adequate at the time, but it is easy to pick holes in it. For example, the word ‘science’ is used regularly in television programmes, magazines, websites and broadsheet newspapers, but it seems to be used in different senses. How can we interpret the word when its meaning varies? For most people, most of the time, ‘science’ means knowledge of a certain sort1: a collection of facts and beliefs that helps us to explain and predict the observable world coherently. A science textbook is a repository of such knowledge. When you study science at school or university you learn some of it. But ‘scientific knowledge’
1
The Latin scientia is usually translated as ‘knowledge’. Prior to about 1800, ‘
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