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40Logic of discovery and justification in regulatory geneticsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 4 (4): 349-385. 1974.In the above pages I have sketched a history of the genesis and comparative evaluation of the repressor model of genetic regulation of enzyme induction. I have not attempted in this article to carry out an analysis of the more scientifically interesting fully developed Jacob-Monod operon theory of genetic regulations but such an analysis of the operon theory would not, I believe, involve any additional logical or epistemological features than have been discussed above. I have argued that the abo…Read more
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39Alzheimer Testing at Silver YearsCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 7 (3): 294-307. 1998.Early last year, the GenEthics Consortium (GEC) of the Washington Metropolitan Area convened at George Washington University to consider a complex case about genetic testing for Alzheimer disease (AD). The GEC consists of scientists, bioethicists, lawyers, genetic counselors, and consumers from a variety of institutions and affiliations. Four of the 8 co-authors of this paper delivered presentations on the case. Supplemented by additional ethical and legal observations, these presentations form …Read more
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37Theory change in immunology part I: Extended theories and scientific progressTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 13 (2). 1992.This two-part article examines the competition between the clonal selection theory and the instructive theory of the immune response from 1957–1967. In Part I the concept of a temporally extended theory is introduced, which requires attention to the hitherto largely ignored issue of theory individuation. Factors which influence the acceptability of such an extended theory at different temporal points are also embedded in a Bayesian framework, which is shown to provide a rational account of belie…Read more
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36Theories, models, and equations in systems biologyIn Fred C. Boogerd, Frank J. Bruggeman, Jan-Hendrik S. Hofmeyr & Hans V. Westerhoff (eds.), Systems Biology: Philosophical Foundations, Elsevier. pp. 145--162. 2007.
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32Interactions among Theory, Experiment, and Technology in Molecular BiologyPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1994. 1994.This article examines how a molecular "solution" to an important biological problem-how is antibody diversity generated? was obtained in the 1970s. After the primarily biological clonal selection theory (CST) was accepted by 1967, immunologists developed several different contrasting theories to complete the SCST. To choose among these theories, immunology had to turn to the new molecular biology, first to nucleic acid hybridization and then to recombinant DNA technology. The research programs o…Read more
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32Biopsychosocial foundationsAmerican Journal of Bioethics 1 (2). 2001.This Article does not have an abstract
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31Theory change in immunology part II: The clonal selection theoryTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 13 (2). 1992.This two-part article examines the competition between the clonal selection theory and the instructive theory of the immune response from 1957–1967. In Part I the concept of a temporally extended theory is introduced, which requires attention to the hitherto largely ignored issue of theory individuation. Factors which influence the acceptability of such an extended theory at different temporal points are also embedded in a Bayesian framework, which is shown to provide a rational account of belie…Read more
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30The challenge of psychiatric nosology and diagnosisJournal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 18 (3): 704-709. 2012.
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30A philosophical overview of the problems of validity for psychiatric disordersIn Kenneth S. Kendler & Josef Parnas (eds.), Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry Ii: Nosology, Oxford University Press. pp. 169. 2012.
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29Reduction in Biology and MedicineIn Fred Gifford (ed.), Philosophy of Medicine, Elsevier. pp. 16--137. 2011.
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26Coming home to Hume: A sociobiological foundation for a concept of 'health' and moralityJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 24 (4). 1999.Assessing the normative status of concepts of health and disease involves one in questions regarding the relationship between fact and value. Some have argued that Christopher Boorse's conception of health and disease lacks such a valuational element because it cannot account for types of harms which, while disvalued, do not have evolutionarily dysfunctional consequences. I take Boorse's account and incorporate some Humean-like sociobiological assumptions in order to respond to this challenge. T…Read more
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24Coherentist approaches to scientific progress in psychiatry: comments on KendlerIn Kenneth S. Kendler & Josef Parnas (eds.), Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry Ii: Nosology, Oxford University Press. pp. 323. 2012.
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23Behaving: What's Genetic, What's Not, and Why Should We Care?Oxford University Press USA. 2016.Behaving presents an overview of the recent history and methodology of behavioral genetics and psychiatric genetics, informed by a philosophical perspective. Kenneth F. Schaffner addresses a wide range of issues, including genetic reductionism and determinism, "free will," and quantitative and molecular genetics. The latter covers newer genome-wide association studies that have produced a paradigm shift in the subject, and generated the problem of "missing heritability." Schaffner also presents …Read more
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21Theories and explanations in biologyJournal of the History of Biology 2 (1): 19-33. 1969.It seems that the above account of explanation-strategy in the area of temperature adaptation underscores many of the points made earlier. First, it discloses the fruitful interaction of classical, evolutionary, and molecular approaches. Secondly, it indicates that biological characterizations are not rival accounts to chemical ones. Thirdly, it stresses the importance of the DNA sequence order in chemical explanations of biological organisms.One feature which this area does not seem to reveal, …Read more
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20Computerized Implementation of Biomedical Theory Structures: An Artificial Intelligence ApproachPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986. 1986.In this paper I discuss the nature of a broad class of biomedical theories which I have termed "middle-range theories." I define them and relate the nature of biomedical theorizing to other investigations, such as a recent inquiry by the National Academy of Sciences. I also suggest that some of the knowledge representation tools from artificial intelligence may give us a purchase on this type of biological theorizing, and try to show in a rather preliminary and exploratory manner by using the la…Read more
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20A Fallacious Forced Choice: Cloninger and Stoyanov, Machamer, and Schaffner Are CompatiblePhilosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 20 (3): 281-284. 2013.
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17The meta‐language of psychiatry as cross‐disciplinary effort: In response to Zachar (2012)Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 18 (3): 710-720. 2012.
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15Ethical Considerations in Human Investigation Involving Paradigm Shifts: Organ Transplantation in the 1990sIRB: Ethics & Human Research 19 (6): 5. 1997.
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14The Historiography of Special Relativity: Comments on the Papers by John Earman, Clark Glymour, and Robert Rynasiewicz and by Arthur MillerPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1982. 1982.Two problems in the paper by EGR are considered. One is the lack of any direct confirmatory evidence for the elegant rational reconstruction. The second is a significant gap in the historical account, just at the critical point in Einstein's discovery process -- namely, the reanalysis of simultaneity. In addition, the EGR account appears in danger of being overly focused on the electrodynamical aspect of special relativity to the exclusion of optical null experiments, and in particular to the ex…Read more
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9Of MedicineIn Merrilee H. Salmon (ed.), Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, Hackett. pp. 310. 1992.
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9Commentary on Stotz and Griffiths, Burian, and Waters: Genes, Concepts, DST Implications, and the Possibility of PrototypesHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 26 (1). 2004.
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9Logic of Discovery and Diagnosis in Medicine (edited book)Univ of California Press. 1985.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.
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5Biology and Epistemology: Emerging ThemesIn Richard Creath & Jane Maienschein (eds.), Biology and Epistemology, Cambridge University Press. pp. 287. 2000.
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5Caenorhabditis elegans is a tiny worm that has become the focus of a large number of worldwide research projects examining its genetics, development, neuroscience, and behavior. Recently several groups of investigators have begun to tie together the behavior of the organism and the underlying genes, neural circuits, and molecular processes implemented in those circuits. Behavior is quintessentially organismal—it is the organism as a whole that moves and mates—but the explanations are devised at …Read more
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4Clinical trials: the validation of theory and therapyIn Robert S. Cohen & Larry Laudan (eds.), Physics, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis: Essays in Honor of Adolf Grünbaum, D. Reidel. pp. 191--208. 1983.
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2Etiological models in psychiatry : reductive and nonreductive approachesIn Kenneth S. Kendler & Josef Parnas (eds.), Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry: Explanation, Phenomenology, and Nosology, Johns Hopkins University Press. 2008.
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1Medicine, philosophy ofIn Edward Craig (ed.), The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge. pp. 264-269. 1998.
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1Interpretive practices in medicineIn Peter K. Machamer & Gereon Wolters (eds.), Interpretation: Ways of Thinking About the Sciences and the Arts, University of Pittsburgh Press. 2010.
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