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49Molecular Genetics, Reductionism, and Disease Concepts in PsychiatryJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 17 (2): 127-153. 1992.The study of mental illness by the methods of molecular genetics is still in its infancy, but the use of genetic markers in psychiatry may potentially lead to a Virchowian revolution in the conception of mental illness. Genetic markers may define novel clusters of patients having diverse clinical presentations but sharing a common genetic and mechanistic basis. Such clusters may differ radically from the conventional classification schemes of psychiatric illness. However, the reduction of even r…Read more
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33Interactions 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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88Theory structure, reduction, and disciplinary integration in biologyBiology and Philosophy 8 (3): 319-347. 1993.This paper examines the nature of theory structure in biology and considers the implications of those theoretical structures for theory reduction. An account of biological theories as interlevel prototypes embodying causal sequences, and related to each other by strong analogies, is presented, and examples from the neurosciences are provided to illustrate these middle-range theories. I then go on to discuss several modifications of Nagel''s classical model of theory reduction, and indicate at wh…Read more
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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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5Clinical 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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56Paradigm changes in organ transplantation: A journey toward selflessness?Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 19 (5): 425-440. 1998.
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70Behavior at the organismal and molecular levels: The case of C. elegansPhilosophy of Science 67 (3): 288. 2000.Caenorhabditis elegans (C. 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 …Read more
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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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10Commentary 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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37The challenge of psychiatric nosology and diagnosisJournal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 18 (3): 704-709. 2012.
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48Extrapolation from Animal ModelsIn Peter McLaughlin, Peter Machamer & Rick Grush (eds.), Theory and Method in the Neurosciences, Pittsburgh University Press. pp. 200. 2001.
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37Theories, 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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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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1Medicine, philosophy ofIn Edward Craig (ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Genealogy to Iqbal, Routledge. pp. 264-269. 1996.
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31A 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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1Interpretive practices in medicineIn Peter Machamer & Gereon Wolters (eds.), Interpretation: Ways of Thinking About the Sciences and the Arts, University of Pittsburgh Press. 2010.
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82Exemplar reasoning about biological models and diseases: A relation between the philosophy of medicine and philosophy of scienceJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 11 (1): 63-80. 1986.the structure of medical science with a special focus on the role of generalizations and universals in medicine, and (2) philosophy of medicine's relation with the philosophy of science. I argue that a usually overlooked aspect of Kuhnian paradigms, namely, their characteristic of being "exemplars", is of considerable significance in the biomedical sciences. This significance rests on certain important differences from the physical sciences in the nature of theories in the basic and the clinical…Read more
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180The Watson-Crick model and reductionismBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 20 (4): 325-348. 1969.
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48Reductionism in Biology: Prospects and ProblemsPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1974. 1974.
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33Biopsychosocial foundationsAmerican Journal of Bioethics 1 (2). 2001.This Article does not have an abstract
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71Medical informatics and the concept of diseaseTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 21 (1): 85-100. 2000.This paper attempts to address the general questionwhether information technologies, as applied in thearea of medicine and health care, have or are likelyto change fundamental concepts regarding disease andhealth. After a short excursion into the domain ofmedical informatics I provide a brief overview of someof the current theories of what a disease is from amore philosophical perspective, i.e. the ``valuefree'' and ``value laden'' view of disease. Next, Iconsider at some length, whether health …Read more
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50Further Thoughts on the Dopamine Hypothesis of SchizophreniaPhilosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 18 (1): 73-75. 2011.We are gratified at the largely positive comments on our essay on the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia (DHS) by these two distinguished commentators from the fields of biological psychiatry (Dr. Tamminga) and the philosophy of psychiatry (Dr. Murphy). There is little that they have said with which we disagree. Rather, we want to expand briefly on their commentaries.We found Dr. Tamminga's reactions to be particularly fascinating because she has been an "insider" to the story of the DHS as it…Read more
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23The 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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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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