How biologists conceptualize genes: An empirical study

Karola Stotz; Paul E. Griffiths; Rob Knight

doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2004.09.005

How biologists conceptualize genes

An empirical study

Karola Stotz^*, Paul E. Griffiths, Rob Knight

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

75 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Philosophers and historians of biology have argued that genes are conceptualized differently in different fields of biology and that these differences influence both the conduct of research and the interpretation of research by audiences outside the field in which the research was conducted. In this paper we report the results of a questionnaire study of how genes are conceptualized by biological scientists at the University of Sydney, Australia. The results provide tentative support for some hypotheses about conceptual differences between different fields of biological research.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	647-673
Number of pages	27
Journal	Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C :Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume	35
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2004.09.005
Publication status	Published - Dec 2004
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Conceptual change
Epistemic object
Gene concept
Gene-D
Gene-for
Gene-P

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10.1016/j.shpsc.2004.09.005

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