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Experimental Complexity in Biology: Some Epistemological and Historical Remarks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Hans-Jörg Rheinberger
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger*
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
*
†Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Wilhelmstr. 44, D-10117 Berlin, Germany.
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Abstract

My paper draws on examples from molecular biology, the details of which I have developed elsewhere (Rheinberger 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997). Here, I can give only a brief outline of my argument. Reduction of complexity is a prerequisite for experimental research. To make sense of the universe of living beings, the modern biologist is bound to divide his world into fragments in which parameters can be defined, quantities measured, qualities identified. Such is the nature of any “experimental system.” Ontic complexity has to be reduced in order to make experimental research possible. The complexity of the research object, however, is epistemically retained in the rich context of an experimental landscape, where the eruption of “volcanic systems” can change the scenery dramatically as the result of particular, unprecedented findings.

Type
Symposium: Complexity and Experimentation in Molecular Biology
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 64 , Issue S4: Supplement. Proceedings of the 1996 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers Dec., 1997 , 1997 , pp. S245 - S254
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1997

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Footnotes

‡

Richard Burian and Lindley Darden are acknowledged for their patience, help, and criticism.

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