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On the Theoretical Role of “Genetic Coding”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Peter Godfrey-Smith
Peter Godfrey-Smith*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Stanford University
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Abstract

The role played by the concept of genetic coding in biology is discussed. I argue that this concept makes a real contribution to solving a specific problem in cell biology. But attempts to make the idea of genetic coding do theoretical work elsewhere in biology, and in philosophy of biology, are probably mistaken. In particular, the concept of genetic coding should not be used (as it often is) to express a distinction between the traits of whole organisms that are coded for in the genes and the traits that are not.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , March 2000 , pp. 26 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

Send requests for reprints to the author, Department of Philosophy, Stanford University, Stanford CA, 94305-2155.

‡

A version of this paper was presented at the 1998 Australasian Association of Philosophy meetings in Sydney. I am grateful for those present for helpful criticisms. Thanks to Richard Francis, David Hull, Philip Kitcher, John Maynard Smith, Susan Oyama, Kim Sterelny, Patrick Suppes, Johan van Bentham, and many students in my philosophy of biology seminar at Stanford, for discussions and correspondence. Two anonymous referees also made valuable comments.

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