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Concept
Philosophy of biology
Summary
The philosophy of biology is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. Although philosophers of science and philosophers generally have long been interested in biology (e.g., Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant), philosophy of biology only emerged as an independent field of philosophy in the 1960s and 1970s, associated with the research of David Hull. Philosophers of science then began paying increasing attention to biology, from the rise of Neodarwinism in the 1930s and 1940s to the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 to more recent advances in genetic engineering.
Other key ideas include the reduction of all life processes to biochemical reactions, and the incorporation of psychology into a broader neuroscience.
Philosophers of biology examine the practices, theories, and concepts of biologists with a view toward better understanding biology as a scientific discipline (or group of scientific fields). Scientific ideas are philosophically analyzed and their consequences are explored. Philosophers of biology have also explored how our understanding of biology relates to epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, and metaphysics and whether progress in biology should compel modern societies to rethink traditional values concerning all aspects of human life. It is sometimes difficult to separate the philosophy of biology from theoretical biology.
"What is a biological species?"
"What is natural selection, and how does it operate in nature?"
"How should we distinguish disease states from non-disease states?"
"What is life?"
"What makes humans uniquely human?"
"What is the basis of moral thinking?"
"Is biological materialism & deterministic molecular biology compatible with free will?"
"How is rationality possible, given our biological origins?"
"Is evolution compatible with Christianity or other religious systems?"
"Are there laws of biology like the laws of physics?"
Ideas drawn from philosophical ontology and logic are being used by biologists in the domain of bioinformatics.
Official source
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