Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

J.H. Woodger and the emergence of supra-empirical orders of discussion in early twentieth century biology

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  • This investigation attempts to demonstrate that the development of the early 20th century biological enterprise involved a striving for a unifying theoretical perspective. A skeletal substantiation of this is given by an overview of early 20th century biology in which some biologists began recognizing a multiplicity of different orders of concern against the background of the fractionation of biology into specialized empirical domains. More importantly this investigation attempts to show that the attainment of such a unifying theoretical perspective in early 20th century biology necessitated first establishing justified and independent supra-empirical orders of discussion, ultimately of communal status. This second yet primary concern is approached here by tracing the emergence of supra-empirical order concerns in the thought of an individual biologist of the period, J. H. Woodger. It was found that in the transitions in his writings from empirical to theoretical and philosophical biology, there was a persistent attempt by him to found and secure supra-empirical orders of discussion for the theoretical and philosophical aspects of biology. Woodger's claim was that such orders of discussion must ultimately be of communal status since the framing of a theoretical biology cannot arise from any single empirical domain. To test the relevance of his claim, a set of communication which the editors of Nature entitled 'Biological Fact and Theory', is examined with respect to Woodger's criticisms. This leads to a discussion in the Epilogue of Woodger's later work and the question of the viability of his goal.
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file details AllenMarshallW1975.pdf 2017-08-23 Público Descargar