Post-doctoral/graduate research and training program in philosophy of biology

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal seeks support from STS under the category of small grants for training and research (SGTR). The Duke Center for Philosophy of Biology will employ the grant in a structured program for a series of post-doctoral fellows and advanced graduate students in selected areas of inquiry at the intersection of biology and the philosophy of science. The Center will recruit and support one-year post-doctoral fellows from among young investigators and scholars who propose a research topic the Center considers promising and for which it can provide appropriate support. The philosophy of biology is one of the most fertile and exciting areas of contemporary intellectual interest. Both evolutionary and molecular biology have been subject to great ferment and advance over the last two generations. Both have raised profound epistemological and methodological questions, with answers that have implications for both biology and philosophy. As a result the philosophy of biology is an area of inquiry in which biologists and philosophers are both making significant contributions. Center members have worked on a variety of problems on the intersection of these two disciplines. At present they are particularly concerned with issues raised by the integration of evolutionary and developmental biology. One PI's work requires the articulation of evolution' conceptual and theoretical reliance on variation with development's assiduous focus on the individual and avoidance of variation. Another PI is exploring alternatives to the causal and explanatory autonomy of functional biology, and examining areas in which biological and chemical processes provide competing explanations of phenomena in molecular developmental biology. A third PI's theoretical work on constraints shaping actual terrestrial evolution now demand an identification of general rules governing the emergence of, and organization of parts, in higher level individuals. A final PI's continuing interest in the relationship between developmental and evolutionary modules bears on all three of the topics just identified. It is therefore anticipated that over the period of the grant, post-docs and graduate students will be selected for their qualifications to participate in these related lines of research on the foundations and integration of evolutionary and developmental biology. Candidates chosen for the post-doctoral fellowship will spend the fellowship period pursuing research on the topic identified in their application. The post-doc will participate in the Center's Research Seminar, offer a graduate seminar in the selected topic, and collaborate with the three graduate student fellows who will also devote the fellowship year to the selected topic of research. The work of the post-doc and the graduate students will eventuate, among other things, in a conference for biologists and philosophers, organized by the Center on the topic selected. Post-doctoral fellows will also be invited actively to participate in the seminars, colloquia and other activities of the Duke Center for Genome Ethics Law and Policy, and other institutions in the Research Triangle in order to enhance public awareness of the implications of biological advances for normative issues in research and experimentation, health-care policy, and industrial regulation. The Center for Philosophy of Biology will work closely with the Duke Office of Graduate Student Affairs to actively recruit minorities for participation in this program. Expected scientific and infrastructural outcomes of this project include a) the advancement of the research frontier at the intersection of philosophy and biology, particularly concerning development, evolution, and their interrelation; b) the improved skills of post-docs to pursue this research, and to teach it at the graduate level; c) enhanced preparation of advanced graduate students in areas of inquiry on which they will be expected to pursue their dissertation-research, and therefore more timely progress towards degree; d) benefits to research-programs of biology and philosophy faculty-members of Center through collaboration with post-docs and graduate students. Many features of the research topics described in the proposal (and others the Center may treat) have potential importance to issues of considerable public interest. For example, among the likely pay-offs of work devoted to clarifying the relation between development and evolution is a more effective diagnosis of the defects of intelligent design theory. Similarly, if polynucleotide sequences can be shown to have a distinctive and irreplaceable role in heredity and development, then the consequent impossibility of "inventing around them" will make patenting (even functionally annotated) polynucleotide sequences difficult to justify. Through active collaboration with the Duke Center for Genome Ethics Law and Policy, with the NC School of Science and Math, the North Carolina Biotech Center, the Center for Philosophy of Biology will strive to communicate and contextualize research on the intersection of philosophy and biology.