What is a Gene? From molecules to metaphysics

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 27 (6):471-497 (2006)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Mendelian genes have become molecular genes, with increasing puzzlement about locating them, due to increasing complexity in genomic webworks. Genome science finds modular and conserved units of inheritance, identified as homologous genes. Such genes are cybernetic, transmitting information over generations; this too requires multi-leveled analysis, from DNA transcription to development and reproduction of the whole organism. Genes are conserved; genes are also dynamic and creative in evolutionary speciation—most remarkably producing humans capable of wondering about what genes are.

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.1007/s11017-006-9022-9

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

    This entry is not archived by us. If you are the author and have permission from the publisher, we recommend that you archive it. Many publishers automatically grant permission to authors to archive pre-prints. By uploading a copy of your work, you will enable us to better index it, making it easier to find.

    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 105,261

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

What is a gene? From molecules to metaphysics.Holmes Rolston Iii - 2006 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 27 (6):471-497.
The question of questions: What is a Gene? Comments on Rolston and Griffths & Stotz. [REVIEW]Lenny Moss - 2006 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 27 (6):523-534.
Newly evolved genes: Moving from comparative genomics to functional studies in model systems.José M. Ranz & John Parsch - 2012 - Bioessays 34 (6):477-483.
Elusive vehicles of genetic representation.Riin Kõiv - 2020 - Biology and Philosophy 35 (1):1-24.
The heat shock genes: A family of highly conserved genes with a superbly complex expression pattern.Richard Voellmy - 1984 - Bioessays 1 (5):213-217.
Review of genes in development: Re-reading the molecular paradigm. [REVIEW]Brant Pridmore - 2008 - Biology and Philosophy 23 (4):579-586.
The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution: Historical and Epistemological Perspectives.Peter J. Beurton, Raphael Falk & Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (eds.) - 2000 - Cambridge University Press.
Shaping segments: Hox gene function in the genomic age.Stefanie D. Hueber & Ingrid Lohmann - 2008 - Bioessays 30 (10):965-979.
The emergence of the postgenomic gene.Francesca Bellazzi - 2022 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 12 (1):1-21.
The fearless vampire conservator: Phillip Kitcher and genetic determinism.Paul E. Griffiths - 2006 - In Eva M. Neumann-Held, Christoph Rehmann-Sutter, Barbara Herrnstein Smith & E. Roy Weintraub, Genes in Development: Re-reading the Molecular Paradigm. Duke University Press. pp. 175-198.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
134 (#173,416)

6 months
8 (#526,967)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Cybernetics.Norbert Wiener - 1961 - New York,: M.I.T. Press.
Sex and Death: An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology.Kim Sterelny & Paul Edmund Griffiths - 1999 - Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Biology as ideology: the doctrine of DNA.Richard C. Lewontin - 1991 - New York, NY: HarperPerennial.
The Century of the Gene.Evelyn Fox Keller - 2001 - Journal of the History of Biology 34 (3):613-615.
The concept of information in biology.John Maynard Smith - 2000 - Philosophy of Science 67 (2):177-194.

View all 17 references / Add more references