Theory Change in Science Strategies from Mendelian Genetics

About this book

This challenging and innovative book examines the processes involved in the birth and development of new scientific ideas. The author has searched for strategies used by scientists for producing new theories, both those that yield a range of plausible hypotheses and ones that aid in narrowing that range. She goes on to focus on the development of the theory of the gene as a case study in scientific creativity. Her discussion of modern genetics greatly demystifies the philosophy of science, and establishes a realistic framework for understanding how scientists actually go about their work.

Contents

- Introduction
- Philosophical preliminaries
- The problem of heredity
- Historical introduction
- Mendelism, 1900-1903
- Unit-characters, pairs, and dominance
- Boveri-Sutton chromosome theory
- Tests of segregation
- Reduplication, linkage, and Mendel's second law
- The chromosome theory and mutation
- Unit-characters to factors to genes
- Exemplars, diagrams, and diagnosis
- Genetics and other fields
- Summary of strategies for theory change
- Implications for further work

Customer Reviews