Experimental Discovery, Data Models, and Mechanisms in Biology: An Example from Mendel’s Work - Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics - page 116

the cases of Driesch, Griffith, and Mendel—compared with those of other competitors,
of Kuhnians, of the advocates of the orthodox view, and of general historians such
as Mayr and Magner—ED3 is justified.
7 Conclusion
I have argued that what Mendel found in his experiments is the phenomenon of trait
transmission, represented by data models compiled from repetitive modeling of
experimental data, and that his experiments are entitled to be called an experimental
discovery of a new phenomenon. Instead of being regarded as incomplete, this
experimental discovery of the transmission pattern functioned as the basis for the
discovery of the mechanisms of Mendelian heredity—which amounts to the con-
struction of classical genetics—by ensuing generations of biologists. One can see
that the pattern of experimental discoveries leading to discoveries of mechanisms
recurs in many cases of experimental biology—for example, the discovery of
chromosomes, of the crossover of chromosomes, of point mutations, of the double
helix of DNA, of retrotranscription, and so on.
This chapter concludes by claiming that if an experimental discovery can indeed
be justified as a precursor and prerequisite for the later generation of a new theory in
experimental biology, it can be adopted by biologists as a strategy for further
discovery: Scientists are advised to find data models to represent significant phe-
nomena before constructing theories or discovering mechanisms. This conclusion
reveals the independent contribution of experimentation to scientific discovery in
addition to the function of testing. It thus can be regarded as a complementary
account to Darden's work on building reasoning strategies for the discovery of
mechanisms in biology.
Acknowledgments This chapter is revised from the paper presented at Taiwan Conference on
the Philosophy of Biology and Economics at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, March
24-25, 2011. I thank the anonymous referees and editors-in-chief for their valuable suggestions
and comments on an earlier version of this chapter. I also thank the participants in the conference,
Jean-Seb ´ stien Bolduc, Marcel Boumans, Lindley Darden, Alexandre Guay, Till Gr¨ne-Yanoff,
Roberta Millstein, James Myers, and David Teira, for their stimulative questions to my conference
paper. I especially express my gratitude to Lindley Darden, Roberta Millstein, Szu-Ting Chen, and
Hsiang-Ke Chao for their encouragement and suggestions.
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