Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
1.4
The first principle of biology
The idea that philosophy no longer has very much to contribute to
science is very widespread. Just as science is supposed to be capa-
ble on its own of providing us with access to real knowledge, sure
of its truth owing to experimental method, philosophy is supposed
only to be metaphysical speculation, of absolutely no use for scien-
tific research. It could only be used at best to study the methodol-
ogy and development of science. Seeing it this way is wrong. In all
the sciences there are entities or first principles which serve as start-
ing points. These principles are not demonstrated, but are stated
a priori
as constituting the reality. They are not intangible. For
example, Newton's physics is based on three-dimensional space and
absolute time. Yet this prime structure of the universe was aban-
doned by Einstein, which led him to work out the physics of rela-
tivity. First principles arise from ontology which is an area on the
limits between science and philosophy. The choice of first principles
is very important because they determine the nature of scientific
theories which are constructed from them.
In biology, the question of first principles does not seem to pres-
ent a problem. It can be formulated thus: What are the primordial
entities of the living world? The answer seems to be obvious: when
we look at the living world, we can immediately pick out individu-
als managing on their own, and if we compare them, we observe
subsets among them of identical beings. We can thus identify an ini-
tial entity, the individual organism, and the species which is coex-
tensive to it.
6
We do not doubt for a moment that these two entities
really exist in nature, irrespective of any subjective divisions we
make to pick them out, or theoretical suppositions that we apply.
A genealogical line is then conceived as a succession of identical
ontogeneses but each with its independent individual reality. This
seems simple and natural and has always tended to dominate biol-
ogy. Yet there is another conception, and this is the one that certain
classifiers and evolutionists have tended to adopt. It consists of
6
Since a species is a set of identical individuals.
