Genocentryzm versus teoria systemów rozwojowych. Dwa konkurencyjne sposoby rozumienia informacji w biologii współczesnej

Abstract

There are (at least) two opposing concepts of biological information, or bioinformation,discussed in the modern philosophy of biology: genocentric (genebased)and holistic. As a main proponent of the former I consider British evolutionistJohn Maynard Smith and his teleosemantic theory of bioinformation.The latter was proposed by American philosopher Susan Oyama in the form ofso-called Developmental Systems Theory (DST).In Maynard Smith proposal bioinformation is strictly gene-based and anynon-genetic element of a living organism cannot be considered as a vehicle ofinformational content. Such information is transmitted from parents to offspringinside the germ cells and every time serves as a blueprint for buildingthe whole organisms. DST claims the opposite: bioinformation cannot bereduced to genetic elements only and is scattered throughout the whole livingsystem. What is more, biological information is not simply transmittedbetween generations but every time rebuilt from available developmental resources:bioinformation has not only it is phylogeny, but it is ontogeny as well.The aim of this paper is twofold. First: to present the foundations of both aforementionedtheories to the reader and second: to discuss the different objectionsraised against them.