Theoretical biology: A statement and defense

Abstract

There is currently, in the science of biology, a controversy concerning the status of theoretical biology. This controversy takes the form of several different but related attacks on the fruitfulness - or even the possibility - of theoretical biology as a legitimate scientific activity. We take the following to be a proper characterization of theoretical biology: the application of propositions, techniques, and procedures from mathe matics and symbolic logic to biological phenomena at all levels (i.e., sub cellular, cellular, tissue, organ, organismal behavior, organismal group behavior, and evolution). We assume that this characterization of theo retical biology (hereafter referred to as TB) is uncontroversial and would be acceptable to disputants on both sides of the controversy. It should be noted that this conception of TB is not committed to any single view concerning either the reduction of biology to physics and chemistry or the nature of ultimate biological laws and explanations. That is, we wish to remain neutral with respect to questions about what the science of biology will eventually look like. Our account is compatible with a number of alternative views, including both the possibility of reductionism and the possibility of irreducible biological laws and theories. Moreover, at least at present, TB is unstructured, as compared with modern chemistry and physics. The conception of TB under discussion incorporates a number of different sorts of mathematical approaches to biological phenomena. Consequently, there is no specific and unique structure which characterizes the various approaches employed by theoretical biologists. In the account that follows, we shall attempt to defend the enterprise of theoretical biology against several lines of attack. Three representative objections to theoretical biology can be stated as follows: