Exploring Biological Agency and Embodiment to Overcome the Limitations of Gene-Centric Perspectives and Relationalize Biological Inquiry
Loading...
Date
2023-06
Authors
Woods, Micah
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Much of 20th-century biology has been driven by and proceeded through a finer understanding of biological mechanisms at the level of genes and molecules. These gene-centric approaches have located medical interventions, clarified evolutionary histories, and identified molecular signaling pathways, among other invaluable contributions, by mechanistically decomposing biological systems into genetic parts to examine how their structure and functioning explain the system as a whole. However, biology and philosophy of biology scholarship reveal that studying organisms in terms of their genes is limited because it overemphasizes genetic components’ role in development, inheritance, and evolutionary innovation and, in doing so, reduces organisms to the objects of their genes’ predeterminations. Engaging biological case studies and philosophy of biology, I reveal that gene-centrism’s limitations suggest the need for a complementary approach––biological agency––capable of recognizing organisms as agents of their genes, instead of passive objects of their genes’ expression. Through this exploration, I show that a biological agency perspective realizes the ways in which gene expression is interactively shaped by organisms’ spontaneous engagement with their environments, which is further indicative of organisms’ context sensitivity and relational responsiveness. The biological agency approach overcomes gene-centrism’s limitations because it considers organisms as embedded in many intersecting and co-constitutive relationships––genetic, biological, and environmental––of which the organism responds to and accommodates into itself. Using perspectives from feminist epistemology and science studies, I question further into biological agency’s account of organismal relationality to reveal that relationality does not just apply to the organism being studied, but to scientists as well. Considering this extra dimension of relationality helps soften the boundary between subject and object and illuminates that biological scientific inquiry is performed by embodied researchers, theorizing is situated, and objectivity is subjectivity-dependent. Through this consideration, I hope to convey the viability of biological agency as a complement to gene-centrism and build appreciation for biological inquiry that not only recognizes organismal relationality, but the scientist’s relationality.
Description
119 pages
Keywords
Philosophy, Biology, Feminism, Genetics, Evolution, Organism