Biology as involving laws and inconceivable without them.

IF 16.4 1区化学 Q1 CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY Accounts of Chemical Research Pub Date : 2023-02-01 DOI:10.1007/s12064-023-00384-2

Richard Creath

引用次数: 0

Abstract

There is an old attempt to divide the sciences into sciences of laws and the historical sciences. More recently, John Beatty has drawn the distinction so that biology is a historical science and urged that there are no genuinely biological laws. This paper shows that there are indeed biological laws, specifically statistical ones, notably in evolutionary theory. Moreover, all or almost all other areas of biology involve laws as well. Even history involves laws. Finally, the paper shows that this pervasiveness of laws is compatible with the most basic commitments of those who, like Beatty, would claim that biology is only historical.

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生物学涉及规律，没有规律是不可想象的。

有一种古老的企图，把科学分为法律科学和历史科学。最近，约翰·比蒂(John Beatty)将二者区分开来，认为生物学是一门历史科学，并主张不存在真正的生物学定律。这篇论文表明确实存在生物规律，特别是统计规律，特别是在进化理论中。此外，生物学的所有或几乎所有其他领域也都涉及规律。甚至历史也涉及法律。最后，这篇论文表明，这种规律的普遍性与那些像比蒂这样声称生物学只是历史的人的最基本的承诺是相容的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Accounts of Chemical Research 化学-化学综合

CiteScore

31.40

自引率

1.10%

发文量

312

审稿时长

2 months

期刊介绍： Accounts of Chemical Research presents short, concise and critical articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. These short reviews focus on research from the author’s own laboratory and are designed to teach the reader about a research project. In addition, Accounts of Chemical Research publishes commentaries that give an informed opinion on a current research problem. Special Issues online are devoted to a single topic of unusual activity and significance. Accounts of Chemical Research replaces the traditional article abstract with an article "Conspectus." These entries synopsize the research affording the reader a closer look at the content and significance of an article. Through this provision of a more detailed description of the article contents, the Conspectus enhances the article's discoverability by search engines and the exposure for the research.

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