Chapter 1 Biology, Science and Society

Overview

Biology is the scientific study of living systems. Our gardens, our pets, our trees, and our fellow humans are all examples of living systems. We can look at them, admire them, write poems about them, and enjoy their company. The Nuer, a pastoral people of Africa, care for their cattle and attach great emotional value to each of them. They write poetry about—and occasionally to—their cattle, they name themselves after their favorite cows or bulls, and they move from place to place according to the needs of their cattle for new pastures. They come to know individual cattle very well, almost as members of the family. The Nuer have also acquired a vast store of useful knowledge about the many animal and plant species in their region. Many other people who live close to the land have a similar familiarity with their environment and the many species living in it. Scientific understanding of the world around us grew out of this kind of familiarity with nature, supplemented by a tradition of systematic testing. In this chapter we examine the methods of science in general and the application of those methods to the study of living systems.

              Because living systems are complex and continually changing, an understanding of these systems often requires special methods of investigation or ways of formulating thoughts. This chapter describes the special methods that have come to be called science. Many people think that science is defined by its subject matter, but this is not correct. Science is defined by its methods.

              The methods of science do not answer questions about values and, therefore, cannot address questions about whether certain types of research should be done, or to what uses scientific results should be put. Such decisions often involve a branch of philosophy called ethics. Many issues confronting societies today have a scientific dimension.  Policy decisions on such issues involve both science and ethics.

Chapter Outline

Download the Chapter Outline

Selected Videos

Review Questions

THE PURPOSE of these review quizzes is to guide students in where their knowledge and understanding is strong, where it is weak, and where time should best be spent in studying.

CHAPTER 1:

  1. Can you explain the difference between a theory and a hypothesis?  What makes a particular hypothesis useful or important?  What makes a particular theory useful or productive?  (If you cannot explain these things, or if you are not sure, then you need to reread Section 1.1.)
  2. Can you explain the differences between scientific issues, science policy issues, and policy issues on a given subject, such as abortion or the treatments for alcoholism?  (If you cannot explain these things, or if you are not sure, then you need to reread Section 1.4.)
  3. Can you explain how and why scientists since the Renaissance have formed scientific communities?  Can you explain how paradigms function, and how scientific revolutions occur?  (If you cannot explain these things, or if you are not sure, then you need to reread Section 1.2.)
  4. Can you explain the differences between utilitarian and deontological ethical systems, and why these differences exist?  Can you formulate utilitarian arguments both for and against a particular practice, such as the legalization of marijuana, or the use of contraceptive medications?  Can you formulate deontological arguments both for and against such practices?  (If you cannot explain these things, or if you are not sure, then you need to reread Section 1.4.)
  5. Can you formulate well-reasoned arguments both for and against the common use of animals as food or as experimental subjects?  (Are your arguments utilitarian or deontological?)  Can you explain why voluntary informed consent is generally required of human subjects in experiments (and whether your reasons are utilitarian or deontological)?  Can you explain why gender bias in experiments is as much a utilitarian concern as a deontological one?  (If you cannot explain these things, or if you are not sure, then you need to reread Section 1.5.)

Open Response Questions

These questions are designed to assess your understanding of the topics explored in this chapter. You can use these questions in three ways:

Before you start …

Read through the questions before you read the chapter to help prime you to read the text more carefully and strategically. Remember that you are just starting out on your learning journey, so don’t feel disheartened if you don’t know how to answer them yet!

Whilst you read …

As you work through the chapter, have another go at answering the questions to see how you are progressing. You can also answer the questions with the textbook open in front of you, in order to create model answers that can be used to refer back to later.

At the end …

Answer the questions once you have finished reading to see what you have learned. Check your responses against your model answers and use these to identify any gaps in your understanding.

DEFINITIONS:

In your own words, define ANY TWO of the following terms:

theory              utilitarian ethics          homeostasis      metabolism     experiment

falsifiable        induction

ESSAYS:

Answer any two of the following questions. Make sure to answer all parts of any question you choose.

1. List six or more characteristics of living systems and briefly explain each.

2. Explain the difference and distinctions between science issues, science policy issues and policy issues that arise in the case of applied science.  Illustrate by giving examples of each type of issue on a topic of your choice (such as legislation requiring childhood vaccination, efforts to clean up toxic waste sites, marijuana legalization, or any other topic of interest).  IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t bother to take a stand on any issue– that is NOT what this question is about.  The basis for grading is your explanation of how the several types of issues differ from one another, i.e., what issue belongs to what type.

3. Explain how experimental sciences differ from naturalistic sciences, and give three examples of scientific fields that typically or primarily use each methodology.

PowerPoint Slides

Download Version A (Illustrations only)
Download Version B (Topic outlines also)

Bibliography

Achinstein, P. 1983. The Concept of Evidence. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

American Physiological Society. 2021. Why do scientists use animals in research?  https://www.physiology.org/career/policy-advocacy/animal-research/Why-do-scientists-use-animals-in-research?

Beauchamp, T.L., and L. Walters, editors. 1978. Contemporary Issues in Bioethics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Bigelow, J., and R. Pargetter. 1990. Science and Necessity. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Boyce, WD., and L.C. Jensen. 1978. Moral Reasoning. A Psychological-Philosophical Integration. Lincoln NE: Univ. of Nebraska Press.

Brody, B.A., and R.E. Grandy, editors. 1989. Readings in the Philosophy of Science, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Cann, R.L., M. Stoneking, and A.C. Wilson. 1987. Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution. Nature, 325: 31-36.

Carson, G. 1972. Men, Beasts, and Gods. A History of Cruelty and Kindness to Animals. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Cohen, C. 1986. The case for the use of animals in biomedical research. New Eng. J. Med., 315: 865-870.

Copp, D., and D. Zimmerman, editors. 1984. Morality, Reason, and Truth. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld.

Cushing, J.T., C.F. Delaney, and G.M. Gutting, editors. 1984. Science and Reality: Recent Work in the Philosophy of Science. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

Cutcliffe, J.R., and Harder, H.G. 2009. The perpetual search for parsimony; Enhancing the epistemological and practical utility of qualitative research findings. Internat. J. Nursing Studies, 46: 1401-1410.

Davis, B.D., editor. 1991. The Genetic Revolution. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

Dawkins, M.S. [1991.] Ethics in Research on Animal Behaviour. [London:] Academic Press.

Depew, D.J., and B.H. Weber, editors. 1985. Evolution at a Crossroads: The New Biology and the New Philosophy of Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Doyal, L. 1986. Empiricism, Explanation, and Rationality. London: Routledge & K. Paul.

Earman, J., editor. 1983. Testing Scientific Theories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Edel, M., and A. Edel. 1959. Anthropology and Ethics. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.

Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1940, The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Fox, M.W. 1986a. The Case for Animal Experimentation. An Evolutionary and Ethical Perspective. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Fox, M.W. 1986b. Returning to Eden. Animal Rights and Human Responsibility. Malabar, FL: Robert E. Krieger.

Fuller, S. 1993. Philosophy of Science and its Discontents, second ed. New York: Guilford Press.

Goodman, J., et al. 2015. Trends in animal use as U.S. research facilities. J. Medical Ethics, 41(7): 1-3.

Gutting, G. 1980. Paradigms and Revolutions: Appraisals and Applications of Thomas Kuhn’s Philosophy of Science. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

Haan, N., E. Aerts, and B.A.B. Cooper. 1985. On Moral Grounds. The Search for Practical Morality. New York: New York University Press.

Haber, J.G., editor. 1994. Absolutism and its Consequentialist Critics. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Hacking, I. 1981. Scientific Revolutions. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hardin, R. 1988. Morality within the Limits of Reason. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Hargrove, E.C., editor. 1992. The Animal Rights/ Environmental Ethics Debate. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Harre, R. 1985. The Philosophies of Science. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hesse, M.B. 1980. Revolutions and Reconstructions in the Philosophy of Science. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univ. Press.

Hillis, D.M. et al.  2019. Principles of Life, third ed.  Sunderland, MA:  Oxford University Press.

Hull, D.L. 1988. Science as a process: an evolutionary account of the social and conceptual development of science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kagan, S. 1989. The Limits of Morality. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.

Kitcher, P., and W.C. Salmon, editors. 1989. Scientific Explanation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Kuhn. TS. 1970. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ladd. J. 1973. Ethical Relativism. Belmont CA: Wadsworth.

Laudan. L. 1981. Science and Values: The Aims of Science and their Role in Scientific Debate.

Lederberg. J. and E.L. Lederberg. 1952. Replica plating and indirect selection of bacterial mutants. J. Bacteriol. 63: 399-406.

Mappes. TA.. and J.S. Zembaty. 1992. Social Ethics. Morality and Social Policy. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

McLeod, S. A. 2018. Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html

Mendelsohn. E. and Y. Elkana. 1981. Sciences and Cultures: Anthropological and Historical Studies of the Sciences. Dordrecht. Holland: D. Reidel.

Merton. R.K. 1970. Science, Technology, and Society in Seventeenth Century England. New York: H. Fertig.

Miller, HB., and W.H. Williams. editors. 1983. Ethics and Animals. Clifton. NJ: Ilumina Press.

Moore. J.A. 1993. Science as a Way of Knowing: The Foundations of Modern Biology. Cambridge. Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Nagel. E. 1961. The Structure of Science. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World.

National Research Council. 1996. National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC:  National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/4962.

National Research Council. 2013. Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/18290.

Newkirk. I. 1990. Save the Animals! 101 Easy Things You Can Do. New York: Warner Books.

Newkirk. L 1992. Free the Animals! The Untold Story of the U.S. Animal liberation Front and Its Founder, “Valerie.”  Chicago: Noble Press.

Nitecki, M.H., and D.V. Nitecki. 1992. History and Evolution. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Phillips. M.T. and J.A. Sechzer. 1989. Animal Research and Ethical Conflict. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Piaget, J. 1936. Origins of intelligence in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Piaget, J. 1957. Construction of reality in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Popper, K.R. 1959. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. New York: Basic Books.

Preece, R.. and I.. Chamberlain. 1993. Animal Welfare and Human Values. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Psillos, S., and M. Curd, editors.  2014.  The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science.  London: Routledge. 

Purtilo, R. 1999. Ethical Dimensions in the Health Professions, 3rd ed.  Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders.

Raven, P.H. et al. 2005.  Biology, seventh edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, Harvard University Press.

Rawls, J. 2001. Justice as Fairness: A Restatement.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Regan, T. 1982. All that Dwell Therein. Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Regan, T 1983. The Case for Animal Rights Berkeley. CA: University of California Press.

Regan, T. and P. Singer. 1976. Animal Rights and Human Obligations. Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Prentice Hall.

Rodd, R. 1990. Biology. Ethics. and Animals. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Rollin, B.E. 1989. The Unheeded Cry. Animal Consciousness, Animal Pain, and Science. New York: Oxford University Press.

Rollin, B.E. 1992. Animal Rights and Human Morality, revised ed. Buffalo. NY: Prometheus Books.

Ryder, R.D. 1989. Animal Revolution. Oxford. UK: Basil Blackwell.

Schemer, S., editor 1988. Consequentialism and Its critics. Oxford. UK: Oxford University Press.

Simon, H.A. 1977. Models of Discovery and Other Topics in the Methods of Science. Boston: D. Reidel.

Simpson, G.G. 1980 Why and How: Some Problems and Methods in Historical Biology. New York: Pergamon Press.

Singer, P. 1975. Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals. New York: Random House.

Singer, P., editor. 1985. In Defense of Animals. New York: Basil Blackwell.

Singer, P., editor. 1991. A Companion to Ethics Cambridge. MA: Basil Blackwell.

Stanford University. School of Medicine. 2021. Animal research at Stanford.  https://med.stanford.edu/animalresearch/why-animal-research.html

Sterba, J.S., editor. 1994. Morality in Practice, 4th ed. Belmont. CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

U.S. Congress, Office of Thchnology Assessment. 1993 Biomedical Ethics in U.S. Public Policy. Background Paper, OTA-BR-BBS-105. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Understanding Animal Research. 2021. Animals in research.  https://www.animalresearch.info/en/designing-research/

Urry, L.A. et al.  2017. Campbell Biology.  New York: Pearson.

Watson. J.D. 1968. The Double Helix. New York: Atheneum.

Williams. J.. editor 1991. Animal Rights and Welfare. New York: H.W. Wilson.

Chapter 2
Genes, Chromosomes, and DNA