Reduction and Elimination in Philosophy and the Sciences

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Are Lamarckian Explanations Fully Reducible to Darwinian ones? The Case of “Directed Mutation” in Bacteria — Davide Vecchi environmental factors are irrelevant to mutational responses (it has been established that there exist very specific processes of mutational response triggered by environmental stresses like starvation), nor on the hypothesis that there is no targeting of specific genomic regions, while growing evidence is accumulating in favour of seeing mutational responses as evolved adaptive responses of the organism. What can be safely said today is that random variation is not the norm. Mutational processes are highly biased and targeted affairs. Still, can a revised and softened version of Darwinism suffice to dispel the ghost of Lamarck? As Hall (1998) argues, adaptive mutation is a different process from growthdependent or “normal” bacterial mutation, even though it clearly is a Darwinian process. The important questions on this score are: how is the hypermutation state triggered? Is it triggered by the environmental stress or by the selective pressure? Is it regulated by specific genes, or rather by some unspecified and unknown, possibly innate, capacity of the organism? We still don’t know. For the same reasons, I contend, we cannot answer the question of whether we need an explanation of HSH in terms couched via the language of intentionality and choice, or whether a Darwinian explanation couched in terms of chance and selection is all we need. Or so I will argue. It could be argued that the phenomenon of adaptive mutagenesis is purely Darwinian. From this perspective it could be asked: what does the Lamarckian language of intentionality, purpose and choice add to explanations concerning adaptive mutations? Nothing is the answer: Lamarckian concepts are simply redundant. To say that organisms choose to mutate in particular ways, that they deliberately try to reach a particular adaptive goal, that they intend to change and adapt in specific ways, is equivalent to invite inappropriate teleological talk. Even though emphasis on the phenomenon has highlighted the need to discriminate between mutations with different characteristics concerning their basic properties (environmental conditions, time and site of occurrence), it is clear that the directional outcome is a product given by the extreme reduction of design search space, by the temporal and local increase in efficiency of the search, and by a more general strategy of mutation rate increase. A variant of the same dismissive attitude could instead stress that instead of explanatory redundancy (based on the application of Ockham’s razor), Lamarckian explanations are reducible to Darwinian ones. This would vindicate the hypothesis that Darwinism is a more fundamental process than Lamarckism. In fact, it seems that the “intentionality” of Lamarckian systems like those supposedly governing adaptive mutational responses must arise either by means of the cumulative effects of past natural selection acting on ultimately random mutations, or more simply by a more error-prone pathological response of cells. Therefore the epistemic reducibility of Lamarckian explanations seems to be achievable. So, even though the orthodox and hardened Neo-Darwinian views on directed mutation has been revised and updated, the revision of the Darwinian view has not touched certain residual and crucial elements constitutive of some meaning of “randomness”, which make an appeal to the Lamarckian language of intentionality inappropriate. This alternative seems to illustrate the sensible view shared by most practitioners. However, I think that this epistemological move cannot shed any light on the ontological issue pertaining to the nature of mutation, and on the basic question concerning the existence of genuine Lamarckian processes. What could a genuine Lamarckian phenomenon be like? Genuine intentionality would perhaps involve the preferential environmental induction of useful and beneficial mutations, which is not happening, or the targeting of specific genes, which is still quite controversial. But an equally promising avenue would be to consider genuine intentionality as involving the choice of starved and stresses cells to enter the hypermutation state. I think that at this juncture lies the best chance to vindicate some genuine Lamarckian credentials. If the hypermutation state is triggered by some as yet unspecified and unknown capacity of the organism, then Lamarckism could be vindicated. Or better it would be if we were unable to find a mechanistic basis for the cell response. Intentionality does not seem to be needed to provide explanations that save the known phenomena of adaptive mutagenesis. Still, this could be simply appearance. The crucial question remains: how do we explain the fact that only a subpopulation of bacteria hypermutates? It seems that some element in the environment triggers such a state, or perhaps it is a cell that chooses to do so? Where is the evidence in favour of the first “mechanical” hypothesis? And is the first hypothesis simpler than the second? And why is it simpler to hypothesise that the bacterium senses an environmental signal rather than hypothesising that it chooses to hypermutate? In the first case we need a sensory mechanism, in the second just agency of some kind. Furthermore, even a sensory mechanism could be sufficient to phagocyte a slice of the intentional cake. The position of the reductionist and materialist rests on the adoption of the argument from parsimony. But voiced have been raised to argue against this adoption of Ockham’s razor, and against a more general ontological conservatism (Sober 2001), especially when the intentionality hypothesis is ontologically as economical as the alternatives. The issue is that as there are no arguments in favour of the reification of intentionality as a distinct and emergent quality, so there are no arguments against. So it could be that the more one digs into the subject the more the Lamarckian language of choice makes sense. In this sense it is not enough to point out that polymerase IV and the down regulation of MMR are involved in the process of hypermutation, that is, an errorenhancing and a less efficient error-editing process. The question remains of what triggers the state, of whether it is the bacterium that “decides” to hypermutate. Also note that in many ways a panpsychist hypothesis, with the postulation of all its monads, is not clearly more complex and therefore amenable to be chopped off with one stroke of Ockham’s razor. Even bacterial chemotaxis is nowadays described somehow in terms of cells’ intentionality (cells are analogised to nanobrains). The panpsychist perspective according to which intentionality is everywhere remains simpler that any emergentist view. If mentality and intentionality are basic and primitive, then ascriptions of mentality are, despite the risk of anthropomorphism, always justifiable. The idea that there exists a continuum of levels of intentionality, rather than an abrupt emergence of something totally new, remains appealing. The great appeal of the Darwinian account (e.g. based on a blind variation and selective retention formula) is that it offers a very general mode of explanation, and a clear recipe to dispense of epiphenomenal intentionality (Hull 1988). The active agent easily disappears from selectionist accounts. But can we get rid of agency so 363
364 Are Lamarckian Explanations Fully Reducible to Darwinian ones? The Case of “Directed Mutation” in Bacteria — Davide Vecchi simply? Perhaps some people would be more prone to get rid of bacterial intentionality than of human cultural agency, but this could reflect an unjustifiable bias. I conclude that there still remains the open question regarding the existence of truly Lamarckian processes, whose workings can only be accounted via intentional and mentalistic terms, even without assuming foresight on the part of cells, and even without assuming a universe of monads. My main point is merely that we have no evidence to reject the intentionality hypothesis, nor principled theoretical reasons based on simplicity considerations, and even less so on dubious metaphysical fiat. I suspect that the available evidence cannot adjudicate between the “sensible” scientific hypothesis based on mechanism, selection and chance, and the “awkward” intentional alternative couched in terms of cell’s choice and intentionality. And probably we will never know for sure. Literature Brisson, D. 2003 The Directed Mutation Controversy in an Evolutionary Context. Critical Reviews in Microbiology, 29:25-35 Cairns, J., Overbaugh, J. and Miller, S. 1988 The origin of Mutants. Nature, 335:142 Foster, P. (2004). Adaptive Mutation in Escerichia coli. Journal of Bacteriology, VOL. 186, No. 15, p. 4846-452 Hall, B.G. 1988 Adaptive evolution that requires multiple spontaneous mutations. Genetics 120:887-897 Hall, B.G. 1998 Adaptive mutagenesis: a process that generates almost exclusively beneficial mutations. Genetica 102/3: 109-125 Hull, D.L. 1988 Science as a Process. The University of Chicago Press Jablonka, E. and Lamb, M. 2006 Evolution in Four Dimensions. MIT Press Lenski, R. & Mittler, J.E. 1993 The Directed Mutation Controversy and Neo-Darwinism. Science, 259:188-194 Sober, E. 2001 The Principle of Conservatism in Cognitive Ethology. In Naturalism, Evolution, and Mind. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 49
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31 Alexander Hieke Hannes Leitgeb H
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Reduktion und Elimination in Philos
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Distributors Die Österreichische L
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6 Inhalt / Contents Wittgenstein me
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8 Inhalt / Contents The Evolution o
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Formal Mechanisms for Reduction in
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4. Property language and theoretica
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imperatives, or commands in the for
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Referential Practice and the Lure o
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The Augustinian account confuses mo
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hurried to fix it on the page. The
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The Essence (?) of Color, According
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Literature Austin, James 1980 “Wi
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Wittgenstein’s Externalism - Gett
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Informal Reduction E.P. Brandon, Ca
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An Anti-Reductionist Argument Based
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An Anti-Reductionist Argument Based
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Did I Do It? -Yeah, You Did! Wittge
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Literature Did I Do It? -Yeah, You
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tween the two approaches. The task
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On Two Recent Defenses of The Simpl
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On Two Recent Defenses of The Simpl
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Queen Victoria’s Dying Thoughts T
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Diagonalization. The Liar Paradox,
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Proof: Given a function ƒ from con
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that I am sure that it is true that
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experiencing something as a red pen
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There can be Causal without Ontolog
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There can be Causal without Ontolog
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objects. But they also leave unansw
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The Knower Paradox and the Quantifi
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The Knower Paradox and the Quantifi
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lent. It also implies that an inven
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The Scapegoat Theory of Causality M
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We may have evolved a specialized c
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easoning have their source in the l
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Wittgenstein on Frazer and Explanat
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genstein 1993, p. 143). In order to
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an adequate syntactic analysis of o
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Wittgenstein meets ÖGS: Wovon man
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Wittgenstein meets ÖGS: Wovon man
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3. Der Elementarsatz wird als Relat
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Literatur Glock, Hans Johann 2006
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Explaining the Brain: Ruthless Redu
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Occam’s Razor in the Theory of Th
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Literature Campbell, Donald T. 1987
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Die Nichtreduzierbarkeit der klassi
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Literatur Die Nichtreduzierbarkeit
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Let T I be the minimal theory of tr
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Does Bradley’s Regress Support No
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(3) Mutatis mutandis, realism has t
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Zeitliche Ontologie und zeitliche R
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Betrachtung ontologischer Fragen, M
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The decisive consequences of this a
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Benacerraf and Bad Company (An Atta
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offer a solution to the bad company
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Literature Benacerraf, Paul 1965
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"PA" by using "PA* ", at least at t
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Hard Naturalism and its Puzzles Ren
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The Mind-Body-Problem and Score-Kee
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mental properties, for instance, or
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kommt es zu einem gravierenden Miss
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Reduction Revisited: The Ontologica
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4. Conclusion Reduction Revisited:
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All in all, we have seen that reduc
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Physicalism Without the A Priori Pa
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Literature Cartwright, Nancy 1999:
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Wittgensteins Projektionsmethode al
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Schlussbemerkungen Wittgensteins Pr
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intentional states requires functio
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Relating Theories. Models and Struc
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Literature Relating Theories. Model
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e invoked in response to the questi
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Do Brains Think? Christopher Humphr
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4. Conclusion So do brains think or
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How Metaphors Alter the World-Pictu
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The Modal Supervenience of the Conc
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Literature van der Auwera, Johan an
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3. The Determination of Form by Syn
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Zwischen Humes Gesetz und „Sollen
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Assessing Humean Supervenience Amir
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determination thesis; it fails as a
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Aus der obigen Definition folgt, da
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Ding-Ontology of Aristotle vs. Sach
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Ding-Ontology of Aristotle vs. Sach
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How do Moral Principles Figure in M
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“Downward Causation”: Emergent,
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“Downward Causation”: Emergent,
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A with distinguished subset Z of te
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A Metaphysically Moderate Version o
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Literature Balashov, Yuri 2002 ''Wh
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“In der Frage liegt ein Fehler”
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Problems with Psychophysical Identi
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identity theory, or as a predecesso
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of the world. It only matters that
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Four Anti-reductionist Dogmas in th
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Four Anti-reductionist Dogmas in th
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notion of time and requires that so
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Some Remarks on Wittgenstein and Ty
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Some Remarks on Wittgenstein and Ty
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concrete particulars can be subject
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phenomenal concept of experiencing
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Metaphorische Bedeutung als virtus
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speaker is then attaching a special
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„Vom Weißdorn und vom Propheten
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„Die Einheit hören“ - Einige
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„Die Einheit hören“ - Einige
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S4) the necessity of arithmetic is
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Getting out from Inside: Why the Cl
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Dispensing with Particulars: Unders
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Literature Dispensing with Particul
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Reichenbach’s Concept of Logical
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Defining Ontological Naturalism Mar
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Literature Jackson, Frank 1986. “
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properties are located. This proces
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‘our conceptual scheme’ “is c
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Properties and Reduction between Me
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Does this mean that metaphysics sho
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do not pick out pain in a system by
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The Writing of Nietzsche and Wittge
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his teachings. He coincides with hi
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sense of a proposition without firs
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Naturalistic Ethics: A Logical Posi
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Literature Kant, Immanuel 2006 Crit
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What we now require is a bridge the
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Species, Variability, and Integrati
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could mention the many sorts of iso
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to work this way. Classic examples
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The Key Problems of KC Matteo Pleba
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have embraced the myth of prose: it
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5. Prior’s Problem As Patrick Bla
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Reductionism in Axiology: the Case
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developing of cancer tissue in huma
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(2) One-way Nagelian bridge princip
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Rethinking the Modal Argument again
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Rethinking the Modal Argument again
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that we are to find the features we
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Atypical Rational Agency Paul Raymo
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Literature Anscombe, G. E. M. 1957
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situation bieten sich keine Kriteri
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Two Reductions of ‘rule’ Dana R
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one that could take place, but does
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physics is not able to make, since
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Wittgenstein’s Attitudes Fabien S
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view of logic, in accordance with h
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Warum man auf transzendentalphiloso
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Making the Mind Higher-Level Elizab
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Literature Churchland, P. M. (1995)
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Mental Causation: A Lesson from Act
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Again, this is mistaken. Non-reduct
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auf alle Arten von kontingenten Pro
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Reduction, Sets, and Properties Ben
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Literature Egan, Andy (2004): ‘Se
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there is a tension between evaluati
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Page 342 and 343: A somewhat Eliminativist Proposal a
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Page 358 and 359: Let us take the example of the hypo
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Page 394 and 395: From Topology to Logic. The Neural
Page 396 and 397: From Topology to Logic. The Neural
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Page 402 and 403: experience. Of course, a detailed a
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independent of what is the fact, fa
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415
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