Abstract
The French molecular biologist François Jacob outlined a theory of evolution as tinkering. From a methodological point of view, his approach can be seen as a biologic specification of the relation between laws, describing coherently the dynamics of a system, and contingent boundary conditions on this dynamics. From a semiotic perspective, tinkering is a pragmatic concept well-known from the information-theoretic anthropology of Claude Lévi-Strauss. In idealized contrast to an engineer, the tinkerer has to accept the concrete restrictions on his material resources as only gradually changeable constraints on his projects. Jacobian biopragmatics examines evolution as a biologic analogue to human tinkering devoid of any projecting subjectivity. To validate this analogy, four basic principles concerning main formal aspects of evolutionary objects, agents, histories, and consistency criteria are proposed.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Artmann, S.: 2000, Theorie des strukturalistischen Subjekts, Essen: Die blaue Eule.
Artmann, S.: 2002a, 'Three Types of Semiotic Indeterminacy in Monod's Philosophy of Modern Biology', Sign Systems Studies 30(1), 149–161.
Artmann, S.: 2002b, 'From Biosemiotics to Artificial Life', in D. Polani, J. Kim and Th. Martinetz (eds.), Fifth German Workshop on Artificial Life, Lübeck 2002, Berlin: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, pp. 89–98.
Eigen, M.: 1996 [1971], 'Vorrede zur deutschen Ausgabe', in J. Monod (ed.), Zufall und Notwendigkeit, pocket-book edition, Munich and Zurich: Piper, pp. 9–16.
Foucault, M.: 1969, L'Archéologie du Savoir, Paris: Gallimard.
Foucault, M.: 1970, 'Croître et Multiplier', Le Monde 8037, 13. Cited after reprint in: Foucault 2001, pp. 967-977.
Foucault, M.: 2001, Dits et Écrits 1954-1988, Vol. 1, Quarto edition, Paris: Gallimard.
Greimas, A.J. and J. Courtés: 1979, Sémiotique: Dictionnaire Raisonné de la Théorie du Langage, Paris: Hachette.
Hamilton, W.D.: 1964a, 'The Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour, I', Journal of Theoretical Biology 7, 1–16. Cited after reprint in: Hamilton 1996, pp. 31-46.
Hamilton, W.D.: 1964b, 'The Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour, II', Journal of Theoretical Biology 7, 17–52. Cited after reprint in: Hamilton 1996, pp. 47-82.
Hamilton, W.D.: 1996, Narrow Roads to Gene Land, Vol. 1, Oxford: W.H. Freeman.
Hjelmslev, L.: 1993 [1943], Omkring Sprogteoriens Grundlæggelse, Copenhagen: The Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen.
Jacob, F.: 1976 [1970], La Logique du Vivant: Une Histoire de l'Hérédité, pocket-book edition, Paris: Gallimard.
Jacob, F.: 1977, 'The Linguistic Model in Biology', in D. Armstrong and C.H. van Schooneveld (eds.), Roman Jakobson: Echoes of his Scholarship, Lisse: de Ridder, pp. 185–192.
Jacob, F.: 1987, La Statue Intérieure, Paris: Odile Jacob, pp. 23–36.
Jacob, F.: 2000a [1981], Le Jeu des Possibles: Essai sur la Diversité du Vivant, pocket-book edition, Paris: Le livre de poche.
Jacob, F.: 2000b [1997], La Souris, la Mouche et l'Homme, pocket-book edition, Paris: Odile Jacob.
Jacob, F.: 2002, 'Qu'est-ce que la Vie?', in Y. Michaud (ed.), Université de Tous les Savoirs, Vol. 1, Paris: Odile Jacob, pp. 23–36.
Jacob, F. and J. Monod: 1961, 'Genetic regulating mechanisms in the synthesis of proteins', Journal of Molecular Biology 3, 318–356.
Kimura, M.: 1983, The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Kolmogorov, A.N.: 1993 [1969], 'To the Logical Foundations of the Theory of Information and Probability Theory', in A.N. Shiryayev (ed.), Selected Works of A. N. Kolmogorov, Vol. 3, Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 203–207.
Küppers, B.-O.: 1990, Information and the Origin of Life, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Küppers, B.-O.: 1995, 'The Context-Dependence of Biological Information', in K. Kornwachs and K. Jacoby (eds.), Information: New Questions to aMultidisciplinary Concept, Berlin: Akademie, pp. 135–145.
Küppers, B.-O.: 1996, 'Der semantische Aspekt von Information und seine evolutionsbiologische Bedeutung', Nova Acta Leopoldina NF 72, 294, 195–219.
Langdon, W.B. and R. Poli: 2002, Foundations of Genetic Programming, Berlin: Springer.
Lévi-Strauss, C.: 1962, La Pensée Sauvage, Paris: Plon.
Lübbe, H.: 1977, Geschichtsbegriff und Geschichtsinteresse: Analytik und Pragmatik der Historie, Bâle and Stuttgart: Schwabe.
Luhmann, N.: 1992, Beobachtungen der Moderne, Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
Luure, A.: 2002, 'Understanding Life: Trans-Semiotic Analogies', Sign Systems Studies 30(1), 315–325.
Lwoff, A.: 1981, Jeux et Combats, Paris: Fayard.
Melkebeek, D. van: 2000, Randomness and Completeness in Computational Complexity, Berlin: Springer.
Mey, J.L.: 1996, Pragmatics: An Introduction, Oxford: Blackwell.
Monod, J.: 1973 [1970], Le Hasard et la Nécessité: Essai sur la Philosophie Naturelle de la Biologie Moderne, pocket-book edition, Paris: Seuil.
Ptashne, M. and A. Gann: 2002, Genes and Signals, Cold Spring Harbor: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
Scheibe, E.: 2001 [1989], 'Coherence and Contingency. Two Neglected Aspects of Theory Succession', in E. Scheibe, Between Rationalism and Empiricism: Selected Papers on the Philosophy of Physics, New York: Springer, pp. 232–245.
Sharov, A. A.: 2002, 'Pragmatics and Biosemiotics', Sign Systems Studies 30(1), 245–258.
Vehkavaara, T.: 2002, 'Why and How to Naturalize Semiotic Concepts for Biosemiotics', Sign Systems Studies 30(1), 293–313.
Vose, M. D.: 1999, The Simple Genetic Algorithm: Foundations and Theory, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Williams, G. C.: 1996 [1966], Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Artmann, S. Four Principles of Evolutionary Pragmatics in Jacob's Philosophy of Modern Biology. Axiomathes 14, 381–395 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AXIO.0000024902.51141.06
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AXIO.0000024902.51141.06