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Theoretical biology: A statement and defense

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References

  1. For a good general discussion of the concept of emergence, see Ernest Nagel, The Structure of Science, Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., New York and Burlingame, 1961, pp. 366–380, 433–435. A more specialized account, with applications to current biological research, is given by Clifford Grobstein, ‘Levels and Ontogeny’, American Scientist 50 (1962) 46–58.

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  2. Talbot H. Waterman, ‘The Problem’, in Theoretical and Mathematical Biology (ed. by Talbot H. Waterman and Harold J. Morovitz), Blaisdell Publishing Co., New York, 1965, p. 5.

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  3. Ibid., p. 19.

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  4. George Gaylord Simpson, ‘The Study of the Status of Organisms’, American Scientist 50 (1962) 40.

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  5. Ibid.

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  6. Ibid.

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  7. Ibid., p. 36.

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  8. Ibid., p. 37.

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  11. Martin Macklin, ‘Analysis of Growth Factor Gradients in Hydra’, Journal of Cellular Physiology 72 (1968).

  12. A. L. Burnett, ‘A Model of Growth and Differentiation in Hydra’, American Naturalist 100 (1966).

  13. We wish to thank Professor Howard Stein for suggesting these two examples.

  14. J. J. C. Smart, Philosophy and Scientific Realism, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1963, p. 52.

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  15. Ibid., p. 61.

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  16. Ibid., p. 50.

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  17. Ibid., p. 53.

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  18. Ibid., p. 54.

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  19. Ibid.

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  20. Nagel, p. 57.

  21. Smart, p. 55.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Martin Macklin, ‘Biological Phase Relationships’, Nature 217 (1968).

  25. R. Rosen, ‘A Relational Theory of Biological Systems’, The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 20 (1958).

  26. M. D. Mesarović, ‘Systems Theory and Biology — View of a Theoretician’, Systems Theory and Biology (ed. by M. D. Mesarović), Springer-Verlag, New York, 1968, pp. 69–70.

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  27. Grobstein, p. 52.

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  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, USA

    Martin Macklin & Ruth Macklin

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  1. Martin Macklin
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  2. Ruth Macklin
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Macklin, M., Macklin, R. Theoretical biology: A statement and defense. Synthese 20, 261–276 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413791

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