Abstract
A methodological framework of synthetic biology is developed from a philosophical point of view. The emphasis is on the status of synthetic biology as a laboratory-science and hybrid of engineering and natural science, which is shaped by technological research practice. First, three methodological turns are described: a turn from physics to biology as new general paradigm, a turn from classical natural sciences and its experiments to an engineering and new technological laboratory paradigm, and a turn from research theory to research practice. Subsequently, some fundamentals of a theory of engineering science are introduced in order to clarify similarities and differences between engineering and natural sciences, laboratories and classical experiments, and their impacts on synthetic biology. I then apply to synthetic biology the methodology of Technikhermeneutik (material hermeneutics, hermeneutics of technologies) as elaborated by Don Ihde, Bernhard Irrgang and Hans Poser. I develop a heuristic scheme of the research practice of synthetic biology with respect to different layers of organic development and engineering actions.
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Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank the participants of the summer school for the very fruitful and multifaceted presentations and discussions which have contributed to my elaborations in this paper.
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Funk, M. (2016). Synthetic Biology Between Engineering and Natural Science. A Hermeneutic Methodology for Laboratory Research Practice. In: Hagen, K., Engelhard, M., Toepfer, G. (eds) Ambivalences of Creating Life. Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment, vol 45. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21088-9_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21088-9_17
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