Document Type
Article
Abstract
[Editors' Introduction]
The author poses an alternate set of ideas concerning paradigms, normal science, research traditions and scientific revolution on the basis of the unique and inherently distinctive development of molecular biology and genetics; for, a new set of conceptual tools concerning scientific progress are required for an adequate understanding of how biological processes were elucidated under the scientific auspices of the central dogma of the genetic code. This essay concentrates on a limited study of three aspects in genetics: the study of chromosome structure, dynamics and function, reverse transcriptases, and the discovery of RNA catalysts. In attempting to analyze the key moments of discovery in these processes, Venkatesan distinguishes between Kuhnian and Laudanian notions of science and how molecular biology configures into them and attempt to put forth a set of ideas that may not necessarily conflate the two but provide further insight into their treatises on the nature of scientific revolution of which they discuss at length.
Recommended Citation
Venkatesan, Priya "Paradigm Shifts and New Worldviews: Kuhn, Laudan and Discovery in Molecular Biology." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture, vol. 4, no. 4, 2004, pp. 1–18.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol4/iss4/7
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Genetics Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Molecular Biology Commons, Philosophy of Science Commons