Niels Bohr and Max Delbrück: Balancing Autonomy and Reductionism in Biology
Niels Bohr and Max Delbrück: Balancing Autonomy and Reductionism in Biology
This chapter attempts to develop a more precise understanding of the relation between Niels Bohr's philosophy of science and Max Delbrück's biological research program. It is argued here that Delbrück's biological research program was reductionist in the sense that it pursued physical and chemical explanations for biological phenomena. Bohr's primary concern was with fundamental features of empirical natural science that implied a radical difference between physics and biology, however successful reductionism might be. He found that Delbrück's reductionist program did not contradict his own philosophical view, but he did not involve himself in empirical biological research. Daniel McKaughan has argued, in apparent contradiction to this claim, that “Bohr and Delbrück shared an antireductionist outlook” and that Delbrück hoped to demonstrate a legitimate role for “teleological concepts” in biological science.
Keywords: Niels Bohr, philosophy of science, Max Delbrück, biological research program, empirical natural science, empirical biological research, Daniel McKaughan, teleological concepts, reductionism
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