Joining Forces Against Neo-Darwinism: Linking Organicism and Biosemiotics

The theoretical biologist Waddington (1975, 16ff.) drew attention to the damage to scientific progress by COWDUNG - the Conventional Wisdom of the Dominant Group. Despite Popper's (1979, 341ff.) attack on what he called the bucket theory of science, that scientific knowledge accumulates incrementally, adding one fact after another, this is now conventional wisdom among biologists. Denis Noble is challenging not only the Neo-Darwinist orthodoxy dominating biology, but revealing the distortions of science produced by this bucket theory of science. The latter is central to understanding the importance of his argument and for seeing the relevance of his work for biosemiotics.

Automated summary

The conventional wisdom of the dominant group can hinder scientific progress, and the idea that scientific knowledge accumulates incrementally is being challenged. Denis Noble is challenging the neo-Darwinist orthodoxy in biology and exposing the distortions of science caused by the bucket theory.