Journal
STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE PART C-STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDIAL SCIENCES
Volume 44, Issue 4, Pages 756-773Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2013.06.001
Keywords
Conrad Hal Waddington; Epigenetic landscape; Methodology; Modeling; Life sciences; Stem cell biology
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Funding
- Ruhr University Research School (RURS)
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It seems that the reception of Conrad Hal Waddington's work never really gathered speed in mainstream biology. This paper, offering a transdisciplinary survey of approaches using his epigenetic landscape images, argues that (i) Waddington's legacy is much broader than is usually recognized-it is widespread across the life sciences (e.g. stem cell biology, developmental psychology and cultural anthropology). In addition, I will show that (ii) there exist as yet unrecognized heuristic roles, especially in model building and theory formation, which Waddington's images play within his work. These different methodological facets envisioned by Waddington are used as a natural framework to analyze and classify the manners of usage of epigenetic landscape images in post-Waddingtonian 'landscape approaches'. This evaluation of Waddington's pictorial legacy reveals that there are highly diverse lines of traditions in the life sciences, which are deeply rooted in Waddington's methodological work. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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