Scientific Representation -Metaphor's Terrain

Biology and Philosophy, 1999

We live in a symbiotic world, and one of the key characteristics of the biological systems is to establish associations and connections with other organisms.

Communicative & Integrative Biology, 2014

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

Biologists energetically debate terminology in ecology and evolution, but rarely discuss general strategies for resolving these debates. We suggest focusing on metaphors, arguing that, rather than looking down on metaphors, biologists should embrace these terms as the powerful tools they are. Like any powerful tool, metaphors need to be used mindful of their limitations. We give guidance for recognizing metaphors and summarize their major limitations, which are hiding of important biological detail, ongoing vagueness rather than increasing precision, and seeming real rather than figurative. By keeping these limitations in mind, metaphors like adaptive radiation, adaptive landscape, biological invasion, and the ecological niche can be used to their full potential, powering scientific insight without driving research off the rails. Biological Laboratory Equipment: Microscopes, Pipettes . . Biology pulses with metaphors (see Glossary). Molecular clocks tick along the branches of phylogenetic trees, selection pressures push red queens over adaptive landscapes, and organisms, snug in their niches, communicate information advertising rewards and defenses . Much is made of the limitations of metaphorssurely thinking about science in terms of imaginary forces, make-believe landscapes, and fictional royalty, however evocative, must distort scientific practice. Accordingly, scientists are ever more frequently cautioned to be circumspect in deploying metaphors . Metaphors in biology are usually regarded as second-class citizens, stand-ins to be discarded when the real biological phenomena are rigorously characterized . However, this view is incompatible with the way metaphors are actually used by biologists, as powerful tools as much a part of science as microscopes, pipettes, and mathematical models . Yet unlike these traditional tools, metaphors provoke constant debate between biologists.

GRANT journal, ISSN 1805-062X, 2012

Twenty years after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, A. de Bary introduced the term “symbiosis” and offered to biologists another interesting topic: tight mutual ties between organisms. Soon thereafter, in 1883, A. Schimper coined the term “chloroplasts” for chlorophyll-containing bodies in plant cytoplasm while raised the question of their origin. Finally, in 1909, K. Merezhkovsky suggested the term “symbiogenesis” for emergence of new organisms by merging. These are original scientific foundations upon which the words like evolution, man's place in nature, equilibrium, symbiosis, cooperation and competition were built, before being transferred from original concepts of evolutionary biology and ecology to various growing environmental trends. Here, I focus on some of these “term-inflation” events and outline their implications for the science vs. humanities debate.

Science and Children, 2010

Different species, interacting in a symbiotic fashion, living together over a prolonged period of time, eventually co-evolving into new species: this vision of the biological phenomenon of symbiosis has created a strong impression—both of symbiosis as a metaphor and a material reality—of species in an intimate relationship together, cooperating in spite of differences, of becoming something else and transgressing boundaries. This idea has turned the concept of symbiosis, in its many guises and definitions,[1] into a breeding ground for a posthuman, biologically and ecologically informed critique. Less focused on the biological process of symbiosis as such, our focus in Symbiosis: Ecologies, Assemblages and Evolution is more on how symbiosis can be used as a means to argue for an alternative worldview and even a better world.

Les auteurs des modèles de coopération ont trouvé un point d'application intéressant dans le mutualisme et la symbiose. Des phénomènes que l'on retrouve dans les symbioses sont intégrés par les divers modèles en rapport avec le " dilemme du prisonnier " : composantes du rapport " coûtbénéfice ", signaux, interactions de voisinage ou réciprocité. L'altruisme réciproque renvoie à l'évolution d'une symbiose, mais d'autres stratégies semblent refléter davantage les sociétés humaines où le choix est libre. Il demeure difficile de donner une valeur à des équilibres " coûtbénéfice ". L'environnement biologique interfère et ces modèles sont souvent limités ou insuffisants pour rendre compte de l'évolution d'un système vivant.

Ecological science has at one time or another deemed nature a machine, an organism, a community, or a system. These metaphors do not refer to any metaphysical entity, but are useful fictions in terms of how they reflect the beliefs and values held by members of a scientific and cultural community. First I trace the history of ecological metaphors from the metaphysical and cultural perspectives. Then I document a gradual transition from a belief in structural natural order to a belief in conceptual natural order. Finally, I conclude by arguing that the metaphysical allegiances of ecological theories have largely been shaped by aesthetic considerations.

Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 1982