Epigenetic this, epigenetic that: comparing two digital humanities methods for analyzing a slippery scientific term.
We compared two digital humanities methods in the analysis of a contested scientific term. “Epigenetics” is as enigmatic as it is popular. Some authors argue that its meaning has diluted over time as this term has come to describe a widening range of entities and mechanisms (Haig, International Jour...
| Publicado en: | Synthese Vol. 202; no. 3; pp. 1 - 56 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
Sep2023
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=170072132&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 170072132 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00397857 4LI jtl: Synthese issn: 00397857 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2023 vid: 202 iid: 3 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 170072132 10.1007/s11229-023-04265-5 ppf: 1 ppct: 55 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.3MB tig: atl: Epigenetic this, epigenetic that: comparing two digital humanities methods for analyzing a slippery scientific term. aug: au: Linquist, Stefan Fullerton, Brady Grewal, Akashdeep affil: Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada sug: keyword: Digital humanities Epigenetic functions Epigenetic inheritance Experimental philosophy LDA The epigenetics concept Topic modelling ab: We compared two digital humanities methods in the analysis of a contested scientific term. “Epigenetics” is as enigmatic as it is popular. Some authors argue that its meaning has diluted over time as this term has come to describe a widening range of entities and mechanisms (Haig, International Journal of Epidemiology 41:13–16, 2012). Others propose both a Waddingtonian “broad sense” and a mechanistic “narrow sense” definition to capture its various scientific uses (Stotz and Griffiths, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 38:22, 2016). We evaluated these proposals by first replicating a recent analysis by (Linquist and Fullerton, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 42:137–154, 2021). We analyzed the 1100 most frequently cited abstracts on epigenetics across four disciplines: proximal biology, biomedicine, general biology, and evolution. Each abstract was coded for its heritability commitments (if any) and functional interpretation. A second study applied LDA topic modelling to the same corpus, thus providing a useful methodological comparison. The two methods converged on a discipline-relative ambiguity. Within such disciplines as biomedicine or molecular biology that focus on proximate mechanisms, “epigenetic(s)” refers to a range of molecular structures while specifying nothing in particular about their heritability. This proximal conception was primarily associated with the functions of gene regulation and disease. In contrast, a second relatively uncommon sense of “epigenetic(s)” is restricted to a small proportion of evolutionary abstracts. It refers to many of the same molecular structures, but regards them as trans-generationally inherited and associated with adaptive phenotypic plasticity. This finding underscores the benefit of digital tools in complementing traditional conceptual analysis. Philosophers should be cautious not to conflate the relatively uncommon evolutionary sense of epigenetics with the more widely used proximal conception. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Synthese is a copyright of Springer, 2023. All Rights Reserved. item: Synthese holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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