Alan Love (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)
Although philosophers have long compared the relative importance of genes to other causes, no consensus has emerged about whether the privileging of genetic causation in biological investigation and explanation is justified. However, little effort has been expended on understanding practices where scientists attempt to measure information or causal specificity. An example of this type of practice measuring positional information in gene expression during pattern formation in Drosophila embryogenesis shows that biologists are unconcerned with comparing the amount of information in genes with that of other factors and focused on whether the measured causal specificity explains the phenomenon under scrutiny.
