Hsiao-Fan Yeh (National Chung Cheng University), Ruey-Lin Chen (National Chung Cheng University)
This paper explores modes of experimental interventions in molecular biology. We argue for the following three points: (i) We distinguish between different modes of experimental interventions according to the two standards: the interventional direction and the interventional effect. (ii) There are two interventional directions (vertical/inter-level and horizontal/inter-stage) and two interventional effects (excitatory/positive and inhibitory/negative). (iii) In a series of related experiments, scientists can use multiple interventional modes to test given hypotheses and to explore novel objects.
Our argument begins with a brief characterization of Craver and Darden’s taxonomy of experiments, because the taxonomy they have made implies various modes of intervention (Carver and Darden 2013). We propose to extract two interventional directions and two interventional effects from their taxonomy as the basis of classification. The vertical or inter-level direction means that an intervention is performed between different levels of organization and the horizontal or inter-stage direction means that an intervention is performed between different stages of a mechanism. Interventions may produce an excitatory or an inhibitory effect. As a consequence, we can classify modes of intervention according to different interventional directions and effects. We will do a case study of the PaJaMa experiment (Pardee, Jacob and Monod 1959) to illustrate the three points.
