Chance between holism and reductionism: Tensions in the conceptualisation of Life

Abstract

In debates between holism and reductionism in biology, from the early twentieth century to more recent re-enactments involving genetic reductionism, developmental systems theory, or systems biology, the role of chance -the presence of theories invoking chance as a strong explanatory principle -is hardly ever acknowledged. Conversely, Darwinian models of chance and selection (Dennett 1995, Kupiec 1996, Kupiec 2009) sit awkwardly with reductionist and holistic concepts, which they alternately challenge or approve of. I suggest that the juxtaposition of chance and the holism-reductionism pair (at multiple levels, ontological and methodological, pertaining to the vision of scientific practice as well as to the foundations of a vision of Nature, implicit or explicit) allows the theorist to shed some new light on these perennial tensions in the conceptualisation of Life.

From Mechanistic Biomedicine to Organismal Systems Medicine

“…Although reductionism is a popular concept among biomedical scientists and clinicians, it has its limits and critics Love, 2017, Kaiser, 2015); and various holistic concepts have been espoused to replace it (Verschuuren, 2017, Wolfe, 2012. Contemporary versions of holism are explicated in naturalist or physicalist terms and not in a reductionist sense since the parts of the whole are necessary but not sufficient for constituting or determining the whole; and agency, i.e., the capacity to bring about change, is embedded or entangled within the material or matter itself qua whole (Chong and Ray, 2002, Placek, 2004, Woods, 2017.…”

Great future or greedy venture: Precision medicine needs philosophy

“…By providing the elements required for the understanding of the components of the larger system, reductionist approaches paved the way to our present scientific and medical knowledge. 72 However, because there are few systems more complex than those encountered in medicine, the current strategy of medicine based on the overuse of reductionist approaches is somewhat akin to the parable of the blind men and the elephant. COVID-19 is the latest illustration of such complexities.…”