... Again, Debra Redman contends that Popperian falsificationism failed in terms of economic meth... more ... Again, Debra Redman contends that Popperian falsificationism failed in terms of economic methodology ... several characteristics, one of which is the reduction of market phenomena to individual choice that maximizes the individual's utility (Mills 2002, Screpanti and Zamagni ...
Proponents of the dual-process theory claim that two distinct types of mental faculties or minds ... more Proponents of the dual-process theory claim that two distinct types of mental faculties or minds are responsible for human cognition. The first is evolutionarily old and not unique to humans but shared with other organisms. Type-1's key feature is autonomy from cognitive capacities; hence, it does not require working memory. Type-2 is evolutionarily recent and thought to be uniquely human. Its key feature is reflective cognitive-decoupling of Type-1 processes, if warranted; and it requires working memory. Critics, however, argue that one mind is sufficient to account for human cognition and propose a unimodel theory of cognition. The debate over these theories depends upon metaphysical notions concerning the nature of cognitive capacities and processes; and, how to investigate and explain them. In this paper, I explore these notions in terms of analyzing the metaphysical presuppositions of dualism and monism, and then the methodological approaches of holism and reductionism, as well as the ontological categories of organicism and physicalism, which are often unspecified and/or unexamined in the cognition debate. Clarification of these metaphysical notions and consideration of others is important for progressing towards the debate's resolution. To that end, a plurimodel theory of cognition-based on a metaphysical presupposition and a
Commentators traditionally attribute the success of twentieth century biology to the assumption t... more Commentators traditionally attribute the success of twentieth century biology to the assumption that complex biological phenomena and their causal pathways are reducible to elementary causal phenomena. Recently, however, some commentators challenge the sufficiency of reductionism for investigating these phenomena. They propose antireductionism assumptions, like organicism or holism, to account for the complexity and causal pathways of biological phenomena. In this paper, I utilize contemporary cancer research as a case study to explore the role of reductionism and antireductionism for guiding scientific research. The chief paradigm directing contemporary cancer research is a modified somatic mutation theory, in which researchers presume mutated genes are responsible for causing cancer. An organicism approach (top-down causation), e.g. the tissue organization field theory, is contesting this traditional reductionism approach (bottom-up causation) to the disease. Today, however, a systems biology approach is superseding both of these approaches. In this approach, systems biologists explain cancer in terms of a heterogeneous complex network composed of bidirectional or reciprocal interactions (bottom-up and top-down causation combined) among various hierarchical levels including genes, cells, and tissue architecture, organism, and environment. In a concluding section, I discuss the question of whether systems biology represents a synthesis between reductionism and antireductionism.
Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, 2015
Moti Mizrahi (2015) examines whether there are "good arguments" to support Kuhn's taxonomic incom... more Moti Mizrahi (2015) examines whether there are "good arguments" to support Kuhn's taxonomic incommensurability (TI) thesis. He concludes that there is neither "valid deductive" nor "strong inductive" support for the thesis and that consequently TI should not be believed or accepted. In response, Lydia Patton (2015) claims that the most "influential" arguments within the history of science are abductive or inference to the best explanation (IBE) rather than deductive or inductive arguments.
Inactivation of thrombin which occurs mainly on the endothelium requires binding of the enzyme to... more Inactivation of thrombin which occurs mainly on the endothelium requires binding of the enzyme to receptors on the endothe 1 i a 1 cells. One receptor for thrombin is glycosaminoglycans (GAG). Antithrombin (AT), however, also binds to GAG and may be involved in endothelial inactivation of thrombin.
The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged both medicine and governments as they have strived to confro... more The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged both medicine and governments as they have strived to confront the pandemic and its consequences. One major challenge is that evidence-based medicine has struggled to provide timely and necessary evidence to guide medical practice and public policy formulation. We propose an extension of evidence-based corona medicine to an organismic systems corona medicine as a multilevel conceptual framework to develop a robust concept-oriented medical system. The proposed organismic systems corona medicine could help to prevent or mitigate future pandemics by transitioning to a bifocal medicine that extends an empirical evidence-based medicine to a theory-oriented organismic systems medicine.
Approaches to the analysis of theory choice in science studies often focus either on objective cr... more Approaches to the analysis of theory choice in science studies often focus either on objective criteria or subjective values for evaluating theories or on critical experiments for testing theories. In the present article a historical case study in the biomedical sciences is reconstructed, in which experimentation was performed to choose between two competing theories of blood coagulation. Analysis of this case study reveals that experimentation exhibits a particular structure, composed of design, execution, and results, and specific characteristics, consisting of controllability, reproducibility, plasticity, and fecundity. Although this structure and these characteristics are not used to replace objective criteria or subjective values of theory evaluation or to define critical experiments, they are instrumental for analyzing and understanding theory choice.
The philosophy of medicine as a specific academic discipline appears to be growing in interest, i... more The philosophy of medicine as a specific academic discipline appears to be growing in interest, if not in influence, over the last decade or so. The International Philosophy of Medicine Roundtable, which seeks to facilitate collaboration of philosophers working in the field worldwide, now has over 300 members, a six-fold increase over the last 8 years, many of whom attended the outstanding 7th biannual conference of the group held this summer in Toronto. As if to announce its presence, the philosophy of medicine has seen the publication of several edited collections of essays on the subject over the last year. 1-3 These efforts are largely aimed at an audience of philosophers, representing works in the field rather than works that engage the practice of medicine. Ultimately, such engagement with clinical medicine represents the next challenge for the burgeoning field.
International Studies in The Philosophy of Science, Jun 1, 2010
In this article, I introduce the notion of horizon for scientific practice (HSP), representing li... more In this article, I introduce the notion of horizon for scientific practice (HSP), representing limits or boundaries within which scientists ply their trade, to facilitate analysis of scientific discovery and progress. The notion includes not only constraints that delimit scientific practice, e.g. of bringing experimentation to a temporary conclusion, but also possibilities that open up scientific practice to additional scientific discovery and to further scientific progress. Importantly, it represents scientific practice as a dynamic and developmental integration of activities to investigate and analyze the natural world. I use the discovery of the clotting factor, thrombin, and the experiments conducted by the Johns Hopkins physiologist, William Howell, on the enzymatic nature of thrombin to illustrate the notion of HSP. In a concluding section, I compare the notion of HSP to other notions for scientific practice proposed in the history and philosophy of science literature.
Preface What is systems biology? Reductionism or holism? Mechanism or emergentism? Homeostasis or... more Preface What is systems biology? Reductionism or holism? Mechanism or emergentism? Homeostasis or robustness? What type of systems disease is cancer? What are the challenges facing systems and cancer biology? Is systems biology a scientific revolution? References Notes Index.
ABSTRACT Rapid advances in technology within accounting information systems (AIS) accompanied by ... more ABSTRACT Rapid advances in technology within accounting information systems (AIS) accompanied by an increase in information accessibility render organizations vulnerable to the misuse of confidential data. AIS professionals are uniquely equipped and positioned to address these information security risks and to strengthen the trust stakeholders and the public place in the AIS function. We contend that reforms to control and protect intelligence with improved systemic controls must be complemented with reforms to control and protect professional integrity. We propose a Systems Trust Model that elevates professional virtue as a fundamental and necessary control element that complements information technology governance and systemic controls. We then analyze the necessity and sufficiency of the trust model elements for creating and protecting system trust—regardless of additional opportunities and incentives present in new and evolving technologies in AIS. Implications for future research, AIS curriculum, and the AIS profession at large are discussed.
... Again, Debra Redman contends that Popperian falsificationism failed in terms of economic meth... more ... Again, Debra Redman contends that Popperian falsificationism failed in terms of economic methodology ... several characteristics, one of which is the reduction of market phenomena to individual choice that maximizes the individual's utility (Mills 2002, Screpanti and Zamagni ...
Proponents of the dual-process theory claim that two distinct types of mental faculties or minds ... more Proponents of the dual-process theory claim that two distinct types of mental faculties or minds are responsible for human cognition. The first is evolutionarily old and not unique to humans but shared with other organisms. Type-1's key feature is autonomy from cognitive capacities; hence, it does not require working memory. Type-2 is evolutionarily recent and thought to be uniquely human. Its key feature is reflective cognitive-decoupling of Type-1 processes, if warranted; and it requires working memory. Critics, however, argue that one mind is sufficient to account for human cognition and propose a unimodel theory of cognition. The debate over these theories depends upon metaphysical notions concerning the nature of cognitive capacities and processes; and, how to investigate and explain them. In this paper, I explore these notions in terms of analyzing the metaphysical presuppositions of dualism and monism, and then the methodological approaches of holism and reductionism, as well as the ontological categories of organicism and physicalism, which are often unspecified and/or unexamined in the cognition debate. Clarification of these metaphysical notions and consideration of others is important for progressing towards the debate's resolution. To that end, a plurimodel theory of cognition-based on a metaphysical presupposition and a
Commentators traditionally attribute the success of twentieth century biology to the assumption t... more Commentators traditionally attribute the success of twentieth century biology to the assumption that complex biological phenomena and their causal pathways are reducible to elementary causal phenomena. Recently, however, some commentators challenge the sufficiency of reductionism for investigating these phenomena. They propose antireductionism assumptions, like organicism or holism, to account for the complexity and causal pathways of biological phenomena. In this paper, I utilize contemporary cancer research as a case study to explore the role of reductionism and antireductionism for guiding scientific research. The chief paradigm directing contemporary cancer research is a modified somatic mutation theory, in which researchers presume mutated genes are responsible for causing cancer. An organicism approach (top-down causation), e.g. the tissue organization field theory, is contesting this traditional reductionism approach (bottom-up causation) to the disease. Today, however, a systems biology approach is superseding both of these approaches. In this approach, systems biologists explain cancer in terms of a heterogeneous complex network composed of bidirectional or reciprocal interactions (bottom-up and top-down causation combined) among various hierarchical levels including genes, cells, and tissue architecture, organism, and environment. In a concluding section, I discuss the question of whether systems biology represents a synthesis between reductionism and antireductionism.
Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, 2015
Moti Mizrahi (2015) examines whether there are "good arguments" to support Kuhn's taxonomic incom... more Moti Mizrahi (2015) examines whether there are "good arguments" to support Kuhn's taxonomic incommensurability (TI) thesis. He concludes that there is neither "valid deductive" nor "strong inductive" support for the thesis and that consequently TI should not be believed or accepted. In response, Lydia Patton (2015) claims that the most "influential" arguments within the history of science are abductive or inference to the best explanation (IBE) rather than deductive or inductive arguments.
Inactivation of thrombin which occurs mainly on the endothelium requires binding of the enzyme to... more Inactivation of thrombin which occurs mainly on the endothelium requires binding of the enzyme to receptors on the endothe 1 i a 1 cells. One receptor for thrombin is glycosaminoglycans (GAG). Antithrombin (AT), however, also binds to GAG and may be involved in endothelial inactivation of thrombin.
The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged both medicine and governments as they have strived to confro... more The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged both medicine and governments as they have strived to confront the pandemic and its consequences. One major challenge is that evidence-based medicine has struggled to provide timely and necessary evidence to guide medical practice and public policy formulation. We propose an extension of evidence-based corona medicine to an organismic systems corona medicine as a multilevel conceptual framework to develop a robust concept-oriented medical system. The proposed organismic systems corona medicine could help to prevent or mitigate future pandemics by transitioning to a bifocal medicine that extends an empirical evidence-based medicine to a theory-oriented organismic systems medicine.
Approaches to the analysis of theory choice in science studies often focus either on objective cr... more Approaches to the analysis of theory choice in science studies often focus either on objective criteria or subjective values for evaluating theories or on critical experiments for testing theories. In the present article a historical case study in the biomedical sciences is reconstructed, in which experimentation was performed to choose between two competing theories of blood coagulation. Analysis of this case study reveals that experimentation exhibits a particular structure, composed of design, execution, and results, and specific characteristics, consisting of controllability, reproducibility, plasticity, and fecundity. Although this structure and these characteristics are not used to replace objective criteria or subjective values of theory evaluation or to define critical experiments, they are instrumental for analyzing and understanding theory choice.
The philosophy of medicine as a specific academic discipline appears to be growing in interest, i... more The philosophy of medicine as a specific academic discipline appears to be growing in interest, if not in influence, over the last decade or so. The International Philosophy of Medicine Roundtable, which seeks to facilitate collaboration of philosophers working in the field worldwide, now has over 300 members, a six-fold increase over the last 8 years, many of whom attended the outstanding 7th biannual conference of the group held this summer in Toronto. As if to announce its presence, the philosophy of medicine has seen the publication of several edited collections of essays on the subject over the last year. 1-3 These efforts are largely aimed at an audience of philosophers, representing works in the field rather than works that engage the practice of medicine. Ultimately, such engagement with clinical medicine represents the next challenge for the burgeoning field.
International Studies in The Philosophy of Science, Jun 1, 2010
In this article, I introduce the notion of horizon for scientific practice (HSP), representing li... more In this article, I introduce the notion of horizon for scientific practice (HSP), representing limits or boundaries within which scientists ply their trade, to facilitate analysis of scientific discovery and progress. The notion includes not only constraints that delimit scientific practice, e.g. of bringing experimentation to a temporary conclusion, but also possibilities that open up scientific practice to additional scientific discovery and to further scientific progress. Importantly, it represents scientific practice as a dynamic and developmental integration of activities to investigate and analyze the natural world. I use the discovery of the clotting factor, thrombin, and the experiments conducted by the Johns Hopkins physiologist, William Howell, on the enzymatic nature of thrombin to illustrate the notion of HSP. In a concluding section, I compare the notion of HSP to other notions for scientific practice proposed in the history and philosophy of science literature.
Preface What is systems biology? Reductionism or holism? Mechanism or emergentism? Homeostasis or... more Preface What is systems biology? Reductionism or holism? Mechanism or emergentism? Homeostasis or robustness? What type of systems disease is cancer? What are the challenges facing systems and cancer biology? Is systems biology a scientific revolution? References Notes Index.
ABSTRACT Rapid advances in technology within accounting information systems (AIS) accompanied by ... more ABSTRACT Rapid advances in technology within accounting information systems (AIS) accompanied by an increase in information accessibility render organizations vulnerable to the misuse of confidential data. AIS professionals are uniquely equipped and positioned to address these information security risks and to strengthen the trust stakeholders and the public place in the AIS function. We contend that reforms to control and protect intelligence with improved systemic controls must be complemented with reforms to control and protect professional integrity. We propose a Systems Trust Model that elevates professional virtue as a fundamental and necessary control element that complements information technology governance and systemic controls. We then analyze the necessity and sufficiency of the trust model elements for creating and protecting system trust—regardless of additional opportunities and incentives present in new and evolving technologies in AIS. Implications for future research, AIS curriculum, and the AIS profession at large are discussed.
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Papers by James Marcum