Integrating Scientific Disciplines

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-X

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. The Nature of Scientific Integration

      • William Bechtel

      Pages 3-52

3. The Coming Together of Biochemistry

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 53-53

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   2. Introduction

      • Ahmed Abdelal

      Pages 55-58

   3. Intermediary Metabolism in the Early Twentieth Century

      • Frederic L. Holmes

      Pages 59-76

   4. Biochemistry: A Cross-Disciplinary Endeavor That Discovered a Distinctive Domain

      • William Bechtel

      Pages 77-100

4. Dobzhansky’s Contribution to the Evolutionary Synthesis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 107-107

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   2. Introduction

      • Robert Brandon

      Pages 109-111

   3. Relations Among Fields in the Evolutionary Synthesis

      • Lindley Darden

      Pages 113-123

   4. The Synthesis and the Synthetic Theory

      • John Beatty

      Pages 125-135

5. Incorparating Development Biology into the Evolutionary Synthesis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143

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   2. Introduction

      • Marjorie Grene

      Pages 145-148

   3. Can Embryologists Contribute to an Understanding of Evolutionary Mechanisms?

      • Bruce Wallace

      Pages 149-163

   4. A Framework to Think About Evolving Genetic Regulatory Systems

      • Stuart A. Kauffman

      Pages 165-184

   5. Developmental Constraints, Generative Entrenchment, and the Innate-Acquired Distinction

      • William C. Wimsatt

      Pages 185-208

   6. On Integrating the Study of Evolution and of Development

      • Richard M. Burian

      Pages 209-228

6. Extending Cognitive Science

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 235-235

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   2. Introduction

      • Adele Abrahamsen

      Pages 237-241

   3. The Evolution of Communicative Capacities

      • E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, William D. Hopkins

      Pages 243-262

Interdisciplinary research has been a popular idea with many people in the last 20 years. Academic administrators have admonished their faculty to become more interdisciplinary. Students often request the chance to pursue an interdisciplinary degree. While the issue of managing interdisciplinary projects has received a fair amount of attention by those interested in science management, interdisciplinary research has received little attention from historians, philosophers or sociologists of science or from scientists themselves. Yet, there l;lre a number of cases within the life sciences where researchers have been actively engaged in endeavors that take them across disciplinary boundaries. These are ripe for investigation by those interested in the process of science. To provide an in-depth study of some historical or contemporary cases of cross­ disciplinary research activity in the life sciences, a conference was held at Georgia State University in May, 1984. This conference was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (U. S. A. ) through their research conference program. Over a three-day period historians, philosophers, and researchers who were actively engaged in various of the life sciences discussed specific examples of interdisciplinary research and tried to analyze what was needed for successful crossing of disciplinary boundaries. After the conference, each of the participants revised their original presentations, partly in light of the discussion at the conference. The papers in this volume are the fruits of that endeavor.

• Case Studies
• Enzo Paci
• cognition
• cognitive science
• communication
• embryo
• idea
• integration
• interdisciplinary
• management
• media
• nature
• project
• projects
• science

Policies and ethics