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Mendel’s Hypothesis

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Science, History and Social Activism

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science ((BSPS,volume 228))

Abstract

Mendel’s 1866 treatise “Experiments on Plant Hybrids” became the driving force of the modern science of genetics. It is suggested that Mendel’s motivation as well as his methodology were guided by his conviction that Nature’s design is “writ in the language of mathematics”, and that these were sustained by his training in physics. Although there is no way of proving this directly, evidence of Mendel’s predilection for algebraic maneuvers is drawn from Mendel’s paper and from his correspondence with Nägeli.

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Notes

  1. I wish to thank Ruma Falk for guiding me through an understanding of the geometrical mean, and to Hans-Jörg Rheinberger for his helpful critical comments.

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  2. A facsimile of Gregor Mendel’s paper Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden (Brünn: Georg Gastl, 1866) is included in the catalogue of the Ausstellung 1984: Johann Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) in Salzburg, G. Czihak, Akademiestrasse, ed., 15 — A 5020 Salzburg, Austria. The English translation used here is that of Curt Stern, and Eva R. Sherwood, The Origin of Genetics: A Mendel Source Book (San Francisco: Freeman, 1966), pp. 1–48.

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  3. For recent analyses of de Vries’ adoption of Mendel’s paper see: Erik Zevenhuizen, “The hereditary statistics of Hugo de Vries”, Acta Botanica Neerlandica, 47(4) (1998), pp. 427–463; Ida H. Stamhuis, Onno G. Meijer and Erik J.A. Zevenhuizen, “Hugo de Vries on heredity, 1889–1903: Statistics, Mendelian laws, pangenes, mutations”, Isis, 90 (4) (1999), pp. 238–267.

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  4. Raphael Falk, “The struggle of genetics for independence”, Journal of the History of Biology, 28 (2) (1995), pp. 219–246.

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  5. Stern and Sherwood, The Origin of Genetics: A Mendel Source Book (cit. n. 2),p. V.

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  6. Kenneth Schaffner, “Reduction in biology: Prospects and problems”, in Proceedings of the 1974 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, R.S. Cohen, et al., ed., Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1976), pp. 613–632. For a detailed discussion see Sahotra Sarkar, Genetics and Reductionism ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998 ).

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  7. For an analytic review of the different interpretations of Mendel’s motivation see Jan Sapp, “The nine lives of Gregor Mendel”, in Experimental Inquiries, H. E. Le Grand, ed. ( Amsterdam: Kluwer, 1990 ), pp. 137–166.

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  8. Ronald A. Fisher, “Has Mendel’s work been rediscovered?”Annals of Science, 1 (1936), pp. 115–137.

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  9. Jan Sapp, Where the Truth Lies: Franz Moewus and the Origins of Molecular Biology ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990 ), pp. 104–119.

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  10. See Floyd V. Monaghan and Alain F. Corcos, “The real objective of Mendel’s paper”, Biology and Philosophy, 5(3) (1990), pp. 267–292, and the response of Raphael Falk and Sahotra Sarkar, “The real objective of Mendel’s paper”, Biology and Philosophy, 6 (4) (1991), pp. 447–451.

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  11. Leslie C. Dunn, “Mendel, his work and his place in history”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 109(4) (1965, August 18), pp. 189–198, p. 194. See also Robert Root-Bernstein, “Mendel and methodology”, History of Science 21 (1983), pp. 275–295, and Robin Dunbar, “Mendel’s peas and fuzzy logic”, New Scientist, 38 ( 1984, August 30 ).

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  12. Dunn, “Mendel, his work and his place in history” (cit. n. 11), p. 195.

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  13. Jan Sapp, “The nine lives of Gregor Mendel” (cit. n. 7), p. 157.

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  14. Fisher, “Has Mendel’s work been rediscovered?” (cit. n. 8), p. 123.

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  15. See Gerald Holton, Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) pp. 31–74. See also p. 453. A central thematic proposition of Kepler is that the physically real world is the world of mathematically expressed harmonies which man can discover in the chaos of events, (p. 62). I am grateful to Ute Deichmann who called my attention to Holton’s important work.

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  16. Viterslav Orel, Gregor Mendel: The First Geneticist ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996 ), pp. 49–51.

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  17. See, e.g. Timothy Lenoir, The Strategy of Life ( Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989 ).

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  18. Ron Amundson, “Typology reconsidered: Two doctrines on the history of evolutionary biology”, Biology and Philosophy, 13 (2) (1998), pp. 153–177.

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  19. See especially Viterslav Orel, Mendel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), but also Floyd V. Monaghan and Alain F. Corcos, “The real objective of Mendel’s paper” (cit. n. 10).

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  20. Conway Zirkle, “Gregor Mendel and his precursors”, Isis, 42 (128, part 2) (1951), pp. 97–104.

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  21. Dzierzon was accommodated in the monastery in Brno in 1865 and most probably came in contact with Mendel (V. Orel, personal communication).

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  22. Orel, Gregor Mendel: The First Geneticist. (cit. n. 16), pp. 227–230. See also Zirkle, “Gregor Mendel and his precursors” (cit. n. 20). See also Frederick B. Churchill, “August Weismann and Ferdinand Dicke]: Testing the Dzierson System”, this volume.

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  23. Zirkle, “Gregor Mendel and his precursors” (cit. n. 20), pp. 103 and 100.

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  24. Sapp, “The nine lives of Gregor Mendel” (cit. n. 7), p. 159.

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  25. Mendel, Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden (cit. n. 2).

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  26. Sapp, “The nine lives of Gregor Mendel” (cit. n. 7), pp. 144–145 and 149.

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  27. This is, of course, in addition to the very important source of information on Mendel’s views and state of mind derived from Mendel’s comments and remarks in his handwriting on different works that he read — see especially Orel, Gregor Mendel: The First Geneticist (cit. n. 16).

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  28. Alain F. Corcos, and Floyd V. Monaghan, Gregor Mendel’s Experiments on Plant Hybrids: A Guided Study (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1993), p. 118.

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  29. Carl Correns, “Gregor Mendels Briefe an Carl Nägeli, 1866–1873”, Abhandlungen der Königlich Sächsichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Math.-phys. Kl.,29(3) (1906), pp. 189–265, p. 206. For the English translation see: The Birth of Genetics,Supplement to Genetics,35 (5, part 2) (1950), pp. 1–47, p. 8; Stern, and Sherwood, The Origin of Genetics: A Mendel Source Book (cit. n. 2), p. 67.

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  30. Correns, “Gregor Mendels Briefe an Carl Nägeli, 1866–1873”, p. 214; The Birth of Genetics,p. 11–12; Stern, and Sherwood, The Origin of Genetics: A Mendel Source Book,p. 73 (all cit. n. 29). Mendel’s term Mittelzahl was translated as `mean’, while mittlere Proportinale zu den beiden anderen,i.e. `the central/middle proportion of the other two’, was translated as `geometric mean’.

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  31. See Correns, “Gregor Mendels Briefe an Carl Nägeli, 1866–1873” (cit. n. 29) footnote 2, p. 211.

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  32. Correns, “Gregor Mendels Briefe an Carl Nägeli, 1866–1873”, p. 233; The Birth of Genetics,p. 22; Stern, and Sherwood, The Origin of Genetics: A Mendel Source Book,p. 90 (all cited n. 29).

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  33. Correns, “Gregor Mendels Briefe an Carl Nägeli, 1866–1873” (cit. n. 29), footnote 1, p. 214: “Es scheint mir hier nur ein zufälliges übereinstimmen vorzuliegen.”

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  34. This distinction between genotype and phenotype was only introduced in 1909 by W. Johannsen, Elemente der exakten Erblichkeitslehre ( Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1909 ).

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  35. See Ruma Falk, Understanding Probability and Statistics: A Book of Problems, (Wellesley, MA: A.K. Peters, 1993), “Which Mean Do You Mean?” pp. 137–138; see also G. Udny Yule and M.G. Kendall, An Introduction to the Theory of Statistics, Fourteenth edition ( London: Charles Griffin and Company, 1950 ), pp. 118–120.

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  36. See Robert Olby, Origins of Mendelism (Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 2nd edition, 1985).

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  37. Zevenhuizen, “The hereditary statistics of Hugo de Vries”; Stamhuis, Meijer and Zevenhuizen, “Hugo de Vries on heredity, 1889–1903” (all cit, n. 3).

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  38. Dominance was “raised” to the status of an essential law, rather than an empirical observation, in 1900 by Hugo de Vries in his “rediscovery” papers. See Falk, “The struggle of genetics for independence” (cit. n. 4).

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  39. Stern and Sherwood, The Origin of Genetics: A Mendel Source Book (cit. n. 2), pp. 22–23.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, UK

    Raphael Falk

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  1. Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Garland E. Allen

  2. University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Roy M. MacLeod

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Falk, R. (2001). Mendel’s Hypothesis. In: Allen, G.E., MacLeod, R.M. (eds) Science, History and Social Activism. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 228. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2956-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2956-7_5

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