Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-08T02:15:50.277Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Detecting Themes and Variations: The Use of Cases in Developmental Biology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Rachel A. Ankeny
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article unpacks a particular use of ‘cases’ within developmental biology, namely as a means of describing the typical or canonical patterns of phenomena. The article explores how certain cases have come to be established within the field and argues that although they were initially selected for reasons of convenience or ease of experimental manipulation, these cases come to serve as key reference points within the field because of the epistemological structures imposed on them by the scientists using them and, hence, become usable in a wider variety of circumstances including future theory development.

Type
Case Studies
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 79 , Issue 5 , December 2012 , pp. 644 - 654
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Many thanks to the other participants and the attendees at the PSA symposium at which a very early version of this article was first presented, particularly Hasok Chang, Chris DiTeresi, Mary Morgan, and Sandy Mitchell. Useful comments were provided on the final draft by Chris DiTeresi, Elihu Gerson, Jane Maienschein, and especially Alan Love.

References

Andrewartha, H. G. 1952. “Diapause in Relation to the Ecology of Insects.” Biological Reviews 27:50–107.10.1111/j.1469-185X.1952.tb01363.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ankeny, Rachel A. 2000. “Fashioning Descriptive Models in Biology: Of Worms and Wiring Diagrams.” Philosophy of Science 67 (Proceedings): S260–S272.10.1086/392824CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ankeny, Rachel A.. 2001. “The Natural History of C. elegans Research.” Nature Reviews Genetics 2:474–78.10.1038/35076538CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ankeny, Rachel A.. 2005. “Case-Based Reasoning in the Biomedical and Human Sciences: Lessons from Model Organisms.” In Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science: Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress, ed. Hájek, Petr, Valdés-Villanueva, Luis, and Wersterståhl, Dag, 229–42. London: King's College.Google Scholar
Ankeny, Rachel A.. 2011. “Using Cases to Establish Novel Diagnoses: Creating Generic Facts by Making Particular Facts Travel Together.” In How Well Do Facts Travel? ed. Howlett, Peter and Morgan, Mary S., 252–72. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ankeny, Rachel A., and Leonelli, Sabina. 2011. “What's So Special about Model Organisms?” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 41:313–23.Google Scholar
Arthur, Wallace. 2002. “The Emerging Conceptual Framework of Evolutionary Developmental Biology.” Nature 415:757–64.10.1038/415757aCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bishop, C. D., et al. 2006. “What Is Metamorphosis?” Integrative and Comparative Biology 46:655–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bolker, Jessica A. 1995. “Model Systems in Developmental Biology.” BioEssays 17:451–55.10.1002/bies.950170513CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burian, Richard M. 2001. “The Dilemma of Case Studies Resolved: The Virtues of Using Case Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science.” Perspectives on Science 9:383–404.10.1162/106361401760375794CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cannatella, David C., and de Sa, Rafael O.. 1993. “Xenopus laevis as a Model Organism.” Systematic Biology 42:476–507.10.1093/sysbio/42.4.476CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cartwright, Nancy. 1983. How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/0198247044.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassada, Randall C., and Russell, Richard L.. 1975. “The Dauerlarva, a Post-embryonic Developmental Variant of the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.” Developmental Biology 46:326–42.10.1016/0012-1606(75)90109-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Creager, Angela, Lunbeck, Elizabeth, and Wise, M. Norton, eds. 2007. Science without Laws: Model Systems, Cases, Exemplary Narratives. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.10.1215/9780822390244CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Chadarevian, Soraya. 1998. “Of Worms and Programmes: Caenorhabditis Elegans and the Study of Development.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 29:81–105.10.1016/S1369-8486(98)00004-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denlinger, David L. 2008. “Why Study Diapause?” Entomological Research 38:1–9.10.1111/j.1748-5967.2008.00139.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiTeresi, Christopher A. 2010. “Taming Variation: Typological Thinking and Scientific Practice in Developmental Biology.” PhD diss., University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Forrester, John. 1996. “If p, Then What? Thinking in Cases.” History of the Human Sciences 9:1–25.10.1177/095269519600900301CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabbani, Carlo. 2010. “La questione del singolo caso clinico.” In Filosofia della medicina: La salute e la malattia, la diagnosi e la cura, l’etica e il diritto, ed. Pagnini, Alessandro, 255–76. Rome: Carocci.Google Scholar
George, Alexander L., and Bennett, Andrew. 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gerring, John. 2004. “What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good For?” American Political Science Review 98:341–54.10.1017/S0003055404001182CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gest, Howard. 1995. “Arabidopsis to Zebrafish: A Commentary on ‘Rosetta Stone’ Model Systems in the Biological Sciences.” Perspectives on Biology and Medicine 37:77–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, Scott F. 2010. Developmental Biology. 9th ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer.Google Scholar
Green, Douglas. 2011. Means to an End. New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.Google Scholar
Hamburger, Victor, and Hamilton, H. L.. 1951. “A Series of Normal Stages in the Development of the Chick Embryo.” Journal of Morphology 88:49–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hotchkiss, Richard S., Strasser, Andreas, McDunn, Jonathan E., and Swanson, Paul E.. 2009. “Cell Death.” New England Journal of Medicine 361:1570–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kostal, V. 2006. “Eco-Physiological Phases of Insect Diapause.” Journal of Insect Physiology 52:113–27.10.1016/j.jinsphys.2005.09.008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhn, Thomas S. 1970. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lennox, James G. 2011. “History and Philosophy of Science: The Phylogenetic Approach.” Unpublished manuscript, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Lockshin, R. A., and Williams, C. M.. 1964. “Programmed Cell Death.” Pt. 2, “Endocrine Potentiation of the Breakdown of the Intersegmental Muscles of Silkmoths.” Journal of Insect Physiology 10:643–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Love, Alan C. 2008. “Explaining the Ontology of Form: Philosophical Issues.” In A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology, ed. Sarkar, Sahotra and Plutynski, Anna, 233–47. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Love, Alan C.. 2009. “Typology Reconfigured: From the Metaphysics of Essentialism to the Epistemology of Representation.” Acta Biotheoretica 57:51–75.10.1007/s10441-008-9059-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Love, Alan C.. 2010. “Idealization in Evolutionary Developmental Investigation: A Tension between Phenotypic Plasticity and Normal Stages.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 365:679–90.Google ScholarPubMed
Morgan, Mary S. 2012. “Case Studies: One Observation or Many? Justification or Discovery?” Philosophy of Science, in this issue.10.1086/667848CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moyed Ellis, Hilary, and Horvitz, H. Robert. 1986. “Genetic Control of Programmed Cell Death in the Nematode C. elegans.” Cell 44:817–29.Google Scholar
Ragin, Charles C., and Becker, Howard S., eds. 1992. What Is a Case? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Renfree, Marilyn B., and Shaw, Geoff. 2000. “Diapause.” Annual Review of Physiology 62:353–75.10.1146/annurev.physiol.62.1.353CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richardson, Michael K., Hanken, James, Gooneratne, Mayoni L., Pieau, Claude, Raynaud, Albert, Selwood, Lynne, and Wright, Glenda M.. 1997. “There Is No Highly Conserved Embryonic Stage in the Vertebrates: Implications for Current Theories of Evolution and Development.” Anatomy and Embryology 196:91–106.10.1007/s004290050082CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saunders, D. S., Henrich, V. C., and Gilbert, L. I.. 1989. “Induction of Diapause in Drosophila melanogaster: Photoperiodic Regulation and the Impact of Arrhythmic Clock Mutations on Time Measurement.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 86:3748–52.10.1073/pnas.86.10.3748CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Solomon, M., Belenghi, B., Delledonne, M., Menachem, E., and Levine, A.. 1999. “The Involvement of Cysteine Proteases and Protease Inhibitor Genes in the Regulation of Programmed Cell Death in Plants.” Plant Cell 11:431–44.10.1105/tpc.11.3.431CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tauber, Maurice J., and Tauber, Catherine A.. 1976. “Insect Seasonality: Diapause Maintenance, Termination, and Postdiapause Development.” Annual Review of Entomology 21:87–101.10.1146/annurev.en.21.010176.000501CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tickle, Cheryll. 2004. “The Contribution of Chicken Embryology to the Understanding of Vertebrate Limb Development.” Mechanisms of Development 121:1019–29.10.1016/j.mod.2004.05.015CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
von Baer, Karl Ernst. 1828–37. Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere: Beobachtung und Reflexion. 2 vols. Königsberg: Bornträger.Google Scholar
Wolpert, Lewis, Tickle, Cheryll, Jessell, Thomas, Lawrence, Peter, Meyerowitz, Elliot, Robertson, Elizabeth, Smith, Jim, Lawrence, Eleanor, and McClements, Matthew. 2011. Principles of Development. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yin, Robert K. 1994. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar