Gene: From Demarcation to Dynamic Meanings

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Naoki Sato and Yuichi Amitani for their useful comments and helpful discussions.

Notes

1 Here lies the difference between mice and genes. Both mice and genes stably function under the conditions that were present throughout their evolution. However, unlike mice, genes cannot be demarcated by us using physical cues. That is why mice, which we can easily separate from their environment, are epistemically independent whereas genes are not.

2 The arguments presented in the following three paragraphs are largely a result of personal communication with Naoki Sato, a biochemist at the University of Tokyo.

3 These facts are based on studies mainly performed in prokaryotic organisms. However, they should also apply to eukaryotes.

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Tomoko Ishida

Tomoko Ishida is a Japanese philosopher. Currently she is a part-time lecturer at Keio University. Her main fields of interest are philosophy of biology (especially gene and genetic information), evolutionary ethics, and moral psychology. Much of her research focuses on epistemological aspects of these issues.