Philosophical perspectives on time in biology

Although time is a central topic in philosophy, within the philosophy of science discussions of time in biology have largely been neglected. This dissertation argues for the philosophical importance of paying closer attention to the vastly different timescales at which biological phenomenon can be investigated and explained. The importance of timescales for four themes in philosophy of biology is examined: abstractions and manipulations of time in biological practice, metaphysical debates between the mechanistic and process ontology frameworks, the problem of synchronizing molecular clocks and fossil clocks, and reductionism in biology. This dissertation provides the first sustained philosophical examination of the role of time in biology. The first chapter explores how researchers manage the complexities of multiple timescales by abstracting from time physically, procedurally, mathematically, and conceptually. Understanding how researchers abstract from time in their investigations is important for determining what phenomena might be obscured by such practices. Chapter two turns to the debate in philosophy of biology between traditional mechanistic accounts and the new process ontology. While process ontology is an advance, insofar as it has the potential to bring temporal issues to the fore, it is better understood as an epistemological—not metaphysical—framework. A careful consideration of timescales highlights how different metaphysical frameworks can be more epistemologically appropriate in different contexts. The third chapter examines how molecular and fossil clocks are used to measure time in biology. In both cases, researchers use phenomena occurring at one timescale (e.g. DNA mutations) to measure durations across another scale (e.g., the evolutionary occurrence of a last common ancestor). Attempts to synchronize these clocks for key biological events in the deep past pose interesting methodological problems—and suggest new solutions—for how to deal with discordant and interdependent lines of evidence. The final chapter considers the consequences of this analysis of time in biology for debates about reductionism. Reductionism has focused almost exclusively on spatial scales. This chapter shows how a consideration of temporal scales transforms philosophical debates about reductionism in biology and poses new challenges. This dissertation demonstrates the fertility of extending the philosophy of time into the philosophy of biology

Capital investment in a regional economy: Some aspects of the sources and employment of capital in North Somerset, 1750-1830.

The concentration of studies of capital investment on an aggregative approach at the national level has led to an inadequate explanation of the procedures by which capital investment took place. This thesis seeks to achieve a fuller understanding of the process by examining the whole matrix of capital investment in a particular region - north Somerset - for a limited but important period - the early years of industrialization, 1750-1830. The review of the historical context of this region includes a study of the gentry, attorneys, bankers, and merchants, whose interaction is analysed through a broad range of cases drawn from agriculture, mining, manufacture, and transport. The costs involved in the creation of fixed assets and their distribution, the relationship between fixed and circulating capital, and the returns to investment are all subjected to close analysis. The conclusions are, first, that there was a clear distinction between land- or resource-based ventures (enclosures, drainage schemes, mining, transport), financed from within the region, large in structure and with a slowly built up capital input, and the capital- or trade-based enclaves (manufacturing), smaller in scale and dependant upon a network of capital and credit facilities from outside the region, chiefly from Bristol. Secondly, the study shows the importance of legal authorizations (enclosure Acts, partnership agreements), in defining the sources of capital and their outlets. Thirdly, the operation of an impersonal capital market is revealed, based on institutional mortgages (turnpike trusts, improvement commissions). And finally it is shown that both professional (legal, banking, surveying, engineering) and entrepreneurial skills (manufacturers, coal masters, merchants) played a vital part in the supply and employment of capital. The conjunction of this wide range of factors is demonstrated for the first time to be of crucial importance in the process of capital investment in north Somerset