Revisiting the logical empiricist criticisms of vitalism

Vitalism claims that biological organisms are governed by nonmaterial agents like entelechies. The received view today rejects vitalism by presupposing metaphysical materialism (or physicalism). Metaphysical materialism maintains that the world is ultimately material (or physical), and it, therefore, repudiates the existence of nonmaterial entelechies. However, this marks a shift compared with the arguments against vitalism developed by logical empiricists, who were indifferent to metaphysical issues and were only concerned with logical and empirical matters in the sciences. Logical empiricists rejected the concept of the entelechy (vitalism), because vital laws confirmed by biological phenomena were unavailable; in contrast, they accepted the concept of the atom (materialism), since it constituted physical laws and was therefore associated with verifiable results in modern physics

Metaphysics, Function and the Engineering of Life: the Problem of Vitalism

Vitalism was long viewed as the most grotesque view in biological theory: appeals to a mysterious life-force, Romantic insistence on the autonomy of life, or worse, a metaphysics of an entirely living universe. In the early twentieth century, attempts were made to present a revised, lighter version that was not weighted down by revisionary metaphysics: "organicism". And mainstream philosophers of science criticized Driesch and Bergson's "neovitalism" as a too-strong ontological commitment to the existence of certain entities or "forces", over and above the system of causal relations studied by mechanistic science, rejecting the weaker form, organicism, as well. But there has been some significant scholarly "push-back" against this orthodox attitude, notably pointing to the 18th-century Montpellier vitalists to show that there are different historical forms of vitalism, including how they relate to mainstream scientific practice (Wolfe and Normandin, eds. 2013). Additionally, some trends in recent biology that run counter to genetic reductionism and the informational model of the gene present themselves as organicist (Gilbert and Sarkar 2000, Moreno and Mossio 2015). Here, we examine some cases of vitalism in the twentieth century and today, not just as a historical form but as a significant metaphysical and scientific model. We argue for vitalism's conceptual originality without either reducing it to mainstream models of science or presenting it as an alternate model of science, by focusing on historical forms of vitalism, logical empiricist critiques thereof and the impact of synthetic biology on current (re-) theorizing of vitalism

Serum albumin levels and risk of atrial fibrillation: a Mendelian randomization study

ObjectiveAlthough several observational studies have linked serum albumin to cardiovascular disease and considered it as an important biomarker, little is known about whether increasing or maintaining serum albumin levels can effectively improve the prognosis of patients with atrial fibrillation. Therefore, this study aims to further explore the causal relationship between serum albumin and atrial fibrillation and its potential mechanism.MethodUsing data from large-scale genome-wide association studies, we conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis and a mediation MR analysis, using serum albumin as the exposure variable and atrial fibrillation as the outcome variable. We included 486 serum metabolites as potential mediating factors. To increase the robustness of the analysis, we applied five statistical methods, including inverse variance weighted, weighted median, MR-Egger, simple mode, and weighted mode. Validate the MR results using Bayesian weighted Mendelian randomization method.ResultThe results of the MR analysis indicate a significant inverse association between genetically predicted serum albumin concentration (g/L) and the risk of atrial fibrillation (Beta = −0.172, OR = 0.842, 95% CI: 0.753–0.941, p = 0.002). Further mediation MR analysis revealed that serum albumin may mediate the causal relationship with atrial fibrillation by affecting two serum metabolites, docosatrienoate and oleate/vaccenate, and the mediating effect was significant. In addition, all our instrumental variables showed no heterogeneity and level-multiplicity in the MR analysis. To verify the stability of the results, we also conducted a sensitivity analysis using the leave-one-out method, and the results further confirmed that our findings were robust and reliable. Finally, we conducted a validation using the Bayesian weighted Mendelian randomization method, which demonstrated the reliability of our causal inference results.ConclusionThis study strongly demonstrates the causal relationship between serum albumin and reduced risk of atrial fibrillation through genetic methods, and reveals the key mediating role of two serum metabolites in this relationship. These findings not only provide a new perspective for our understanding of the role of serum albumin in atrial fibrillation, but also provide new ideas for the prevention and treatment strategies of atrial fibrillation

Erratum:Surface anisotropy induced spin wave nonreciprocity in epitaxial La0.33Sr0.67MnO3film on SrTiO3substrate (Appl. Phys. Lett. (2020) 117 (232402)

In the original published article,1the concentrations of La and Sr are reversed. The correct concentration should be La0.67Sr0.33MnO3(which is in the ferromagnetic phase) rather than La0.33Sr0.67MnO3(which is in the antiferromagnetic phase) in the original published version. They were typos of the element concentrations. This misprint does not change the identification or conclusion presented in the original published paper

On Ernest Nagel on teleology in biology

This chapter revisits Ernest Nagel’s view of teleology in biology. In some of his writings from the 1950s to the 1970s, Nagel contended for the legitimacy of teleology in biology but argued against its uniqueness. In addition, Nagel also offered a goal-contribution account in the biological function debate which emerged in the 1960s and the 1970s. While questions of legitimacy and uniqueness of teleology draw little attention today, the biological function debate remains in focus in philosophy of biology. Although the ongoing debate does mention Nagel’s name occasionally, his view, often merely understood as the goal-contribution account, is treated as outdated. However, this treatment is limited, because it fails to consider Nagel’s another important thesis, that is, eliminativism. In this chapter, I attempt to do three things. First, I articulate Nagel’s view, by showing that the eliminativist Nagel considered it acceptable to eliminate teleological terms in biological discourse, and that he also treated them as anthropomorphic vestiges. Second, I defend Nagel’s view and use it to clarify the current biological function debate, by distinguishing a descriptive dimension of this debate from its prescriptive dimension. Third, I hope to deepen Nagel’s view, by pushing it to a further and perhaps its logical conclusion, that is, Kant’s view of biological teleology

Two dimensions of the biological function debate

This article adopts a minimal definition of biological usage to demonstrate that the debate over biological function encompasses two distinct dimensions: descriptive and prescriptive. In the descriptive dimension, biological usage serves as the final arbiter for evaluating different accounts of biological function. Conversely, in the prescriptive dimension, accounts are formulated despite biological usage. The main thesis of this article is that the descriptive/prescriptive distinction helps make better sense of the biological function debate from a novel perspective. This is elucidated by meticulously analyzing the two dimensions and subsequently providing a global overview of the debate.; En este artículo se adopta una definición mínima de uso en biología para mostrar que el de-bate sobre funciones biológicas presenta dos dimensiones, descriptiva y prescriptiva. En la dimensión descriptiva, el uso en biología ejerce como el árbitro final para evaluar diferentes teorías sobre las funciones biológicas. En cambio, en la dimensión descriptiva las teorías de formulan con independencia del uso en biología. La tesis principal del artículo es que la distinción descriptivo/prescriptivo nos ayuda a pensar en el debate sobre funciones biológicas desde una perspectiva novedosa. Esta tesis se elucida analizando meticulosamente las dos dimensiones y ofreciendo a continuación una revisión global del debate

Criticizing the modern synthesis : between phenomenal characteristics and synthetic principles

Starting from Denis Noble's criticism on the modern synthesis, this article argues that (i) the author's presentation of the modern synthesis focusses too one-sidedly on the phenomenal characteristics of the living, whereby it is made easily suitable to his criticisms, but risks to remain trapped in a territory-struggle; (ii) this criticism lacks an explicit focus on logical matters, and more in particular on the synthetic principles required to situate the relevancy or irrelevancy of phenomenal characteristics beyond territory-struggles. A brief sketch of how the principle of teleology calls for reflexivity allows us to reveal the tension in Noble's account between, on the one hand, the way in which he stresses the importance of metaphors and language, and, on the other hand, the way in which he invokes empirical arguments to assess the illusory character of certain metaphors

Table1_Serum albumin levels and risk of atrial fibrillation: a Mendelian randomization study.xls

ObjectiveAlthough several observational studies have linked serum albumin to cardiovascular disease and considered it as an important biomarker, little is known about whether increasing or maintaining serum albumin levels can effectively improve the prognosis of patients with atrial fibrillation. Therefore, this study aims to further explore the causal relationship between serum albumin and atrial fibrillation and its potential mechanism.MethodUsing data from large-scale genome-wide association studies, we conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis and a mediation MR analysis, using serum albumin as the exposure variable and atrial fibrillation as the outcome variable. We included 486 serum metabolites as potential mediating factors. To increase the robustness of the analysis, we applied five statistical methods, including inverse variance weighted, weighted median, MR-Egger, simple mode, and weighted mode. Validate the MR results using Bayesian weighted Mendelian randomization method.ResultThe results of the MR analysis indicate a significant inverse association between genetically predicted serum albumin concentration (g/L) and the risk of atrial fibrillation (Beta = −0.172, OR = 0.842, 95% CI: 0.753–0.941, p = 0.002). Further mediation MR analysis revealed that serum albumin may mediate the causal relationship with atrial fibrillation by affecting two serum metabolites, docosatrienoate and oleate/vaccenate, and the mediating effect was significant. In addition, all our instrumental variables showed no heterogeneity and level-multiplicity in the MR analysis. To verify the stability of the results, we also conducted a sensitivity analysis using the leave-one-out method, and the results further confirmed that our findings were robust and reliable. Finally, we conducted a validation using the Bayesian weighted Mendelian randomization method, which demonstrated the reliability of our causal inference results.ConclusionThis study strongly demonstrates the causal relationship between serum albumin and reduced risk of atrial fibrillation through genetic methods, and reveals the key mediating role of two serum metabolites in this relationship. These findings not only provide a new perspective for our understanding of the role of serum albumin in atrial fibrillation, but also provide new ideas for the prevention and treatment strategies of atrial fibrillation.</p