生物学中的非还原解释:额外信息论证

Non-Reductive Explanation in Biology: Extra Information Arguments

最近几十年的生物学实践逐渐表明,对于解释某些生物学现象来说,仅仅提供其微观层面的信息并不能很好地解释该现象;要比较充分地解释该现象,我们有时候必须诉诸空间的、结构的、拓扑的、几何的或数学方面的额外信息,而这些方面的额外信息往往不能简单地归结到被解释现象的微观层面去。我们将以几何解释为例,从生物学中的具体案例出发,论证这些额外信息对于解释生物学现象来说是不可或缺的,并且反驳两种可能的诘难:其一,基于这些信息的解释不算真正的解释;其二,就算是真正的解释,它们也可以被还原。

Biological practice over the last several decades has shown that in many cases we cannot properly explain a phenomenon of interest only in terms of information provided by the lower-level;to sufficiently explain the phenomenon of interest,we sometimes must resort to some kind of spatial,structural,topological,geometric or mathematical information which cannot be simply reduced to the lower-level.This essay,based on examples drawn from biological practice,will set out with geometric explanation,arguing that this kind of extra information is indispensable for explaining some biological phenomena.Moreover,it will try to reply to two types of objections:(a)explanations based on this kind of extra information are not genuine explanations;(b)even if they are,they can be further reduced to the lower-level.