"Synthetic Chemical Biology - In Pursuit of the Chemical Constraints of Life"

Janella Baxter

Abstract:

Scientific explanations are typically thought of as answers to why-questions. Why are there no land-dwelling animals whose adult form is the size of a skyscraper? Why is it that some racial groups have worse COVID-19 outcomes than others? Why does DNA consist of a polyanionic backbone? Explanations to these questions – despite their great heterogeneity – are all of a particular type. They all require explanations that cite constraint variables (Dretske 1988; Haslanger 2016; Lange 2013; Ross forthcoming). Constraint variables have various features that make it puzzling as to how they can be studied and understood. In this talk, I’ll argue that the study of constraint variables requires a reorientation in the way a scientific community intervenes and theorizes about a phenomenon. My case study focuses on the research of synthetic chemical biologists who bring with them novel techniques, concepts, and norms to biological questions. This philosophical analysis has important consequences for science policy. For what I show is that outsiders from a domain of inquiry can play important roles in scientific progress.