The goal of this article is to show that formal analysis and reconstructions may be useful to discuss and shed light on substantive meta-theoretical issues. We proceed here by exemplification, analysing and reconstructing as a case study a paradigmatic biochemical theory, the Monod-Wyman-Changeux theory of allosterism, and applying the reconstruction to the discussion of some issues raised by prominent representatives of the new mechanist philosophy. We conclude that our study shows that at least in this case mechanicism and more traditional (...) accounts are not rivals but complementary approaches. (shrink)

The structuralist reconstruction of the metabolic biochemistry here presented is a more complete and revised version than the one presented in Donolo, Federico & Lorenzano (2006). This version, as the previous one, continues with the reconstructive task initiated by César Lorenzano (2002), but advances further on those elements which remained pendent of reconstruction: applications subsequent to the paradigmatic one, for being these “too diversified and numerous” (p. 210).In line with which is said before, the objective of this new reconstruction is (...) to make the theoretical network of the biochemistry wider, in order to be able to capture the many successful applications (paradigmatic examples or exemplars) which appear in modern university textbooks. In order to accomplish this, major conceptual precisions are being introduced which will have repercussions in a modification and increased complexity of the fundamental law implicit in the text books, but still conserving the previous basic idea. Because of all this we can say that the present article goes further into the reconstruction task of the metabolic biochemistry theory. (shrink)

Los científicos suelen diferenciar entre teorías científicas explicativas y descriptivas. Para poder dar cuenta de esta diferencia es necesario contar con un análisis riguroso de las teorías científicas y la concepción estructuralista es una herramienta metateórica de análisis capaz de brindar los elementos metateóricos requeridos para abordar este tipo de estudios. El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar una teoría que trata de dar cuenta de la actividad cooperativa de las proteínas, la teoría de Hill (tanto la originalmente publicada como (...) la presentada en los libros de texto) con el fin de elucidar el concepto de explicación utilizado en este caso. Usually, scientists differentiate between explanatory and descriptive scientific theories. To be able to analyze this difference is necessary to provide a rigorous analysis of scientific theories - the structuralist point of view is a metatheoretic tool capable of offering the metatheoretic elements needed for this. The aim of the present work is to analyze Hill's theory (both as originally published and as presented in textbooks), a theory about the cooperative activity of the proteins, in order to elucidate the concept of explanation used in it. (shrink)

Scientific progress is one of the most popular topics in philosophy of science. Currently, the area offers a range of models to choose scientific progress, when addressing the specific processes that occurred in a particular discipline of science. In this article we analyze the notion of theoretical change in biochemistry, but translatable to biology and biomedical sciences by making use of the pull of theories, under one of the prospects of scientific progress, P. Kitcher, which we believe is one of (...) the best to shed clarity to the discussion of the case. (shrink)

El presente trabajo busca llevar a cabo una reconstrucción racional de un suceso histórico, tal como lo fue el surgimiento de la biología molecular, visto a la luz de la filosofía de Thomas Kuhn. Pese a que varios autores señalaron la inadecuación de la propuesta metateórica de _La Estructura_ (aún con los remiendos de la _Posdata del 69_) postulamos que es factible una reconstrucción del origen de esta (sub)disciplina bajo la categorías de paradigma-matriz disciplinar y ciencia normal con algunos refinamientos. (...) Pretendemos mostrar el surgimiento de un nuevo paradigma como la convergencia de dos líneas de investigación, una sobre la forma de la molécula de la vida, la otra sobre su función hereditaria. (shrink)

In this paper we propose to trace the historical and epistemological causes of the social construction of the image of nursing in pandemics by COVID-19, where the heroic and vocational attributes of its praxis hide the scientific and technological ones. To do so, we will begin by showing how "empirical" knowledge was historically contrasted with biomedical theoretical knowledge, medical technological praxis with the "art of caring", under a hierarchization of the professions on traditional gender roles. We will then demonstrate the (...) ways in which the romanticized image of nursing manifested itself so far during the pandemic, not only consolidating the status quo of the profession but also deepening it, by emphasizing a heroic attitude of those "on the front line of battle" as opposed to the physicians who made the decisions. Finally, we will analyze epistemologically what nursing theorists understand by "nursing praxis" in order to elucidate what is and is not visible in the constituted image of the profession. (shrink)