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    Carmelics

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    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
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    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Watson's analogy that ignoring genes is like solving a murder without finding the murderer is fallacious

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Watson's analogy assumes genes are the primary causal agents analogous to a murderer
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    • 2.Genetic explanations are context-dependent and not uniquely privileged as causal explanations
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    • 3.Context-dependence of genetic explanations undermines the claim that genes are the singular, necessary target of explanation
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Mackie's INUS condition framework shows causes are insufficient but necessary parts of sufficient conditions, not singular agents.
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    • 2.Genes satisfy INUS conditions alongside environment, development, and chance, making none uniquely analogous to 'the murderer'.
      ?

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    • 3.Privileging genetic causes over equally necessary INUS conditions commits the fallacy of causal pre-emption Watson's analogy relies upon.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Wittgenstein's analysis of analogical reasoning shows analogies fail when the structural mapping between domains breaks down at key points.
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    • 2.Murder investigations presuppose a single intentional agent, but phenotypes result from distributed, non-intentional causal networks with no structural analog to a murderer.
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    • 3.The analogy therefore imports a misleading intentional-agency model onto biological causation, rendering it philosophically inapt as Lewontin argued against genetic determinism.
      ?

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