title: Why genes are like lemons.
abstract: In the last few years, the lack of a unitary notion of gene across biological sciences has troubled the philosophy of biology community. However, the debate on this concept has remained largely historical or focused on particular cases presented by the scientific empirical advancements. Moreover, in the literature there are no explicit and reasonable arguments about why a philosophical clarification of the concept of gene is needed. In our paper, we claim that a philosophical clarification of the concept of gene does not contribute to biology. Unlike the question, for example, "What is a biological function?", we argue that the question "What is a gene?" could be answered by means of empirical research, in the sense that biologists' labour is enough to shed light on it.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Oncologia ed Emato-oncologia, Università di Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Boem
authors.affiliation: Center for Theology, Science and Human Flourishing, University of Notre Dame, USA. Electronic address: mnl.ratti@gmail.com.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ratti
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, Universita' di Milano, Italy; Department of Experimental Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Andreoletti
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e Chirurgico Specialistiche, Università of Ferrara, Italy; Institute for Advanced Study, Technische Universität München, Germany.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Boniolo
mesh_terms: D036262:Empirical Research; D005796:Genes; D005823:Genetics; D010684:Philosophy
keywords: Biological functions; Gene; Natural kinds; Philosophy of science contribution to science; Theoretical terms