I want to start including a history & philosophy of science add-on to lab meetings, with the view to expand trainees’ thinking beyond the practicalities of lab-based experimental work. Any resource recommendations from my new 🦋 crew?
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Are you looking for an general intro text? Or some literature on specific topics? Are you interested in methodological or topical questions? I could see how an intro text, or some history/philosophy of biology/medicine could be useful to you. What do you think would work best for your lab?
Hmmm I guess general history/philosophy of biology/medicine seems like the best place to start. The key thing is to impart an appreciation of the nature of scientific inquiry and/or pursuit of new knowledge
Good. So, would these kinds of lessons be what you have in mind? (1) science is a complex and nuanced contrarian process, (2) in which a lot of concepts are rather poorly defined (the classic ones are "gene" or "species" in biology), (3) but still somehow helps us navigate complex problems better.
The history of metabolic measurement is fascinating in this regard. A few weeks ago I gave a presentation on this at the NIH that they recorded. If you’re interested I’ll see if I can get the recording & send it to you.
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https://www.google.com/books/edition/In_Search_of_Mechanisms/ESI3AAAAQBAJ
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315711843/psychiatry-philosophy-science-rachel-cooper