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Philosophy of Cancer - A Dynamic and Relational View (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2016)
Loot Price: R3,600
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Philosophy of Cancer - A Dynamic and Relational View (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2016)
Series: History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, 18
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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Since the 1970s, the origin of cancer is being explored from the
point of view of the Somatic Mutation Theory (SMT), focusing on
genetic mutations and clonal expansion of somatic cells. As cancer
research expanded in several directions, the dominant focus on
cells remained steady, but the classes of genes and the kinds of
extra-genetic factors that were shown to have causal relevance in
the onset of cancer multiplied. The wild heterogeneity of
cancer-related mutations and phenotypes, along with the increasing
complication of models, led to an oscillation between the hectic
search of 'the' few key factors that cause cancer and the
discouragement in face of a seeming 'endless complexity'. To tame
this complexity, cancer research started to avail itself of the
tools that were being developed by Systems Biology. At the same
time, anti-reductionist voices began claiming that cancer research
was stuck in a sterile research paradigm. This alternative
discourse even gave birth to an alternative theory: the Tissue
Organization Field Theory (TOFT). A deeper philosophical analysis
shows limits and possibilities of reductionist and
anti-reductionist positions and of their polarization. This book
demonstrates that a radical philosophical reflection is necessary
to drive cancer research out of its impasses. At the very least,
this will be a reflection on the assumptions of different kinds of
cancer research, on the implications of what cancer research has
been discovering over 40 years and more, on a view of scientific
practice that is most able to make sense of the cognitive and
social conflicts that are seen in the scientific community (and in
its results), and, finally, on the nature of living entities with
which we entertain this fascinating epistemological dance that we
call scientific research. The proposed Dynamic and Relational View
of carcinogenesis is a starting point in all these directions.
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