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Explaining Cancer: Finding Order in Disorder
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Publisher
Oxford University Press
Published
Aug 15, 2018
ISBN-13
9780199967452

Explaining Cancer: Finding Order in Disorder

by Plutynski, Anya
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780199967452 Oxford University Press

In Explaining Cancer, Anya Plutynski addresses a variety of philosophical questions that arise in the context of cancer science and medicine. She begins with the following concerns:
- How do scientists classify cancer? Do these classifications reflect nature's "joints"?
- How do cancer scientists identify and classify early stage cancers?
- What does it mean to say that cancer is a "genetic" disease? What role do genes play in "mechanisms for" cancer?
- What are the most important environmental causes of cancer, and how do epidemiologists investigate these causes?
- How exactly has our evolutionary history made us vulnerable to cancer?

Explaining Cancer uses these questions as an entrée into a family of philosophical debates. It uses case studies of scientific practice to reframe philosophical debates about natural classification in science and medicine, the problem of drawing the line between disease and health, mechanistic reasoning in science, pragmatics and evidence, the roles of models and modeling in science, and the nature of scientific explanation.

Product details

BrandOxford University Press
Pub dateAug 15, 2018
ISBN-100199967458
ISBN-139780199967452
LanguageEnglish
Dimensions1 × 6.2 × 9.3 in
Weight1 lb
Last updated 2026-03-22 21:43
$131.97
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