engleski

Ingredients for Human Cancer: The Mechanism of Natural Selection

Cancer in our species has received only sporadic attention in a more recent philosophy of science (for some exceptions to this tendency, see, e.g., Marcum 2005 ; Moss 2004). Although different types of analysis can be productively applied to the general biological phenomenon of cancer – through philosophical studies of science broadly conceived – in order to invert that negative tendency, I will focus in this paper mainly on the standard scientific characterization of cancer as the so-called “ micro-evolutionary process” (Alberts et al. 2007 ; Merlo et al. 2006). In clarifying that characterization, I will explore in more detail how natural selection makes its particular contribution to the occurrence of some more diffused forms of cancer in human populations. By clarifying the main features of that role played by natural selection in cancerogenesis, the following issues in the philosophy of science will get a more informed understanding: (i) the foundational issue concerned with the nature of so-called ‘ positive Darwinian selection’ (see in this respect Piatigorsky 2007 ; Neander 1995) in providing scientific explanation of, most notably, adaptive transformations in the living world. In other words, how should we best characterize natural selection according to the view suggested by current cancer research: as a force, as a particular type of statistical consequence or, rather, as a mechanism? (ii) The issue that relates to the nature of human body with regard to the phylogenetical order of biological individuals. This particular issue will be addressed by expanding on the preceding analysis of the most distinctive characteristics that apply to natural selection as a factor of evolutionary diversification and, in a significant way, adaptation in the apparently recalcitrant case of human neoplasms.

natural selection; cancer; mechanisms; causality

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