Biometriker versus Mendelianer. Eine Kontroverse und ihre Erklärung

Beyond Mendelism and Biometry

“…It has been often used to examine the nature of scientific controversy (e.g. MacKenzie and Barnes 1975;Roll-Hansen 1980;Barnes 1980). With the distinction, historians and philosophers assume that Mendelism and Biometry can be understood as two competing paradigms or community-based consensuses.…”

“…Much has been discussed on the nature, origins, development, and legacy of the debate between the Mendelians and Biometricians (see Provine 1971;Cock 1973;MacKenzie and Barnes 1975;Roll-Hansen 1980;Mayr 1982;Olby 1989;Kim 1994;Radick 2005). This paper challenges the traditional historiographical framework based on the Mendelian-Biometrician distinction.…”

“…(Pearson 1906, 44) This confrontation, as well as the broader debate between the proponents of the Mendelian approach and those of the statistical approach in the first decade of the twentieth century, was not regarded as a particularly important episode of the history of genetics in the first two-third of the twentieth century. Barnes (1975;1979) use the Mendelian-Biometrician controversy as an example to show how the development of science can be explained by social factors. Lyndsay Farrall (1975) examines the nature of scientific controversy with a case study of the Mendelian-Biometrician controversy.…”