Indispensability and Effectiveness of Diagrams in Molecular Biology

Abstract

In this paper I aim to defend a twofold thesis. On one hand, I will support, against Perini [7], the indispensability of diagrams when structurally complex biomolecules are concerned, since it is not possible to satisfactorily use linguisticsentential representations at that domain. On the other hand, even when diagrams are dispensable I will defend than they will generally be more effective than other representations in encoding biomolecular knowledge, relying on Kulvicki-Shimojima's diagrammatic effectiveness thesis [4][11]. Finally, I will ground many epistemic virtues of biomolecular diagrams (understandability, explanatory power, prediction and hypothesis evaluation) on their cognitive-computational indispensability and their semantic-epistemic effectiveness.

Analysis of diagram errors in selected Nigerian secondary school practical biology textbooks

“…Diagram plays a crucial role in biological reasoning; it represents how parts of a specimen relate to each other, and it is an age-long tradition; consequently, biology textbooks written for teachers and students are rich in diagrams. The study of organisms demands meticulous scientific observations and detailed descriptions of specimens; hence, diagrams as an excellent way to describe observations are indispensable in biology (Anta, 2019;Bhatti et al, 2015;Jones & Wolkenhauer, 2012). According to Sheredos et al (2013), diagrams are suitable tools for exhibiting biological phenomena and revising mechanistic explanations of the phenomena.…”